Transform America... Transforming America

Later...

2009-10-20T13:38:00.000-07:00

There will never be an "easier" time to make change. There will never be a time when it is "more comfortable" to engage in the process. It is not an act of convenience. You will always have a choice, a hard choice, between missing an event, a night out, a day at work, a class or sleep; and working to make change. Change won't fit neatly into your schedule between your eleven O'clock class and your two O'clock part time. It won't wait for you to finish studying. It wont suddenly appear when you have a white picket fence, two point five kids, and a dog named Bo. If that's what you're looking for, you maybe on the wrong website. Change may come slow...

Change may not come at all. But we work for it as if we expect it with the rising of the sun. And for all our successes or failures, ours will be a beautiful struggle. A struggle with earnest, tenacity, and love.

"There is never time in the future in which we will work out our salvation. The challenge is in the moment; the time is always now." - James Baldwin

Next meeting Wednesday October 21st, 6:30pm 114th & 8th Ave. at Society Cafe.

www.transformamerica.com
www.twitter.com/transfrmamerica
Transform America on Facebook

Register for "Affirm and Act: A Social Justice Party in the Park"

2008-09-26T23:32:00.000-07:00

Register Your Organization HERE:

We have ambitious goals, we must have ambitious organizations with the audacity to work for big change.

We're helping to make college affordable by starting 15 new scholarship funds.

We're recruiting 100 mentors to mentor high schoolers on a weekly basis to help them graduate, get into college and pursue their careers.

Our mentors will also facilitate 25 new youth councils where children will get an education that speaks to their issues. They will learn about social justice issues, take action to address them, and learn about federal, state, and local politics.

Students should also learn about social justice issues in the school so we are drafting a mission statement that includes human rights and some aspect of community control. Community control just means that parents and members of a community should have some meaningful input as to what their children should learn.

Ambitious goals need ambitious people and ambitious organizations. Join us.

Register Your Organization HERE:

2008-09-26T23:29:00.000-07:00

Transform America is a social justice coalition that fosters a permanent collaboration between non-profit, student, and community organizations which empower innovative and unprecedented change. Transform America is a non-profit organization registered in the State of New York.

We're looking for people who wish to make real progressive change. We are accepting resumes and cover letters for the following three positions. Credit may be provided by your school. Full descriptions are provided HERE

* Marketing and Publicity Assistant
* Recruitment Assistant
* Impact for Change Assistant

Please send resumes and cover letters to info@transformamerica.org

chester asher
Transform America Regional Coordinator
646-918-4616
www.transformamerica.org

Give Us Your 2 Cents... We'll Ask for More Later

2008-08-16T01:45:00.000-07:00

The Vote:

Political Education (Youth Council, Democracy Matters, Transform America, GQ, LUCHA, and C-Roots) 6 votes

Alternatives to college (Youth Council) 1 vote

Developing a purpose for the NYC Dept. of Education (Transform America, C-Roots) 2 votes

Making college Affordable (Youth Council, Democracy Matters, GQ, and LUCHA) 4 votes

Increasing Mentors and Counselors (Democracy matters, Transform America, GQ, LUCHA, C-Roots) 5 votes

Democracy is not something you put away for ten years, and then in the 11th year you wake up and start practicing again. We have to begin to learn to rule ourselves again.
Chinua Achebe

That is the power of what we are doing: Learning to rule ourselves. We activists, are deciding what WE think is important and making moves to manifest our ideals. We're not waiting for change to come, we're not just writing facebook notes, we're not just talking about how sad things are, and we're not just voting for Obama and hoping that he will come through on his speeches... We're developing Action Plans and following through. And we're doing it together.

As a coalition, we have decided that the 4 goals we will be working to attain are as follows:

1. Increasing the amount of counselors and mentors in NYC public schools.

2. Providing a political education to public school students in NYC

3. Making higher education affordable

4. Developing a mission statement for the NYC Dept. of Education

For any of the above objectives, what do you think could be done to help achieve these goals? What are other organizations, other people, or you yourself doing, that can help to achieve these goals? Transforming our educational system is a big goal. We're not going to do it by ourselves. Give us your 2 cents.

* Explanations
1. Bringing professionals and college students to the classroom to be counselors and mentors to high school and middle school kids so that students have someone to talk to about their futures and what an education can provide for them. This will also affect the demand side of education by increasing it because kids will see how valuable an education is.

