World Food Day March Against Monsanto

At left: We had our second March Against Monsanto today in Falls Park. It was much smaller than our first march in May, but still pretty well-attended for Greenville.

We marched through our annual autumn downtown festival, Fall for Greenville, which is an excellent PR opportunity. We passed out leaflets, talked to interested onlookers and (hopefully) drew lots of attention. Today's demonstration has been organized globally around World Food Day.






Me and Mr Daisy are currently arguing over GMOs as I post this. (GMO = Genetically Modified Organism) Yes, we both hate Monsanto on principle, but Mr Daisy believes GMOs are safe and fills up my inbox with scientific studies.

If they are safe, why doesn't Monsanto want to label them? I personally believe GMOs are magnifying allergens in food, but I realize this is a hard assertion to prove. (Why do all these kids have peanut allergies these days? NO ONE I grew up with had peanut allergies. NO. ONE. And now? It's fairly common.)

I trust Monsanto as far as I can throw them.

And the argument continues!

~*~



Above, photos from today: 1) Save the bees! 2) protester shirt 3) part of our group masses in Falls Park.

As always, you can click all photos to enlarge. (More photos HERE.)

~*~

Radio updates:

As we reported on our show yesterday, South Carolina has granted ‘Stand Your Ground’ legal immunity to a man who shot at a car full of teen girls and instead killed an innocent 17-year-old black male bystander.

This is the first case of its kind. Apparently, Stand Your Ground now applies to innocent bystanders who may accidentally get shot. Rania Khalek (above link) reports:

That the victim was an innocent bystander rather than one of the alleged “aggressors” sets a new precedent for the application of Stand Your Ground, which can now shield people who are bad shots and accidentally shoot a bystander, from prosecution.

As 5th Circuit Assistant Solicitor April Sampson warned over the summer, a decision in favor of Scott marks “the first time any state in this Union” has awarded Stand Your Ground immunity in the killing of an innocent bystander.

The shooting happened on April 18, 2010. Shannon Anthony Scott (33), was arrested for the murder of 17-year-old unarmed Darrell Andre Niles, shot to death in his car. From Khalek's piece:

Richland County Judge Maite Murphy has thrown out those charges, ruling on Wednesday that Scott reasonably believed his life was in danger and is therefore immune from prosecution by the state’s 2006 Protection of Persons and Property ACT, South Carolina’s version of “Stand Your Ground”, a law that gives private citizens the right to use deadly force whenever and wherever they feel threatened.

We will be talking more about this story on the air in the next week, so stay tuned.

~*~

Thursday's show was about Raleigh (NC) police spying on NAACP Moral Monday planning meetings. The show included an informative interview with Kevin Gosztola, so CHECK US OUT.