01/14/20 01/14/20 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from new york, this is democracacy now! ofevery impeachment trial any official in the history of the united states has featured witnesses, so the democratic request for four fact witnesses and three specific sets of relevant documents is vevery muh in line with our history. amy: with house speaker nancy pelosi preparing to send impeachment articles to the senate, democrats are pressing

the republican leadership to allow witness testimony. a number of republicans -- including mitt romney -- back a vote on witnesses. we will get the latest. then to ms 4 housing, we go oakland, where a group of motherfifighti homomelsnesss are waging a battle agnsnst re este spepelators by occupying a vacant house with their children. >> we arare taking a stand and t does not end with one house. we want to take oakland back. [cheers] amy: plus, the poet martin espada will share one of his latest poems -- a tribute to the late new york community activist luis g garden acosta, who was a member of the young lords. all that and more, coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. president trump is now trying to claim that "it doesn't really matter" whether iranian general

qassem soleimani posed an imminent threat before the united states assassinated him in a drone strike at the baghdad international airport on january 3. trump's words, from a tweet yesterday, come after president trump spent days claiming soleimani was planning to attack four u.s. embassies. but trump's claims began to unravel after his own defense secretary mark esper said he had not seen specific evidence of any planned embassy attacks. this is president trump answering questions from reporters about his changing claims. pres. trump: first of all, i think it has been totally consistent. but here is what is inconsistent. we killed soleimani, the number one terrorist in the world by any account. that person, killed a lot of americans, killed a lot of people. amy: that was trump speaking monday. meanwhile, secretary of state mike pompeo is dismissing the iraqi parliament's vote demanding the united states withdraw its troops from iraq, which came after the u.s. assassination of soleimani in babaghdad.

the wall street journal is reporting the state department wawarned iraq that t the united states couldld shut down iraq's access to its own bank account held at the federal reseserve bk of new york if iraq forces u.s. troops to withdraw from iraq. and iran says it has arrrrested several people as part o of the investigation into howowran mistakenenly shot downwn a ukran airlininer taking off from trar, en route to kiev, last week as an killed all 176 people on board. iran came afteriran fired missiles at iraqi military bases housing iraqi and u.s. troops as retaliation for soleimani's assassination. the missiles killed no one. new jersey senator cory booker is the latest candidate to drop out of the presidential race. six candidates will take the

stage tonight for the seventh democratic presidential debate in des moines, iowa, all white candidates, the last debate before the iowa caucuses. massachusettsen senator elizabeth warren and vermont senator bernie sanders have been rising in recent days. senator warren issued a statement yesterday saying senator sanders came to her house for a private dinner with just the two of thehem in novemr 2018 and said " among the topics that came up was what would happen if democrats nominated a female candidate. i thought a woman could win. he disagreed," warren said. senator sanders called the claims ludicrous. this is sanders' senior advisor speaking to cnn. >> for anyone to say a woman cannot win, it doesn't make sense. hillary clinton one more votes than donald trump did the last election.

there are some wires crossed. clearly, bernie sanders did not say a woman could not win. amy: new york commerce member alexandria ocasio-cortez says she is launching a new political action committee meant to challenge the democratic congressional campaign committee. ocasio-cortez's pac would help fund progressive challengers to take on both republican incumbents and centrist democrats. the congressmember also recently said she wouldn't be "paying her dues" to the dccc in the 2019-2020 election cycle, and that she'd prer t to nate t t individualemocrati candidates. in immigration news, the trump administration is planning to divert an additional $7.2 billion from the military budget for the construction of trump's promised border wall -- bringing the total amount allocated to wall construction so far to over $18 billion. meanwhile, in chicago, immigration and customs

enforcement -- or ice -- is detaining fewer immigrants. ice says that's because of new illinois laws such as the trust act, which bars police from detainining people based on n tr immigration status. chicago's sanctuary ordinance also prohibits police from giving ice agents access to people who are in the custody of local police. this comeses as in arizonana, a trial is underway over the conditions in border patrol's short-term detention facilities. immigrant rights groups have condemned the horrific -- horrific conditions" inside these facilities, including overcrowding, freezing temperatureses, and lack of adequate food, w water or medidl care. and in morore news on glglobal migration, a a 10-yeyear-old chd was fofound deadad at a riss airprport in thendercarrrrge of a plane that had arrived from the ivory coast. meanwhile, eigight childldren we among the 1111 migrants who drowowned when their boaoat sanf the e western coast of t turkeys ththey attttempted to reach eur.