2. Teaching students about the social justice issues affecting them such as healthcare and the economy as well as encouraging people to vote smart and be knowledgeable about the candidates and the political process. Getting high school students and young people involved in local elections, encouraging their candidacy in local politics such as the city council, and encouraging activism so that they themselves can create the type of change they wish to see in their communities.

3. To make college more affordable for prospective and current students as well as ensuring that students are aware of scholarship and grant opportunities.

4. The New York City Dept. of Education does not have a purpose or mission statement. We want to create a purpose and rally the students and teachers and parents around this purpose while at the same time increasing the demand side of education and getting kids to really want to learn and invest their time and energy into education.

Destination: A Better Education

2008-07-18T07:53:00.000-07:00

The official vote of our Wing organizations, 5-1. A better Education in NYC will be our Destination or campaign. Now before we get to the question, “how?”, we get to the question, what specifically?
What specifically do we wish to change about education and why?

For example,

1. Should we make sure that students get political education about how to
participate in local politics, the political process, and the party system?
2. Should we make sure that colleges are more accessible by eliminating SATs and
reducing the cost?
3. Should there be more apprenticeship programs?
4. Should we fully reform the system in NYC by bringing back local community
boards?
5. And or Should NYC children be taught to look critically at current events?

Do not let "the how" determine what you think should change. Think freely. After we decide what specifically about education should change, then we'll delve into how we plan to do it. What do you think should change about education in NYC and why? weigh in at www.transformamerica.org

I'm Tired

2008-06-23T20:55:00.001-07:00

I'm tired of being crazy because I think that schools should promote scholarship and help to create kids that give a fuck about the world. I'm tired of being radical because I think people shouldn't carry guns. I'm tired of being an idealist because I think everyone should have enough food to eat. I'm tired of a world that isn't as tired as I am of oppression, deprivation, and human indignity. But I'm lucky, because I'm not alone. I think you're tired too. You're getting tired of the odd ball looks when you suggest that poor people should be able to own a home. You're tired of the dismissive sighs when you say that people should have fresh, nutritious, affordable food in their communities. You're tired of a world that doesn't live up to its own ideals.

Welcome. We're struggling to find answers. It will be a struggle, but a struggle we can engage in with our heads held high. Sign up, to help Transform America.

Join Now!

Coming to the Table... Together

2008-04-26T22:33:00.000-07:00

Ever been to a conference? At NYU there are many conferences. In the black community the Gentlemen of Quality (GQ) have one intended to promote the advancement blacks in many aspects of American society including health, education, government, business, and family. The student NAACP has a conference on similar topics, and the graduate black organization, Students of African Decent Alliance (SADA), has another one aimed at again, many of the same goals.

Why not combine? combine our ideas, combine our passions, combine our thousands of dollars worth of budgets, combine our people power, our advertising power, our networks, our publicity efforts, our attendance, our intellects, our power and our influences?

The Gentlemen of Quality and the NAACP were open to the idea, the graduate program was not. "Undergrads are at a different point in their lives. This is tailored more to those already in the job market or about to be in the job market and the issues they have to face being black." There were undergraduates present when the president of SADA made these comments. The undergrads replied that they were interested. "Still," SADA continued, "the reception has alcohol and that may present a problem."

I'm sorry, but I thought the point of these conferences were to help make the type of lasting change that will enable equal access and opportunity to people who have been historically and systematically discriminated against. But alas, alcohol rears its ugly head. I guess they couldn't get armbands for those under 21, or just bar those under 21 from attending the reception or... dare I say, not have alcohol at all!

By the day's end Transform America was unable to broker a commitment to combine these conferences. We made some headway though. The groups agreed to try to put on a small collaborative project so they would get a feel for each other's operating style. they also agreed that they would support each other's conference by attending.

The two undergraduate organizations both attended each other's conferences. The undergraduate organizations and Transform America then attended SADA's conference. It was nice. About 60 people in attendance, a distinguished panel, a comfortable location, and of course... a filling reception with lots of alcohol.

The president of SADA is a very cool guy and as are many of its members. The crazy thing though, is that at this conference one of the panelists talked about how there should be greater unity in the black community, about how we should come together to support each other and build institutions. The panelist received a round of applause.

