Looking back at Vietnam War Defense Secretary Robert McNamara and his Mea Culpa

Irvine -- With the passing earlier Monday morning 6 July 2009 at age 93 of Robert McNamara, architect of the Vietnam War, we look back at his mea culpa ("In Retrospect: The Tragedy and Lessons of Vietnam," 1995) and regret for waging war against the Vietnamese people.

Obituaries:

NY Times (by Tim Wiener): www.nytimes.com/2009/07/07/us/07mcnamara.html?_r=1&hp

LA Times (by Stephen Braun): www.latimes.com/news/obituaries/la-me-robert-mcnamara7-2009jul07,0,4810762.story

We'll also air a 2006 program from National Radio Project's Making Contact on Daniel Ellsberg, who released with the late Tony Russo the Pentagon Papers, commissioned by McNamara to study the origins of the Vietnam War: " Truth-Telling in a Time of War."

The show aired 6 July 2009 from 9-10 a.m. on KUCI, 88.9 fm in Orange County, and is webcast via kuci.org.

To listen to the show minus the Making Contact Daniel Ellsberg segment, click here: .

For the 2006 Making Contact Ellsberg segment, go here.

Obama's Immigration Reform Plans; Michael Jackson as Queer Icon

Irvine -- On our Subversity show airing 29 June 2009 on KUCI, we focus on two topics hot in the news. In the first half hour, we talk about President Obama's plans for immigration reform, with Mary Giovagnoli, the director of the Immigration Policy Center.

In the second half hour, we discuss the late Michael Jackson as a queer icon, with Kaelin Alexander, a graduate student at Cornell whose research has focused on queer studies.

Mary Giovagnoli is the Director of the Immigration Policy Center. Prior to IPC, Mary served as Senior Director of Policy for the National Immigration Forum and practiced law as an attorney with the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security, serving first as a trial attorney and associate general counsel with the INS, and, following the creation of DHS, as an associate chief counsel for United States Citizenship and Immigration Services. Mary specialized in asylum and refugee law, focusing on the impact of general immigration laws on asylees. In 2005, Mary became the senior advisor to the Director of Congressional Relations at USCIS. She was also awarded a Congressional Fellowship from USCIS to serve for a year in Senator Edward M. Kennedy's office where she worked on comprehensive immigration reform and refugee issues. Mary attended Drake University, graduating summa cum laude with a major in speech communication. She received a master's degree in rhetoric and completed additional graduate coursework in rhetoric at the University of Wisconsin, before receiving a J.D. from the University of Wisconsin Law School. She spent more than ten years teaching public speaking, argumentation and debate, and parliamentary procedure while pursuing her education.

Kaelin Alexander is a Ph.D. student with Cornell University's Department of English. His most recent work focuses on violent queers, queer loneliness, and the perceptual limits of film. He is also working towards a longer project which explores the phenomenology of heartbreak and longing in the Victorian novel. He received a B.A. from Kenyon College in 2007. When he isn't in the library, Kaelin enjoys playing his ukulele and hiking the trails around Ithaca, New York.

To listen to the show, click .

Remembering Third Party Candidate Peter Camejo

Irvine - On our 15 September 2008 show, Subversity remembers the life and times of third party candidate Peter Miguel Camejo, a Venzuelan American who died the past Saturday in Folsom, California.

Camejo, who was Ralph Nader's running mate in 200 in the presidential race, also ran for governor of california three times before. In the 2002 race he garnered 5 percent of the California vote.


As Ralph Nader remembers him:

Peter was a student leader, civil rights advocate, leader in the socially responsible investment industry with his own investment firm, Progressive Asset Management, Inc., and author of books on investment and history including Racism, Revolution, Reaction, 1861-1877, The Rise and Fall of Radical Reconstruction, California Under Corporate Rule, and his recent book, The SRI Advantage: Why Socially Responsible Investing Has Outperformed Financially.

www.votenader.org/blog/2008/09/13/in-honor-of-peter-miguel-camejo/

We talk with his comrades, including Matt Gonzalez, who is currently Ralph Nader's running mate in Nader's return bid for the presidency. Gonzalez, a former San Francisco supervisor, is a civil rights attorney in the bay area and Green Party activist. We also talk with Donna Warren, who was the Southern California Chair for Peter Camejo in the California Recall election when he ran on the Green Party ticket for governor.

Paired with Camejo who ran for California governor, Warren ran for Lt. Governor in November 2002 and 2006. In November 2002, she garnered almost 400,000 votes statewide.


To listen to the program, click here: .

Celebrating the Life of Prof. Lindon Warren Barrett: Remembering Lindon

Irvine -- On the 21 July 2008 edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, we commemorated and celebrated the life of Prof. Lindon Warren Barrett, who was murdered in his home in Long Beach 7 July 2008.