turkey and russia have brokered a ceasefire for the syrian province of f idlib, where the russian-backed syrian regime has been fighting a brutal offensive aimed at capturing the territory from rebel groups. there are some reports of the syrianan regime viololating g te ceasefire, which took effect midnight sunday. france says it will send about 200 additional troops to west africa, even as many protesters in mali and other west african nations are calling on france to withdraw the more than 4000 troops it has stationed in the former french colonies. west african leaders are warning of increasing violence in the sahel region. this is burkina faso president roch marc christian kabore. >> 2019 a difficult year for the sahel chad region. human and material destruction that we are suffering and the unprecedented humanitarian crisis we are experiencing in

this zone. amy: in papakistan, at least 55 people have died after avalanches swept through pakistan-controlled kashmir in recent days. about a dozen more residents are missing. 2019 was the h hottest year for the world's eaeans orecocord th''accocordg to a aew study publishein the jrnal "advances in atmosphic scncnces." the e rth's surface temperuree also recorded s s seco-hottete year on record last ye, asas t climatcrisisis leads to the waing of t earth's ocea and atsphere. torney geral wilam barrs dending ape unlockhe phones othe alled gunmanf a li shootg at theaval air statioin pensala, flora. eslating tsions beeen the justicdepartme and app in legal bale overersonal privac la monthaudi air force killedhree sairs and wound othe on the se. saudi mitary cats who were traing in t u.s. ar now ing expeed from e untrynd sent bk to sau

arab aftnoon invtigation launched after the pencola shting. d this yr's car minationhave jusbeen noununce among the p-p-nomited d moes was "joker," for wch joaqu phoenix receceived nominatn for best aoror. "edgof d democcy,"," aut brilian n esidents dilma rousse a and la dada sva, wawa nominated for best dumumenta. "hriet" star cynth erivo w nominated for r best actress, making her the onlblblack tor nominad d for oscscarhis year. and not single wan was nominated for best dirtotor, f a send year in a r r. those e some othe headnes. ththiss democry now!, democracow.org, e war an peacreport. i'amy goodn. juanand i'm juan gzalez. welcome all of r listens anviewers om around the untry anaround t world. we begin today's show looking at the upcoming impeachment trial of president trump. house e speaker nancy pelosi is expected to send the two articles of impeachment to the senate as early as wednesday. the house impeached trump in december for abuse of power and obstruction of congress related to trump's effort to pressure

ukraine to investigate his political rival joe biden. have republican senators said they want the senate to call former national security advisor john bolton as a witness during the senate impeachment trial. senator lamar alexander of tennessee has said he may also vote to hear witnesses. he told politico "is it is important have a vote on whether we have witnesses or not." amy: the timing of the senate impeachment trial could also impact the 2020 presidential race. three democratic candidates -- senators bernie sanders, elizabeth warren, and amy klobuchar -- will have to leave the campaign trail for the trial which h could begin this week. on monday, senator cory booker dropped out of the race in part because of the time demands of the impeachment trial. meanwhile, "the new york times" is reporting a security firm has uncovered evidence that russian military hackers have attempted toto attack the ukrainian gagas company where hunter biden once served on the board of directors.

to talk more about the upcoming impeachment trial, we are joined now by dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate.com, where she is senior legal correspondent and susupreme court reporter. so what are we going to see today? to seeink we are going everybody pedaling as fast as they can to own the narrative here. i think that nancy pelososi is feeling at least a little bit better about the fact there are going to be witnesses. it looks as though there are enough republican senators saying we at least want to vote on whether there are going to be witnesses -- which i think is what her endgame was, and have some kind of fair process. the same time, we see mitch mcconnell doing the touchdown dance yesterday saying everything she did was pointless, i want everything and i'm going to have it my way. i think as today plays out, we are going to see a decision on whether to convey the articles today, tomorrow, hearing there are going to be opening statements as soon as next tuesday. so this thing is going to hit the ground running and i think very quickly we're going up to

see whether there is a process that allows for witness testimony. juan: what about the issue of john bolton's potential testimony? how important is that? is your sins the votes are there to call for him to come and testify? >> we are certainly hearing romney is interested. i think murkowski and collins, as you said, are very commander interested in at least knowing they have made the gesture, we want to know what yes to say. i think they are really being considered by an electric that wants to hear from mrs.. what bolton has to say is unbelievably consequential. juan: the president has indicated he might invoke executive privilege. he told fox news that he might do that to prevent bolton from testifying in the impeachment trial. fox news host laura ingram interviewed him on friday. >> why not call bolton? why not allow him to testify? this thihing is bogus. pres. trump: othther than one ththing. yoyou can't be in the white houe