As this year comes to a close, the state of blacks in the work place, and at universities nation wide, or even city wide has not changed. Here's an idea. Maybe one reason for the maintained status quo is the status quo nature and mode of operation of the organizations who are responsible for changing it.

This is why Transform America's Wing organizations are so important. Organizations that are part of Transform America are open, they are attuned to the benefits of collaboration, and are ready to put their missions and their objectives above their organizational ego and pride. Out of the three organizations mentioned, only GQ is a Wing of Transform America.

We've done conferences, we've done protests, we've done letters. Let's try something new. Let's try flying together. Let's try seriously transforming how we operate in order to transform our society.

"I have a fool-proof method for controlling your black slaves. My method is simple, any member of your family or any overseer can use it. You must pitch the old Black vs. the young Black male, and the young Black male against the old Black male. You must use the dark skinned slaves vs the light skinned slaves, and the light skinned slaves vs. the dark skinned slaves. You must use the female vs. the male, and the male vs. the female. You must also have your servants and overseers distrust all Blacks, but it is necessary that your slaves trust and depend on us. They must love, respect, and trust only us."
Willie Lynch

Process Power

2008-04-19T20:54:00.000-07:00

I'm starting to realize Process Power. Process Power is the growth and transformation that occurs within the people and in society while they attempt to achieve big societal change. It's amazing and divine. Take Flight Schools for example. I thought they were to be aimed at changing our city and our nation; tearing down the walls of discrimination and greed; exposing the underside of individualism; and learning how to organize and create plans that will change different social conditions. What we arrived at was a study group that still has some of those aims, but that also seeks to transform the individuals who participate; a study group that tries to get its participants to be better people; a study group that dismounts from its high horse and tries to humble itself with some sense of truth.

I imagine Transform America will probably take the same route. Once written, it will be a story not only of the change that it created, but the people that were created through the process: The Process Power of true commitment to a better tomorrow.

Flight School: Engage

2008-02-07T21:13:00.000-08:00

Last Tuesday, C-Roots, a potential TA Wing, hosted the first Flight School. We conversed, we changed, we criticized and we arrived at a set of principals and goals for the study group. Here are some of our thoughts.

The desired goals of Flight School

To self-educate
To spread and share a similarity of thought and knowledge
To engage in learning that will lead to action
Praxis - to incorporate our theories into our everyday lives/ to live our ideas, not just think about them

To make activism more than something we try to affect the world, but something we do to try and change and affect ourselves
To create productive habits from our studies
To connect our private lives with our community and to help build ourselves as well as our community

To develop empathy
To empower ourselves by which we create our own reality, our own world, where we don't wait for the world to happen, but the world happens because of us
To stay abreast of and tie our studies into current events
To help motivate and inspire ourselves, those like us, and those yet to realize their ability and power for change and progress
To change ourselves to conform with our ideas rather than changing our ideas to conform with ourselves
To find truth

To help us achieve this we will

Be critical of ourselves, our knowledge, and each other by trying to be honest with ourselves and each other
Not fall into the trap of group think, but always maintain an ability to criticize and question each other within the group

The proposed structure of the group

We'll meet every three weeks
One or two people will be in charge of selecting and disseminating the reading or viewing materials which in someway help to accomplish our goals
At the following meeting the the people will lead the discussion to help accomplish our stated goals

Imagine flight schools all over the city. One downtown, one in Harlem, one in Washington Heights, one in Queens, one in Bedstuy, one in Brownsville, one in the South Bronx, each with their distinct character, flavor, and goals, but each tied by a common search for truth and significant social change. Imagine these schools lifting their respective areas to a revolutionary consciousness, a shared consciousness with which we move together, with which we coordinate our activities like a flock of falcons to change wind patterns and to change our world. You may realize that falcons don't fly in flocks... We're doing something new.

Much thanks to C-Roots, an NYU organization aimed at uniting groups on campus for social change and fostering seeds of justice in the youth, that will grow to combat injustice. Transform America cannot fly without its Wings.

Stay tuned for the next Flight School

Flight Schools

2008-01-12T05:59:00.000-08:00

Imagine a study group where you don't study for tests, you don't study for grades, you don't even study just to gain knowledge... Imagine a group where you study for action, you study for change, you study to learn how to undo and redo our society. Imagine such a group in various parts of the city geared towards knowledge that acts. Let us begin. Like with everything that has ever produced upliftment in our world, it had a beginning. Join us. Let us begin.

