ALBANY, NEW YORK - On June 18, the New York State Assembly passed a bill (A.4867-B) that would protect New Yorkers with life threatening or debilitating conditions from arrest for using medical marijuana when their doctors believe it would be the best treatment option, 79-48. The bill is similar to the medical marijuana bill the Assembly passed last year. The version passed today was modified to address concerns voiced by members of the Senate, who have until June 23 to pass the bill before the legislature recesses.

Ask your state senator to call for a prompt vote on medical marijuana: Take Action

More Information: Marijuana Policy Project

This week's Indy TV is a conversation with two Disability Rights activists; Anita Cameron, a systems advocate from the Center for Disability Rights and Mustafa Hayes, a self advocate who has received services through CDR. Both are members of the Rochester Chapter of ADAPT. CDR is part of a national network of independent living centers that has been operating in Rochester for the past decade. ADAPT is a national Grassroots Disability Rights group devoted to eliminating the institutional bias through direct action.

In our conversation, Anita Cameron outlined the many layers of advocacy tactics that she uses in her work. She explained when the direct action tactics that ADAPT has become famous for are deployed: "You always see the end results of what ADAPT is doing. It all starts with letter writing, meetings, things like that. Usually when the protests come in is when the powers that be or our 'targets' either refuse to meet with us or refuse to work with us. When that happens, its time to, as we say, hit the streets, get into the trenches."

I am writing to express my deep, deep disappointment with the film American Harvest, which opened in Rochester last Saturday at the Little Theater. I am a paralegal and outreach worker at Farmworker Legal Services of New York, a nonprofit law office based in Rochester. From my two years of providing legal services to farm workers in the Rochester area and beyond, I can say—from personal experience—that American Harvest presents a naïve, incomplete, and shamefully ignorant portrait of agriculture in the United States.

The film’s director, Angelo Mancuso, appears to have begun this project with honorable intentions, and I’m sure he feels his film is supportive of the mostly immigrant workers who plant and harvest America’s crops. But, as revealed in scene after scene of his movie, Mr. Mancuso fundamentally fails to understand the nature of our agricultural system and the brutal conditions suffered by its labor force. Essential facts are omitted, crucial context is lacking, and rosy clichés about farm workers’ satisfaction with their lot in life go unquestioned.

To be absolutely clear, I don’t disagree with the central premises of American Harvest: that immigrant farm workers are essential to the contemporary agricultural system, that the current immigration policy is unjust and makes no sense economically, and that America’s politicians need to take far more decisive and pragmatic actions to fix this broken situation.

The problem lies in the fact that Mr. Mancuso has made a 95-minute movie—purportedly dedicated to explaining how the “American Harvest” gets harvested—that contains not one word regarding the abuses of workers’ rights and human rights that are the norm, not the exception, in this line of work. How is this possible? How does a self-proclaimed journalist miss such a crucial part of the story? For instance, about 20 minutes of Mr. Mancuso’s film take place in Immokalee, Florida. With a simple Google search [of Immokalee Florida and immigrants], the director would have learned that the Immokalee area has had half a dozen agricultural slavery cases—not just slavery-like conditions, but actual slavery, according to the federal government—exposed in the last ten years. Many workers in Immokalee continue to live twelve to a single trailer, while paying rent prices that rival Manhattan’s. Mainstream regional newspapers like the St. Petersburg Times and the Naples Daily News have reported these conditions thoroughly, as have magazines such as National Geographic and The New Yorker. Abuse is hardly an obscure aspect of farm work in Florida. Read the rest of the letter by clicking the more button below.

Other Critical Local Reviews: American Harvest: a superficial, patronizing, and smug film

Additional Information: Farmworker Legal Services of New York | Immigrant Solidarity Network | Coalition of Immokalee Workers | Student / Farmworker Alliance | Alliance for Fair Food | DeleteTheBorder.org

On Sunday June 8th, at 1pm, Rochester area Filmmaker Mara Ahmed will premiere her film "The Muslims I know" at the Dryden Theater. Her film takes the form of a conversation between Pakistani-Americans in the Rochester area who come from her own subculture and vox pop interviews with random Rochesterians who are encouraged to ask candid questions about Islam, Middle Eastern Culture, and the realities of being a Muslim immigrant inside post- 911 united States.

Mara Joins us this week on Indy TV #4, to discuss this honest and important documentary. In the Interview Mara explains that she is seeking to deconstruct the monolithic view of Muslims that the media tends to put forward. As a stating point, to address the negative stereotypes of muslims in the us, Mara suggests "First of all, don't believe everything you read in the media, and see on TV. The best way to know what real Muslims are like is just to know a couple of Muslims. If you know a few people who are Muslims, take the time or trouble to know them, I think your views will change completely."

Rochester resident and activist Judy Bello recenetly travelled to Iran with a Fellowship of Reconciliation Civilian Peace Delegation. While there and after she got back, she wrote an incredibly detailed and engaging report of her experiences there. The photos are beautiful as well…

I wake in the morning with a pounding headache and very sore nose. I am tired and not ready to travel the morning after the bus accident. Our hotel is lovely. Roses are blooming in the courtyard as I cross on the way to the lobby. Why should I want to leave? Maybe the new bus will be delayed. I am hoping for a respite, but the bus is here and it is time to check out. Before leaving town, there are a few more places to visit.

We are going to see the Old Town of Yazd, a very old city still inhabited and maintained as it was 600 years ago. Our starting point is the ancient Jaame Kabir Mosque built by Seyed Rukn al-Din for his tomb.

A Jaame Mosque is the central Mosque in a city or Town and this Mosque was built during the Seljuk Dynasty, and is a renowned example of the architecture of that period. The Mosque is located in the middle of the Old Town of Yazd, and we enter through the Bazaar. Outside the gate there are small shops with their wares displayed in front. I am cheered by a shop full of beautiful tapestries, the Excedrin is kicking in, and things are looking up. I make a note to stop on the way out.

(Click the "More" link for the rest of this post and links to the entire series)