-- i'm talking about future presidenents -- and d have aecrt advivisor -- anybody having to o a security and legal and other things. >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: i think you have to for the sake of the office. and charges. pres. trump: if you know, the craney government came out with a very strong statement, no pressure, no anything, and that is from the boss. that is from the president of ukraine. juan: your sense about that? >> at least with respect to the latter question, we know bolton knows a lot because we have are in her testimony in the e house that he said i want nothing to do this drug deal being cooked up with giuliani. so we know bolton has taken a strong position against what was happening in ukraine. as to the question of privilege, executive privilege does not mean that bolton cannot testify. it means he can sit there and testify as to those things that are not privileged and invoke a

privilege where it applies. it doesn't meanan there's s an alall-out bar on his showing up. amy: do you think the assassination of soleimani could be trump throwing out a bone to bolton because he is so concerned about what he might testify? and as soon as he did the assassination, bolton tweeted "we have been working on this for a long time." >> i think there's some signaling going on between bolton and the president that none of us fully understands. i think the fact that bolton said, "i have material evidence and i would like to present it," suggests he did not get everything he wanted from this soleimani assassination. but i think the larger point for bolton is he is trying at every turn to do -- right after he has the opportunity to do the big thing, he says he is going to do it, when it is too late. this looks like -- he has been saying pretty consistently, "i have things to say and i wish i

could say them." juan: chief justice john roberts will be presiding. what is your sense of what his role will be? >> that is the most interesting question to me is the john while roberts water. there is two models. chase was unbelievably involved, let himself be the tiebreaker, was absolutely aggressively involved in rulings and the johnson impeachment. request famously after the clinton impeachment said, "i did nothing and i did it very well." i think john roberts is much more apt to be what we saw in the request model to do nothingg and do it very eloquently. amy: i want to go to 2016, t trp calllling chieief justice e roba disaster. trumka justice roberts turned out to be an absolute disaster. he turned out to be an absolute disaster because he gave us obamacare.

amy: so your response, dahlia lithwick? >> so interesting truck never went after anthony kennedy who also gave so many things that trump report statement did not go after kennedy. he went after roberts. roberts and he have been involved in a very, very low level slap fight about whether trump can go after judges. john roberts famously said last year, "there's no such thing as trump judge an obama judge, all edges are the same." do i think it means that john roberts is in the tank for impeachment? no, i don't. i think john roberts is in the tank for the judiciary and the integrity and judiciary.y. amy: o'connell said he cannot be an impartial juror. he just went to the white house to meet with president trump about the impeachment trial. william somehow declare barr was not meant for high crimes and misdemeanors? how does this work? clubs i think donald trump yesterday started signaling we

should just equip me before anything happens. -- acquit me before anything happens. important to realize everything that has to happen procedurally requires 51 votes. that seems like an easy job when you have 53, but it is pretty clear these processes are going to be set on the backs of people like collins and murkowski and other senators who are really, really worried about their reelection bids. i don't think it is as simple as mcconnell doing things by fit and the entire party falling in line. meetinge democrats are today, caucusing, and its people as he is expected to name the prosecutors. what is the important of the prosecutors from the house in this trial? managers.mal word is they become impeachment managers. they become the prosecuting attorneys. there is some conversation about whether justin amash might be one of them, the independent who

