i was watching truth and power last night and kept seeing the watermark rumur and watching maya little on democracy now i saw it again on the footage of the toppling of silent sam, so i went to the site and they ask for story suggestions. i never hear back when i write, and i knew i'd have to be content with just flapping my little flightless wings and posting it here.

dear rumur, 

i wish someone would make a doc about the privatization of public green space and gentrification in chicago. we live in the midst of a massive construction/development boom in anticipation of the obomba center, which has begun cutting trees despite a pending federal environmental review and a lawsuit by protect our parks. i just watched the film battle for brooklyn and saw how community is destroyed for the profit of powerful individuals and corporations.

this is a story that affects every community in every city in the u.s. now.

as everything becomes privatized and under corporate rule, democracy becomes a hollow mockery.

thank you so much,

doug shaeffer

p.s.
i wanted to add that in another gentrifying neighborhood of chicago, logan square, signs have appeared saying it's ok to be white. in terms of gentrification and real estate, white simply means power. 

what we see in america writ large is might makes right, whether by imminent domain, the art of the deal, or war by any other means. 

amy goodman said the fact of the burgeoning numbers of citizen journalists the shape of democracy is changing. but we've seen the crackdown, we've seen the professional journalists harassed, imprisoned, and killed. the repression of witnesses has a deadening effect on us all. yet the witnesses keep on witnessing, and when one is suppressed others rise from behind.