Earth Day in Peace and Love Land

Do-gooders in GDR's home state of Maryland are marking Earth Day this weekend with efforts to stop the proposed InterCounty Connector highway-construction plan and save our local ecosystem (and yes, there is still time for you to take part -- or to grab your neighbors to do an area cleanup). The following comes from the Campaign to Stop the ICC and includes a link re: Earth Day activities in other areas:

Earth Day in the Anacostia Watershed -- Saturday -- April 21

As you probably know, our efforts to stop the ICC are part of broader
efforts to protect and restore the Anacostia Watershed and the Chesapeake
Bay Watershed. Please join the Anacostia Watershed Society and its partners for their
annual Anacostia River Earth Day Cleanup & Celebration April 21, 2007. Clean ups are taking place throughout the watershed. Join one if you can!

The Cleanup takes place from 8:30am to noon at sites all over the
watershed. Afterward, celebrate the event at our rally from 12:00PM till
2:00PM at the Bladensburg Waterfront Park, Maryland.

List of clean ups and details; other actions you can take, courtesy of the MD Sierra Club

Not in Maryland? The Earth Day Network offers a list of events taking place around the world. You can search on line by city, state, or ZIP to find and event near you.

And it's Earth Day Weekend at GDR. Listen for GDR InfoBreaks and public-service announcements offering green tips all weekend long. And don't miss our Earth Day special, Sunday at 1 PM ET / 5PM GMT: It includes the EcoShock EnviroSolutions mix (fascinating!); multigenre music; Earth Day editions of Grist Magazine's environmental news show and a special hour-long America the Green on "green" weddings; Al Franken's chat with environmental activist Robert Kennedy Jr.; and the WoodSongs Old Time Radio Hour presentation of the Earth Day drama, "Walden." Keep it green!

Station Update 041907

HEY NOW, FELLOW TRAVELERS!


Tune in Earth Day : Friday, April 20 will feature Earth Day-related programming starting at 6pm ET. Included among the goodies, at 7:30, an archived Air America interview with Al Franken and environmentalist Robert Kennedy Jr., and at 8 pm, "Walden," a radio drama by WoodSongs' Old Time Radio Hour. Join us throughout Earth Day -- and do your part to make the planet cleaner and greener... GDR News takes flight Our news department is coming along nicely: Expect to hear reports from our new West Coast bureau chief, award-winning journalist and poet Kimberly Beavers, and from East Coast-based news director/editor Natalie Davis (plus, we are thisclose to landing an excellent Washington, DC, correspondent) Any tips, send 'em to the editor And welcome our new Membership Coordinator Nicole Potter... The CRB & RIAA are sticking it to netradio. PLEASE HELP US SURVIVE! Join Grateful Dread Radio -- your membership will help us try to meet rising expenses, make necessary technical and programming updates, continue and expand our grassroots work... in short -- to stay on the air.

TO-DO LIST: Write me to learn about Supporting Membership, Supporting Sponsor, in-kind donations, fiscal sponsorship by licensed nonprofits, and underwriting opportunities. Please take our GDR SURVEY. And please take action: Urge lawmakers in Congress to stop unfair efforts by greedy capitalists to keep netradio from serving the global community. Do your part to make sure we still have access to artists and ideas generally ignored and dismissed by the mainstream media and a clueless mass culture that seems happy to let big media control and limit their choices.

Commentary: Imus & Media Apartheid

Indeed, the Imus to-do goes beyond the righteous Rutgers women. It's about who gets to speak on the public airwaves -- and who owns them. Here is an excerpt from an insightful piece from Brent Budowsky at My DD.

First things first. Who wasn’t proud of those women from the Rutgers basketball team who showed such dignity, class, and respect in their response to the travesty committed against them?

I was reading a post by a white male liberal radio host, associated with an almost totally white liberal radio network, run by white males, owned by white males, writing on an almost totally white liberal blog about the Imus affair.

He was writing about the bigoted words of another white male host, televised on a cable network run by white males, owned by a national television network run by white males, which is owned by a global conglomerate run by white males.

His basic point, not worthy of great comment here, was that while he was oh-so-concerned with what Imus said, Imus must remain since this is all about freedom of speech.

He reminded me of Mike Dukakis, who, when asked during a debate how he would react if a criminal had pulverized his wife, gave a dissertation about constitutional law.

Sorry, pal, the Imus affair is not about free speech. If he wants to throw these bigoted hate words in the face of some glorious young women, he has the right to do so, on any street corner.

The issue here is whether a publicly owned media company, in a publicly regulated industry, with sponsors dependent on the public goodwill of their customers, with some serious standard of corporate responsiblity, should peddle this crap for profit on the public airwaves.

Let’s be clear: Media barons not only allow but encourage bigotry, anger, smear, derision and disrespect so long as it is good for business.

Again: Save Internet radio -- the only FREE media.

Gearing Up for March 17 Antiwar Protests

Peace and antiwar activists will flock to Washington, DC, and sites across the country on Saturday, March 17, 2007 to call for an end to the Iraq occupation. All kinds of info and event updates are available at MarchOnPentagon.org.

ALSO: Million Musician March for Peace - Austin, TX

March 17, 2007 - 12:00pm

Info: Austin Against War or Instruments of Peace

Join Taylor Hicks in Red Cross Disaster Relief

Now, this is darned nice: Singer-songwriter Taylor Hicks is using part of his national tour to bring attention to those devastated by the recent tornadoes in Alabama and Georgia. Hicks' Southeast-area concerts this weekend will raise funds for the American Red Cross and its disaster-relief efforts in those states. Way to go, Tay!

Grateful Dread Radio wants to do its part too: From time to time on this Red Cross Weekend at GDR, we'll air Red Cross announcements and we urge you to donate to the organization as well so that victims of the tragedy can receive the help they need.

ALERT: Save Net Radio!

URGENT: This radio station and thousands of others are in immediate jeopardy. Read this article from Live 365 and this one from writer Bennett Lincoff. Then go back to the Live 365 piece and follow the links to contact Congress and take action. If you want Internet radio, it appears you'll have to fight for it. Us too. And in view of the news, GDR's need for your support is more crucial than ever. If you want to see community-service netradio survive and thrive, please become a Supporting Member of Grateful Dread Radio. (Write me for details.)