broke off from the republican party -- again, interesting signaling she does that. but they probably will come from the intelligence committee and the committees that oversaw the house processes, and they will essentially present their best case. donald trump's attorneys for his part will be jay sekulow and passive alone and they -- amy: and giuliani. >> he desperately wants to be there but that i don't think will happen. that will be the prosecutors and the defense. amy: we hope you will keep us posted. we will turn back to you, dahlia lithwick, senior editor at slate.com, where she is their senior legal correspondent and supreme court reporter. she alalso hosts the p podcast "amicus." back, moms 4 housing. a group of mothers and opener fighting homelessness by occupying a vacant house. they are threatened with eviction. hundreds of people turned out last night to protect them. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: we turn now to oakland, california, where a group of mothers fighting homelessness are waging a battle against real estate speculators and demanding permanent solutions to the bay area housing crisis by occupying a vacant house with their children. the struggle began in november, when working mothers in west oakland moved into 2928 magnolia street -- a vacant house owned by real estate investment firm wedgewood propertieses. the firmrm tried to o evict the, claiming they wewere illegallyly squauatting on private property, but t the mothers s went to cout and filed a "right to possssession" claim, saying housing is a human right. their naname is moms 4 housing. amy: this is a video by brandon jourdan and mariannene maeckelberergh. > my name is domininique. i am one of the cofounders of monsters -- moms 4 housingng. ishe goal of our organization to reclaimim houses back intntoe handnds of the comommunity and o

house unsheltlted moms and childrenen. there are f four vacant houses r every one homeless person in oakland. we are reclaiming this house from a billion-dollar corporatioiowho bought t this housee at a foreclosed price. it has been vacant for two years while people are living out on the streets. we felt like this was necessary to take this step. even when i personally try to go to the proper channels to get rent, theye and pay are still not affordable. it was up to us to organize ourselves to be able to have housing. clubs in the last two years, homelessness and open has increased by 47% with average rental rates andnd open rising o nearly $3000 a month. there are few or no options for most people looking for housing. there are 6000 8000 folks sleeping on the streets. and that is not even accounting

for all of the unhoused people and housing insecure. hohomelessness a affects her mel health, braiain development inn children, their physicical heal. populationhomeless in oakland is under the age of 18. i have a one-year-old and a four-year-old -- she will be five on saturday. they had been so happy to hahava place to call h home. area.idge, the kitchen uphad to do a lot of fixing this house. we a are still wororking on it. this hououse was not kept up to code. my children have been so excited to be sheltered.d. my one-year-old started walking nce we havave been in the houou. he has hadad a baby y doll where can crawl arounund and stand up and start toto take thosese firt

steps. and he did that here. ththis house was o owned by wewedgewood, a c company that ia displalacement machihine. they are composed of five different companies. ththey all play a role in ththe direct displacement of people. we are taking a stand. it does not end with one house. we want to take oakland back. we are not going to stop. amy: wedgewood properties has offered to pay for moving expenses and temporary housing for the women for two months if they vacate the house -- a proposal moms 4 housing has rejected. the battle for the house came to a head last week, when an alameda county judge ruled in favor of wedgewood properties and ordered the the thers to vavacate the house. but moms 4 housing has stayed fight evtition. monday night, hundre o of pele gathered at the ususe afr receiviving a tip that the sheriff'ofofficeas c comg to ict ththfamilies.

>> sp p the ictition we won't ve! >> my name is nicole we just got word thaththe shererif were e their way to evict moms housing. so we sent out a text to over 181800 people. that was maybe 15 minutes ago? as you can see, weavave huredsds of peoeoe showing up to defend the house -- which is reall beaufuful anawesome ing. we are here and we a h holdi fa. >> thank youor your support >> people are out hereththe community has had enough. we have d enough. this shows you we ha h had enououghnd we e e going to fight back. [chanting]

>> the sheris have plans to run in n he tonight, and i didid not happen. they were on the 5:00 news saying thewowould indndoo any nute.. then they had anotrr person here sayg g theyouldld ce in at 7:00, and thedididn't.t. so i think they understand how, like dominick said, w w the wn gedownwn. so we got a report that it ss cnn that the sheriff said there would be nininjury night. [cheers] that is definitelyeaeason r applause at the me time, we n'n' trurustheriff. please go home if you veve a homeme tgo to and get some rest because this is still the beginning of a fight. amy: that was carroll fife, who is joining us live in the studio. brandone produced by

jourdan and marianne mckeith heard.d. joining us now is dominique walker and carroll fife, the director of the oakland office for alliance of californians for community empowerment. you speaking was last apple there are hundreds of people in front of the house. you said you heard on cnn that them -- the sheriff said he's not moving in. explain what is happening now. >> we got word from the daughter that she sought on the news that there would be no injury by the sheriffs last night. they did drive by a couple more times but they did not attempt to enter the home to serve the eveviction notice. so we are going into our second day of eviction defense for moms 4 housing. juan: could you talk a little bit about the scope and scale of