Joining in reflecting on his life and scholarly career are colleagues and students who knew him, both during his long tenure at UCI and, more recently, at UC Riverside, where he ended up last year. He was a beloved English and African American studies professor at both schools, and for several years, director of the African American studies program at UCI. His family in Winnepeg, Canada, has posted this obituary in the Winnipeg Free Press: Obituary.


Born in 1961 in Guyana, he migrated to England when he was just one, moving to Canada in 1966. He grew up in Winnipeg, earning his BA from York University, an MA from the University of Denver, and ultimately a Ph.D from the University of Pennsylvania in 1990. His Ph.D thesis was titled: "In the dark: Issues of value, evaluation, and authority in twentieth century critical discourse" (216 pages, AAT 9101135; .Callalloo

Faculty participating in the memorial program are Katherine Kinney, who chairs the English department at UC Riverside, and her UCR colleague, George Haggerty and from UCI, History Prof. Winston James, who was until last month chair of African American studies program here.

Former UCI Ph.D students Arnold Pan (now teaching at UCI) and Lelia Neti (now at Occidental College) will also be participating. Jamie Park, former UCI undergraduate student and now pursuing her Ph.D at UCR, will also be on the program.

We'll also be reading tributes from other colleagues and friends of Lindon during the program.


This special program was also simulcast on KUCR, 88.3 AM in Riverside County via kuci.org. Our appreciation to KUCR for this collaboration.


To listen to the program, without the music, click here: .


A podcast of this program is now available at: podcasts.


Corrected Sunday July 20: There is no public memorial service in Long Beach Tuesday; the family plans to scatter his ashes in accordance with his wishes into the Pacific Ocean.


On Saturday August 23 a Canadian memorial service will be held in Winnipeg, MB, Canada.

Other services are envisioned at UCR and UCI later in the fall.

The family suggests in lieu of flowers, "[b]ecause of Lindon's love of reading, if so desired a donation to the Winnipeg Public Library or a charity encouraging literacy would be most appreciated. WPL donation page.


Other links:


OC Register's College Life blog:

Radio Tribute to Slain English Professor Lindon Barrett (about this program)

More on Death of English Professor Lindon Barrett

English Professor Found Slain


Los Angeles Times:

Slain Man Identified as UC Riverside Professor


Press-Telegram (Long Beach):

Popular professor found slain in LB


Press-Enterprise (Riverside):

Professor found dead hoped for change at UCR


Ned Ragget's Ponder it All blog:

RIP Lindon Barrett


Facebook page:

Lindon Barrett


Police report:
Murder

Remembering Photographer Dolores Neuman

On the 23 June 2008 edition of Subversity, a KUCI public affairs program, in the first half-hour, we celebrated and remembered the life of photographer Dolores Neuman. The Washington-D.C.-based photographer documented social movements and the people within them. She was involved with CovertAction Information Bulletin (later CovertAction Quarterly), co-founded by her husband, Louis Wolf. She provided photography for "Northern Lights", a documentary about farmers in North Dakota, and Rob Epstein's "The Times of Harvey Milk," a documentary about the slain gay San Francisco supervisor. She was instrumental in promoting many independent films and independent directors. She was a founder of the Jewish Film Festival. She passed away June 5.

We talked with friends of Dolores Neuman, including Amanda Spake, former managing editor of "Mother Jones" magazine, and a writer and investigative reporter for national magazines and news outlets, specializing in health and medicine, environmental issues, education, food and drug safety, and consumer protection, focusing recently on post-Katrina investigations as a Katrina Media Fellow. She is a UC Irvine graduate.


We also talked with Janet Cole, a social-issue documentary film producer ("Absolutely Positive", "Regret to Inform," "Paragraph 175" and others) who had a close friendship with Dolores for almost 30 years.

During the late 1970s through the mid-1980s when the American independent film genre was first being coined and documentary films were initially being shown in U.S. theaters, Dolores was one of the first grassroots specialists in creative audience development: Working with independent theater owners and distributors to attract audiences to see such social-issue films. She worked with Janet Cole on two films, first "The War At Home," which they promoted together in SF and a few years later, "Soldier Girls".

Also joining in the conversation was another long-time friend, Rob Epstein, the director of "The Times of Harvey Milk."

See the obituary adapted from the Washington Post: "Dolores Neuman, 66; photographer, promoter for public interest causes."

See: Guest Book on Washington Post site

To listen to the show, click here: .

Remembering Former CIA Officer/Whistleblower Philip Agee

Irvine -- On our next show, Subversity honors the progressive work of a friend of Subversity, Philip Agee, who resigned after 12 years as a case officer in the CIA and began exposing the CIA's "dirty tricks" in the covert operations the U.S. engaged in around the world. He leaves as his legacy his principled and consistent efforts in counteracting U.S. subversion of people's struggles around the world. He died 7 January 2008 in Havana, Cuba from complications from ulcer treatment.