Two Tuesdays from now, Febuary 5th, at 7:30 pm, 2nd floor lounge, Silver Center @ NYU 100 Washington Square East. The meeting should run 1 hour max. We will be discussing three things.

The goals of the study group
the structure of it (will two people read and present, and then rotate, will we have documentaries, will we invite professors, will we all read etc?)
Meeting Times and Dates (once a month, twice a month?)

This is only open to Transform America Activists, Wings, their members and Potential Wings and their members.

Institutions of Change

2007-11-03T21:57:00.000-07:00

The Peace Monument in Timbuktu

Where are our institutions of change? Our institutions of justice, our institutions against war and those against poverty? Where are our institutions for freedom and human dignity? Where are our institutions of caring and love?

I have found no such institutions; only hard working organizations hustling day to day trying to make these principals a reality. However our society is replete with institutions of war, greed, profit, and torture. The Department of Defense (The irony!), Wall Street, and the School of the Americas provide testament.

It's time we put our efforts together to create institutions that mirror our hopes and our dreams. Erect them from the soils of iniquity to stand tall against the horrors of humanity. Let us not create false institutions which extol the aspirations of humanity only in name. We need not more Schools of Public Service which serve only themselves, "radical" student organizations that do nothing radical, political groups which expropriate and defile the name of democracy, multi-million dollar nonprofits driven only by profits, or justice systems which provide the most vivid examples of injustice. We can call it whatever we want. But let's erect an institution constructed with the fibers it seeks to create. An institution that speaks of democracy and is democratic, and institution that studies service and serves, and institution that writes about justice and seeks it, an institution that extols freedom and breaks chains. Transform America - this is our attempt to build such an institution. Join us.

Moving

2007-10-05T01:20:00.001-07:00

We're recruiting. We're going to be attending events, programs, businesses, and shows to find committed, real organizations in NYC. We're looking for principled organizations, socially conscious businesses and artists to join this formation of social justice. Why wait for injustice to slap us in the face before we join forces? Why wait for an escalation in the war, another innocent black man shot dead in the streets, more horrible educational statistics, or more injustice from our so called justice system? Let's be proactive, pull up our sleeves and work together to set an agenda and achieve it. Contact us to come to your event or program.

This Saturday we're going down to Brooklyn for a "Party for the People" in order to educate ourselves on the Brooklyn social justice scene. Maybe we'll see you down there. 1pm-9pm at The Yard located at 388-400 Carroll Street (between Bond & Nevins)

We AFFIRMed our willingess to collaborate and ACTed.

2007-10-04T23:40:00.000-07:00

What does LUCHA, GQ, immigrant rights groups, anti-war groups, AIDS centers, legal justice organizations, sororities like Omega Phi Beta, and Fraternities like La Unidad Latina, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund, cultural organizations, Queer Union, and businesses like Beeing all have in common? They all work for a better tomorrow. They all see the interconnectedness of their related struggles. They are all willing to take a chance to start a new movement that can transform our society.

A Call for Activists!

“If we always wait for injustice before we act we will forever be limited. For once the injustice subsides the movement is over. The movement can only grow to the extent of remorse and reform of the perpetrators of injustice. Such an approach abdicates our roles as responsible human beings and reduces us to that drop of water that bounces back after a turd has been dropped into the bowl, doomed to serve as a check on the system rather than a creator of it, afterthoughts perpetually contained to responses, but never freed for self-determination.

But when we dream... When we dream nothing limits us but our creativity. We can put the nation right without being beaten to do so. We can fight for health care before we're sick, we can fight for a cleaner environment before the world melts, we can fight against police brutality before we're brutalized, we can fight to end poverty before we're poor. Let's become activists because we smell the stench in the world and have the vision and bravery to clean it up. Let's take AFFIRMative ACTion!”

The first annual AFFIRMative ACTion Social Justice Party in the Park kicked off with Jimmy Hendrix’s version of the Star Spangled Banner. In the spirit of the group, Transform America, which pulled together these organizations, the participants of AFFIRMative ACTion, as well as the anthem’s rendition were not intended to be anti-American, but transformative. The event was intended to inspire people to create a different America, a more equitable one, a better one.