the housing crisis that oakland is facing, but that many cities across the country have similar problems, if not at the level of the situation right now in oakland? crisis inhe housing the foreclosure crisis of 2008, many homeowners their primary residences -- they're only residences. so that allowewed speculators ad the banks that were bailed out by the government at that time to come in and scoop up homes at rock-bottom prices. that is still happening. people are still experiencing the impact of the foreclosure crisis with speculators owning 35% of the housing stock in america. so some state that oakland has the worst speculation crisis in the country and that is observable by how high the rents are. yet the median one-bedroom market rate unit starting at around $2500 a month.

so the housing wage, which is different from the minimum wage or living wage an alameda county were open is located, is $40.88 per hour. oft is out of reach for many oakland's working-class people. dominique walker, explain when you got into the house and what is happening right now, how long you have been there and what this legal process has been, what your plans are. >> yes. we moved in to magnolia street on november 18. we have been there ever since. we count that as a win. we have provided shelter for our children. this came out of absolute desperation, out of going through every program set up to help families in this predicament.t.

nothing helped. we were turned away. -- the funding was cut from programs that were set up to helplp this wasas an acact of despeper. it just gives light t to the bigger issue going on here all over the world. juan: could you talk a little bit about your situation before you decided to occupy this particular property? your housing situation with your family? oaklandi moved back to in april 2019 with my two smalll chchildren from mississippipi. i was working full-time with a part-time job as well and could not afford rent. at first i was dazing -- staying at housing is secure with family but most of my entire community has been displaced. i was born and raised in oakland. most of the folks are out at least 45 minutes to an hour out or displaced under the streets.

hours tryingng for to get into oakland to serve my community. after situations did not work at living on couches and rooms, i was living in hotel rooms and being homeless is very violent. i've seen the development and my children since they h he had shshelter. my s son took his first steps sn magnolia streeeet, said his firt word. turned turned fiveve in house on magnolia street. it is an absolute necessity to have shelter. it is a basic human riright. amy: so the san francisco article says almost 70% of the people living in oakland streets aree african-american. however, african-americans constitute just 28 percenent of oakland's population. i wanted to talk about one of the young people who are in the house. let's turn to destiny johnson, one of the kids living in what everyone is callingow mom's

house. >> so it is the what what. what is going on? what is happening? my mom another moms, all who have youngids,s, a who art expericicing se kikindf homelessness, took over isis abdodoned home, a vacant property, else no one was living in for close to two years. we fixed it up and now we live in it. we made it a home stuck here it is. and here it is! now have a clean and quiet plac wheri i can my homework. thehe mning t t sun comes up. i ke to sion the bk steps and re. and it h this little fright yard. -- and it has this little fright yard with the trees. i worry. i do. i worry a lot.

i worry for my mom because she puts herself out there and i worry for my little sister. she is only five. she is a kid. she doesn't really understand what is going on. and i know she is already falling in love withth having a place to call home. amy: that was destiny johnson in a video produced by dreamworks. juan: i want to ask carroll fife about wedgewood properties. namedblic relations guy sam singer that they have selected basically to be their spokesperson on the issue of what is going on in oakland? >> i will speak about that because i have to. i hate to give credence and time to such awful individuals and such people organizations. -- evil organizations.

wedgewood properties has a proximally 90 subsidiaries. they are the real estate speculator that is holding the deed f for moms house. they are in the business of buying homes at rock-bottom prices and flipping them. that is part of the problem, why housing is so unaffordable in cities like oakland. they buy houses in bulk. so 100 to 200 properties per month, if not more, and they are in distress neighborhoods -- their words. and then they flip them and sell them to the highest bidder. it puts home prices out of reach for many working-class people. so they drive up the cost of rents and of actually purchasing a meme -- which is why hoowownersp leleve are s slow. such thatthey are characte, , theyavee ao hihire ananher bad character to get them o of this situation a makehehem lo likike e victct. and that is sam singer.

