Two weeks ago, Bleu Cease stretched
an orange extension cord across the pavement of Liberty Pole Plaza and wondered
who pulled the plug on his mobile TV. The whole purpose of his self-proclaimed
“propaganda box” was to spark political dialogue rather than let it be snuffed
out. So after plugging back in, Cease resumed showing political documentaries
on a TV encased in a crate he painted red, white, and blue.
The Visual Studies Workshop graduate
student started his public screenings on July 15 and plans to air hard-to-find
documentaries and shorts until the election. Cease says the movies examine
everything from the United States’ foreign policy to the dangers of the
electronic voting ballot.
Although anti-administration
documentaries in the vein of Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 are far more prevalent than pro-Bush material,
Cease says he will air any political viewpoint.
“This isn’t Bush versus Kerry,” says
Cease, who plans to vote Third Party in November. “I really don’t want to get
bogged down in partisan issues.” The native Rochesterian wants to see how the
community reacts when he brings a free medium to the streets.
“The Web is as democratic [a medium]
as we have, but not everybody can afford it,” says Cease. He will play one
video a day, all day, Thursdays and Fridays at Liberty Pole Square and
Wednesdays at Monroe Avenue and Sumner Place. Cease is looking for other venues
and eventually hopes to infiltrate a suburban mall.
On the day Cease discovered his
propaganda box unplugged in Liberty Square, it drew little interest when he
first turned it back on. But when he returned to padlock his extension cord an
hour later, he found two men sitting in chairs in front of the TV. As they
watched Noam Chomsky’s speech “Distorted Morality: America’s War on Terror,”
one drank a beer from a brown-bagged bottle.
For
a schedule of films showing on the viewing box, see City’s weekly calendar or
urban action listings.
— Geoff Graser
More
pay to the people
When
the State Legislature approved raising the state’s minimum wage last week, most
Rochester-area legislators voted for the increase — Republicans as well as
Democrats.
The
bill, which awaits Governor Pataki’s signature, raises the minimum to $6 on
January 1, 2005, to $6.75 a year later, and to $7.15 January 1, 2007. It’s been
at $5.15 since 1997. The minimum for restaurant workers and others who receive
tips will increase from its present $3.30 per hour to $3.85 in 2005, to $4.35
in 2006, and to $4.50 in 2007.
The
Republican-dominated State Senate voted 51 to 7 to approve the increase;
Rochester-area senators, all Republicans, were divided, Joseph Robach and James
Alesi voting for and Michael Nozzolio and George Maziarz voting against. The
Democratic-dominated Assembly approved the increase 116 to 19. The
Rochester-area delegation split along party lines: Democrats Joseph Morelle,
David Gantt, David Koon, and Susan John voted yes, and Bill Reilich, Joseph
Errigo, and Charles Nesbitt, voted no.
Assembly
Democrat Susan John says she is pleased that the Assembly and Senate were able
to reach an agreement. “We wanted to do it on a faster timetable, but the
important thing to do was to get it raised,” she says. “It’ll make a
lot of difference to a lot of people, especially to people who are trying to
raise families.”
No day in court
A Constitutional Amendment to ban
same-sex marriages failed in the Senate earlier this month, but the threat to
gay families is not past. Last week, before adjourning for the summer, the
House passed HR 3313, the Marriage Protection Act. Local gay and lesbian
activists are calling it an attack.
“If it passes in the Senate, it will
really be a devastating blow,” says Chuck Bowen, executive director of the Gay
Alliance of the Genesee Valley, “especially here in Rochester, where equality
for LGBT couples has really been accepted and affirmed.”
Votes from Rochester-area
representatives were evenly split. Representatives Jim Walsh and Tom Reynolds,
both Republicans, voted in favor; Democrat Louise Slaughter and Republican Amo
Houghton voted against. Houghton was the only New York House member to vote
against party lines.
If it passes in the Senate and is
signed by the president, the Marriage Protection Act would prohibit federal
courts, including the Supreme Court, from considering challenges to the Federal
Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA, which was passed in 1996, gives states the right
to decide whether to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other
jurisdictions.
Supporters of Marriage Protection say
the bill keeps decision-making power over same-sex marriages within the states.
Critics call it unconstitutional, since it denies gay and lesbian families the
right to take their cases to a federal court.
School funding still an unknown
State legislators interrupted their summer break last week
and trotted back to Albany for a special session to deal with school-funding
reform.
They left Albany, however, without dealing with it,
increasing the stress on New York’s school districts in the process.
The state is under court order to come up with a new
school-aid formula by this Saturday. The suit that led to the order focused on
the need to increase funding for New York City schools, but all the proposals
being debated by state legislators would benefit every urban district in the
state, including Rochester’s. The disagreement has centered on the amount of
additional aid.
The danger now is that a court-imposed state master will
order additional funding only for New York City.
If state legislators don’t make a dramatic move in the next
few days, Rochester and the other big-city districts outside of New York could
be left hanging — perhaps pondering their own individual suits against the
state.
The court order wasn’t the legislators’ only unfinished
business. There is still no state budget. That means that as school districts
across the state prepare for the next school year, they don’t know how much
money they can spend.
Urban districts like Rochester’s are in particular jeopardy
because they depend more heavily on state aid than their suburban counterparts.
District officials have estimated the amount of state aid they’ll get, and if
they get less than that, they’ll have to cut more programs and staff. And
schools open in just over a month.
In a statement released as legislators headed out of Albany
last week, the district’s CEO for Business Services, Henry Marini, said
district officials tried to be conservative about projected revenue. But, he
said, “there are no guarantees.”
“The longer we go without an approved state budget,” said
Marini, “the bigger the impact on our ability to provide an educational program
that meets the needs of our students, who are among the neediest in the state.”
This article appears in Jul 28 – Aug 3, 2004.