Through out the day hundreds of attendees were able to learn about a wide array of issues – some related to the Latino community, some related to the immigrant community, and some related to the Black community, however all related to our shared human community. People graffitied their vision of a better New York and a better America. A social justice agenda was created which highlighted the work that some of these organizations would address this year. LUCHA spoke of its efforts this year to rebuild communities of color, GQ spoke about it’s work to build our youth through mentorship, the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and La Unidad Latina spoke about their work to increase minority enrollment here at NYU and elsewhere, and the New York State Leadership Council spoke about their efforts to pass the DREAM Act and fight for immigrant rights. Beeing, a socially responsible clothing line paraded through with a tantalizing fashion show, and DJs kept people dancing as they ate, networked, and reflected on the opportunity for a better tomorrow. The day concluded with the Harlem Drum Line providing the beat of social justice and inspiring us to march on through out this year with commitment, with purpose, and with the belief of our own power for significant social change.

Transform America, LUCHA, GQ, and many of the other organizations which attended plan to continue this new wave of collaboration. Individually we may make a difference, united, we can transform our society. If you’re not already part of LUCHA, GQ, Transform America or one of its Wings, make sure you sign up. Don’t miss this wave of change.

www.transformamerica.org

AFFIRMative ACTion

2007-08-18T16:54:00.000-07:00

A senior White House advisor was quoted in the New York Times Magazine. He said that guys like the interviewer were...

“in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who “believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about Enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. “That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. “We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create reality. And while you are studying that reality – judiciously, as you will – we’ll act again creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors … and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.” Excerpts from Politics in an Age of Fantasy by Stephen Duncombe [published in Turbulence: Ideas for Movement]

Despite our complete belief in the lawless, wily, and Orwellian manner in which the Bush administration has governed this country, we have to admit that they are bold. Whatever their faults in character, of which there are many, they are brazen and determined. They say they are going to follow the law, then they break the law, and then add signing statements, issue memos, and appoint judges to change the law. They conduct their illegal and immoral activities in broad daylight, with cameras, lights and all of the major television networks watching.

Surely those of us on the so called left, can muster up enough courage to do the right thing in daylight, with cameras, lights and all of the major television networks watching. Our politicians have abandoned their principles and sense of righteousness for a run at the White House in 2008. They may exchange policies and their concience like trading cards but we don't have to. We have the opportunity to set our own agenda and to follow through. We have the opportunity to make history.

WE'RE CALLING FOR EVERYONE TO COME TO WASHINGTON SQUARE PARK ON THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 13TH FROM NOON TILL 6PM. Social justice organizations will converge on this date in order to

recruit activists. let me reiterate: "activists." Activists are not those who come for a day of service, they are not those who clean up some trash, go home, and pat themselves on the back. An activist is one who works for the bigger change, one who is unapologetic about their principles and seeks with passion a better tomorrow.
publicize social issues: From education to homelessness organizations will speak about why such issues are important AND what they are doing to address them.
Set the social justice agenda: Politicians are running around talking about what they are going to do. They may, they may not, but we don't have to wait around. We'll decide what we think is important
Invigorate the public to start a transformative movement: There are many that seek change. They can almost see it like the lingering memory of a forgotten dream. They may not have known what they could do about it. But after this event. They will know how they can become involved in siginificant social change.

Many of us concerned about social justice respond to injustices. Many of us respond when idiot college organizations play racist games, many of us respond when we hear about the injustices in the south like the Black 17-year old sentenced to 10 years for consensual oral sex with his 15-year old girlfriend, many of us respond when punitive and racist immigration laws are passed, and many of us respond when young unarmed black men are shot dead in the street. And we should!

But will we respond to our conscience? One of the most frequently used plots in movies is the vengeful protagonist that seeks justice by catching the killer of a family member, like in Spider Man or Braveheart. But must we always play the part of Peter Parker or whatever the hell Mel Gibson's name was in that movie? Will we initiate action simply because things aren't the way they're supposed to be? Or must we always wait to be slapped before we stand and say, "they ain't gonna be no more slapping around here."