he is doing everything ihihis power to villain eyes and criminalize the mothers. we areeeeeing d stereotypes and old troo a aboutlackck women on every single social media site where the ms s are. there are trolls eve day that are ally worng t to ar the thers dn. they hav experieed diffent lels of violence. one mother in particular. it irereallyad t the levels they're going to to cminalize these ms. y: croll, moth jones magazinethey wri -- and en whe rounely theoffer hundreds othousandof dolla oversking pces, tre are nearly fr vacantropertie for ery homess person. it is noso much issue o scarty, but odistribuon. explaithat furer. d then expla what thjudge

rule iwhere yo s this headed n. iean, themages ofast nht ofhe hundrs of pple who called wn some kd of gro text wt out, whin mutes ming to e house - -- ta about at, the vel of vacay. >> thais what cminal out thisousing csis. there arectually aces whe peop can le. t because ty are prate -- they arerivatelywned, it makes diffilt to ev crack into wt the sotion cou be becausthe prive industr doesot have be held accounble. thats what w're sing is crinal. it shoulnot be lal for --e that ns propey particully for cporation and wanto make a distinion. an indidual mommp up owner of properteft it empty beuse theyren vation, th somehowoms 4 housing advocing taki

pele'personalroperty. that iompletel false. what we're sayg is rporatio shod not beble hold vant propeies when there is a houng crisi ther suld not people livingn the stets whethere are pces wherthey canive. anis -- oakland looks like entirely different city than i did years ago, and it is strictly due to corporations that are able to rent gouge when they have homes for rent and charge way over market for homes that areotot worth what they're actuly s selng thehefor. this is starting a movent ere peop who arelso experiencing housingndnd security -- which means theyayay more than 30% of the i incomin rent -- are king up because they havave seen this explee of moms 4 housing define atat the market tres s are. and saying we deserve housing for l, not jt t forhose who can pay e high pce tag. , what is been the

response of the local leadership in oakland? after all, oakland is famous as the birthplace of the black panther party. it was the place where jerry brown was mayor for a while. how have the political leaders responded to this crisis and to the protest in particular of moms 4 housing? >> it has actually been mixed. we have city council members who have actually been at press conferences, standing with the moms. we are very grateful for their support and our leadership in taking of creative ways they can impact the housing crisis. but we also have city councilmembers who have been silent. you mentioned the black panthers. and personally, our african-american leadership has been silent on this issue. -- unfortunately, our african-american leadership has been silent on this issue. press conference that was recently held in oakland

regarding a senate bill that is supposed to develop additional housing, we heard on the podium that day, had not heard before, that several assembly members and several senators also support moms 4 housing. but what we are asking them, including our congress woman, our governor, is to do more than just say that you suppormomoms 4 hohousg. make that tangible. createome kindf -- answer a phoncacall, swerer i email, and really show up so there is a tatangib wayay t show that y are ncerned out the housi csis, notust word amy: domique, cayou talk about what it means to you when you looked outside and you saw ?ow many hundreds of people and what this all means to you and your children? what it has felt like being in this house that was vacant for two years, now for the last two months being there? >> last night was amazing.

isjust showed me that it still oakland. we are still oakland. ristance and of f fight back. and we sawurur comnity hav our fullbacks last night -- full backs last night. within 15 minutes, trere wer ov 300 p pple mobilized. that is pelele power. it is just been amazing to have a shelter for my children and to be this example for them. people always k me, their childrennvnvolve and wantnt mchildrdr to know their motherasas on the rit side of hiory. y: i wanto thank youo much for beg with u veuickly, at is th timene n? cod moms 4ousing be evicted at anyoint? oves forousing cld be evicted any pnt -- mo 4 housg could evicted at y pot. weeed to te spulation t

ofeal esta and we ed to d comofy housi. evyone shong up believes that, too. amy: we just here there was a text that says the sheriff is knocking on the door and sang people have to clear out. is that your understanding as we are speaking? to go.ave folks we have to go. amy: we will continue to cover this. go to democracynow.org from taste throughout the day. i want to thank carroll fife for the oakland office for alliance of californians for community empowerment. and dominique walker, one of the moms in the house with her kids. when we come back, we hear from martin e espada. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: one of thechants from yesterday's protestant oakland. this is democracy now!, i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. juan: last week mark thehe

one-year anniversary of the passing of luis garden acosta, the founder and longtime president of the nationally known youth and community leadership program in brooklyn. long regarded as one of new york city's foremost human rights and latino community activists, garden died last january at the age of 72. a former seminary who have been active in the catholic antiwar movement, garden join the young lords already in 1970 and later founded the group's massachusetts chapter while he was still a student at harvard medical school. not successful nonviolent direct action campaigns against segregated public schools and against environmental racism here in new york city. in his later years together with his wife francis, luis garden acosta created an alternative public high school geared toward human rirights activism. to honor his legacy, we're joined now by the renowned poet martin espada, professor of