We talk with his close friend, collaborator, co-author and fellow traveler, Louis Wolf, a co-founder of CovertAction Information Bulletin (later Quarterly) about Phil Agee's progressive work.

A. Selected Articles by Philip Agee:
A Shameful Injustice: Cuba's 50-year defiance of US attempts to isolate it is an inspiration to Latin America's people:http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2007/mar/10/comment.cuba
Terrorism and Civil Society: The Instruments of US Policy in Cuba:www.counterpunch.org/agee08092003.html
Terrorismo y Sociedad Civil como Instrumentos de la Politica Estadounidense en Cuba:www.manueltalens.com/ultima_hora/46agee.htm
Tracking Covert Actions into the Future:mediafilter.org/MFF/CovOps.html
A Stunning Contrast: The Descent of the US; The Rise of Latin America:www.counterpunch.org/agee03142007.html
Producing the Proper Crisis:groups.google.com/group/alt.journalism.newspapers/browse_thread/thread/45777d57195aad22
B. Philip Agee on Video:video.google.com/videosearch?hl=en&resnum=0&q=philip+agee&um=1&ie=UTF-8&sa=N&tab=wv

C. Philip Agee on Democracy Now:www.democracynow.org/2005/7/27/flashback_renegade_cia_officer_phillip_agee

D. Obituaries:
New York Times: www.nytimes.com/2008/01/10/obituaries/10agee.html?_r=1&oref=slogin (free login)Guardian: www.guardian.co.uk/obituaries/story/0,,2238010,00.htmlLondon Times: www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/comment/obituaries/article3162281.eceIndependent: news.independent.co.uk/people/obituaries/article3328353.ece El Pais: www.elpais.com/articulo/Necrologicas/Philip/Agee/ex/agente/CIA/elpepinec/20080110elpepinec_1/TesDie Tageszeitung: www.taz.de/1/politik/amerika/artikel/1/der-beste-feind-der-cia/?src=SE&cHash=703d9224f5

To listen to the entire show, click here:

Remembering Community Historian Allan Berube

Irvine -- As 2007 comes to an end, we remember friends and activists who have passed on.

On Subversity's New Year's Eve show, we celebrate and honor the engaged life of Allan Berube, a community historian, who documented the lives of gays in the military, and who received a MacArthur Foundation award. His book, Coming Out Under Fire, was developed into a film by documentary filmmaker Arthur Dong. Berube, who helped found the GLBT Historical Society in San Francisco, died December 11, 2007.

We talk with several fellow travelers of Berube's, including fellow historian Gerard Koskovich and activist Amber Hollibaugh about Berube's role in the gay liberation movement and his impact on a whole new generation of queer scholarship and activism.

Gerard Koskovich is a San Francisco-based editor, writer, historian, and rare book dealer and collector. He is the staff liaison for the American Society on Aging's Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network. His entry on LGBT archives and libraries in the United States is forthcoming in the three-volume reference work LGBTQ America Today (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 2008). Recent publications include an extensive French-language portfolio on the GLBT Historical Society published in volume 6 of Triangulere (Paris: Editions Christophe Gendron, December 2006), an annual review of queer arts and culture, and "The 'Modest Collection' of Bud Flounders: How 5,400 Gay Novels Came to Green Library," published in the fall 2005 issue of Imprint, the journal of the Associates of the Stanford University Libraries. Amber Hollibaugh, senior strategist at the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, formerly was the director of education, advocacy and community building at SAGE (Services and Advocacy for GLBT Elders). She was the first director of the Lesbian AIDS Project at Gay Men's Health Crisis (GMHC) in New York. She is a well-known activist, artist, writer and community organizer. She is author of My Dangerous Desires: a Queer Girl Dreaming Her Way Home. She also co-produced and directed The Heart of the Matter, a documentary about women's sexuality and HIV risk, which won the 1994 Sundance Festival Freedom of Expression Award and ran on the PBS series, P.O.V.

Have a safe and productive new year!
See obituaries:
New York Times: obit.
Los Angeles Times: obit.
Bay Area Reporter: obit
Sullivan County Democrat: obit.

To listen to the entire show, click here:

Remembering Gay Liberation Pioneer Barbara Gittings

On our next show, to air on February 26, 2007 at 10 am, we remember the decades-long activism of Barbara Gittings, who died last Sunday in Pennsylvania. Subversity's show host was honored to share the panel with her just three months ago at UCLA's library school, where she talked about how she managed to get gay and lesbian books into libraries.

Barbara loved books, and saw their importance to lesbians and gays. Though not a librarian, she became active in the American Library Association's task force on gay liberation. We air her reflections on her involvement with librarians in our memorial show Monday.


See press release.



To listen to the show, click here: .