If we always wait for injustice before we act we will forever be limited. For once the injustice subsides the movement is over. The movement can only grow to the extent of remorse and reform of the perpetrators of injustice. Such an approach abdicates our roles as responsible human beings and reduces us to that drop of water that bounces back after a turd has been dropped into the bowl. Doomed to serve as a check on the system rather than a creator of it. Afterthoughts perpetually contained to responses, but never freed for self-determination.

But when we dream... When we dream nothing limits us but our creativity. We can put the nation right without being beaten to do so. We can fight for health care before we're sick, we can fight for a cleaner environment before the world melts, we can fight against police brutality before we're brutalized, we can fight to end poverty before we're poor. Let's become activists because we know what is wrong in the world and we have a vision of what it can be like if we make it right. Let's take AFFIRMative ACTion!

Organizations sign up at

http://transformamerica.wufoo.com/forms/transform-america/

THINK!

2007-08-15T16:36:00.000-07:00

Excerpt from Dr. Seuss' Oh, the Thinks you can Think!

"Think of black water.
Think up a white sky.
Think up a boat.
Think of BLOOGS blowing by.

You can think about Night,
a night in Na-Nupp.
The birds are asleep
and the three moons are up

You can think about Day,
a day in Da-Dake.
the water is blue
and the birds are awake.

Think! Think and wonder.
Wonder and think.
How much water
can fifty-five elephants drink?

THINK! You can think
any THINK
that you wish...
Think
a race
on a horse
on a ball
with a fish!

Think left and think right
and think low and think high
Oh, the THINKS you can think up if only you try!"

We once used to be able to think up colorful creatures and non-existent places. Hell, some of us would even get into cardboard boxes and actually go to some of these places. Many of us have forgotten how to think, how to wonder, and how to dream.

We may all be able to learn something from Dr. Seuss. Surely we can think up a different tomorrow. A tomorrow with no homeless people on the corner; a tomorrow where police officers help old people cross the street; a tomorrow where all kids have the opportunity to learn; a tomorrow where sick people go to the doctors and pay for their services with a smile; a tomorrow where people are seen by doctors before they get sick; a tomorrow...

Think.

Excerpt From, "Letter to a Young Activist During Troubled Times," by Clarissa Pinkola Estes

2007-07-15T23:20:00.000-07:00

"Ours is not the task of fixing the entire world all at once, but of stretching out to mend the part of the world that is within our reach. Any small, calm thing that one soul can do to help another soul, to assist some portion of this poor suffering world, will help immensely. It is not given to us to know which acts or by whom, will cause the critical mass to tip toward an enduring good. What is needed for dramatic change is an accumulation of acts, adding, adding to, adding more, continuing. We know that it does not take "everyone on Earth" to bring justice and peace, but only a small, determined group who will not give up during the first, second, or hundredth gale.

One of the most calming and powerful actions you can do to intervene in a stormy world is to stand up and show your soul. Soul on deck shines like gold in dark times. The light of the soul throws sparks, can send up flares, builds signal fires, causes proper matters to catch fire. To display the lantern of soul in shadowy times like these - to be fierce and to show mercy toward others, both, are acts of immense bravery and greatest necessity. Struggling souls catch light from other souls who are fully lit and willing to show it. If you would help to calm the tumult, this is one of the strongest things you can do. There will always be times when you feel discouraged. I too have felt despair many times in my life, but I do not keep a chair for it; I will not entertain it. It is not allowed to eat from my plate. The reason is this: In my uttermost bones I know something, as do you. It is that there can be no despair when you remember why you came to Earth, who you serve, and who sent you here. The good words we say and the good deeds we do are not ours: They are the words and deeds of the One who brought us here. In that spirit, I hope you will write this on your wall:

When a great ship is in harbor and moored, it is safe, there can be no doubt. But that is not what great ships are built for. This comes with much love and a prayer that you remember who you came from, and why you came to this beautiful, needful Earth."

Set sail. Transform America.

It's Time

2007-07-02T21:24:00.000-07:00

What happened to college activists? What happened to cats shutting down student union buildings, taking over classes, teaching their own classes, leading movements and campaigns that spanned the country? Did we give up freedom rides, takeovers, and sit-ins for blogs, emails, and websites created in the safety and comfort of our dorms, apartments and homes? I think we must make room for both. In this new age of technology and institutional oppression Transform America is long overdue.

Come to the Transform America Launch, September 19th, at NYU's Puck Building second floor at the corner of Houston and Lafeyette starting at 6pm. Officially 295 Lafeyette St.

It's Time

One of our Heroes

2007-06-11T18:08:00.000-07:00

"Did you ever talk to Brother Malcolm? Did you ever touch him or have him smile at you? Did you ever really listen to him? Did he ever do a mean thing? Was he ever himself associated with violence or any public disturbance? For if you did, you would know him. And if you knew him, you would know why we must honor him: Malcolm was our manhood, our living, black manhood!" Ossie Davis

In the spirit of such people who were unafraid to dream of a new world. In the spirit of such people who worked for a new world. May the spirit of such people reincarnate themselves in the activists of today to Transform America.

One of Tranform America's first actions. It was a very different organization, but still retained the same principals of justice

2007-06-01T23:46:00.000-07:00

Release Date: 07/01/2006

“Seeds of Change”

Why we must retell the past to change the present and the path to our future.

The East Harlem Youth Council & Action Network, has joined with Transform America in a campaign to change the name of Thomas Jefferson Park and Community Center located in our community, between First Avenue and the FDR Drive, from 112-114^th Streets. Thomas Jefferson Park/Center, operated by the NYC Department of Parks, represents and acts as a tribute to a person whose deeds and words upheld the lasting legacy of racism in America.

Thomas Jefferson’s racism comes down to us in his writings. In the early 1780s, in his Notes on the State of Virginia, he writes:

“They [African-Americans] are more ardent after their female: but love seems with them to be more an eager desire, than a tender delicate mixture of sentiment and sensation

In the same publication, Jefferson goes on to speak about African-Americans’ “disagreeable odor,” their inferior intellect and inability to write poetry or produce works of art, and his racist ideas that the “improvement of the blacks in body and mind, [is noticed] in the first instance of their mixture with whites,”

It would be inconceivable to dedicate a Park and Recreation Center in a Native American community to Martin A. Van Buren, the man responsible for the “Trail of Tears” in which over 4000 Cherokee died. Nor would the Jewish community tolerate dedicating a Park and Recreation Center to Henry Ford, an unremitting anti-Semite, who wrote The International Jew: the World’s Foremost Problem.

Should we honor Jefferson, who said, “blacks are inferior to whites in their endowments both of body and mind?” Should we continue to honor him by allowing his name for a Park and Recreation Center in the heart of El Barrio-East Harlem, a Latino and African–American- community?

America expects us to tolerate the aftermath of a Katrina. America expects us to tolerate lower life expectancies, poorer quality health care, poorer education, police violence and profiling, racism where it shows its ugly head, discrimination, dehumanization, and poverty. America expects that we will tolerate memorials to racists.

America must change! We must start to change America now, starting in our own community. Thomas Jefferson’s name must be removed from our Park and the Community Center with a name that reflects the struggles and aspirations of its people.

Join the campaign! Get involved. Contacts:

Say you’re interested in change at: chester@transformamerica.org,

Chester Asher at 646-918-4616, or William Gerena-Rochet, gerena339@earthlink.net

In the beginning

2007-06-01T22:52:00.000-07:00

Haby and I were just some seriously peeved college students. We were dismayed with poverty, with the government's response to Katrina, with the murderous war in Iraq, with the lack of educational opportunity for Blacks and Latinos, and a canyon of other injustices which plague our country. We were both part of organizations that did really meaningful work. My organization, the Gentlemen of Quality, led four mentoring programs for students in Harlem and the Bronx, we volunteered to clean parks, distributed food at homeless shelters, and wraped toys for kids. We wore ourselves thin and still had a burning desire for greater more systemic social change. Call us greedy, ambitious, or idealists, but we wanted more. We wanted to Transform America. We saw other organizations like ourselves doing really good work, making little ripples of social change. We started to think, what if all these ripples came together? Could we make waves? Could we initiate a tsunami? Could we make the type of change that movies are made about, the type of change that changes ways of thinking, the types of change that changes how people treat each other, the type of change that changes us in the process and produces a better tomorrow? From these questions sprung Transform America. A group of social justice organizations that realize their own power, and the power of like-minded, committed, unapologetic, sincere organizations. By working together we will Transform America.