english at the university of massachusetts amherst and the author of numemerous books, including a book of poems. you wrote a poem dedicated to luis garden acosta. i was wondering if you could talk about him and sheer your: with -- share your poem with us. >> of course. was anrden acosta organizational genius, a visionary. he was a also a beloved friend d mentor. i wrote this poem based on an encounter i had with luis at the beginning ofel puente. it is called "to die dreaming."

"i saw the empty cross atop the empty church on south 4th ststreet, as if jesus flapped hs arms and flew away, spooked by one ambulance siren too many. i saw the stained glass windows i wanted to break with a brick, the mural of saint mary and the angels hovering innocent as spies over the congregationon, and wanted o know why you brought me here, the son of a man punched in the face by a priest for questioning the trinity, who punched him back. thisis is el puente, you said. the bridge. i knew about the williamsburg bridge, eight lanes of traffic and the subway stampeding in the open windows of the barrio all summer. you spread your arms in that abandoned church and saw the spinning of a carousel better than any wooden horses pumping up and down at coney island:

here the esl classes for the neighbors cursed with swollen tongues in english; there the clinics on contraception, the pestilence in the veins of the unsuspecting; here the karate lessons, feet spearing the air to keep schoolyard demons away; there the dancers in white, swirling their skirts to the drumming of bomba; here the workshops on puerto rican history, la masacre de ponce where your mother's beloved painted his last w words on the street with a fingertip of blood. i was a law student, first year, memorizing law school latin, listening to classical guitar on my boom box as i studieded the rules of property: it's mine. it's not yours. i saw only what could be proven by a preponderanance of the evidence: the church abandoned by the church, the cross atop

the church abandoned by the son of god. my belly empty as saint mary of the angels, i told you i was hungry, and we left. i wanted chinese food, but you told me about the chinese take-out down the block where you stood behind a man who shrieked about the price of wonton soup, left and returned with a can of gasoline, splashed it on the floor and pulled a box of kitchen matches from his pocket. will you wait till i pick up my egg roll and pork frieied rice? you said, with a high school teacher's exasperated authority, so he did. you could talk an arsonist into postponing his inferno till you left with lunch, but you couldn't raise the dead in the er at greenpoint hospital, even in your suit and tie. you couldn't convince the girl called sugar to rise from the gurney after the gunshot drained

the blood from her body. you couldn't persuade the doctor who peeled his gloves and shook his head to bring her back to life, telling him do it again, an arsonist in medical scrubs trying to strike a wet match. you couldn't jumpstart the calliope in her heart so the carousel of horses would rise and fall and rise again. whwhenever you saw the gutted church, you would see the sheets of the gurney dipped in red, all the gurneys rolling into the er with a sacrifice of adolescents. we walked to the luncheonette on havemeyer street. a red awning announced morir soñando. to die dreaming, you said, from the dr, my mother's island. the boy at the counter who spoke no english, brown as my father, called martin like me, grinned the way you grinned at el

puente, once saint mary of the angels. he squeezed the oranges into a drizzle of juice w with evaporad milk, cane sugar and ice, shook the elixir and poured it till the froth spilled over the lip of the glass. foam freckled my snout as i raised my hand for another. intoxicated by morir soñando number three and the prophet gently rocking at my table, i had a vision: esl classes healing the jaws wired shut by english, clinics full of adolescents studying the secrets of the body unspeakable in the kitchen or the confessional, karate students landing bare feet on the mat with a thump and grunt in unison, bomba dancers twirling to a song in praise of yoruba gods abolished by the prieststs, the words of puerto rican rebels painted on the walls by brushes

dipped in every color, pressed in the pages of notetebooks by a generation condemned to amnesia. morir soñando:o: luis, i know yu died dreaming of south 4th street, the banners that said no to the toxic waste plant down the block or the navy bombarding an island of fishermen for target practice thousands of miles away. morir soñando: i know you died dreaming of vejigantes, carnival mascaras bristling with hornss that dangled with the angels at el puente. morir soñando: i know you died dreaming of the next el puente. morir soñando: i know you died dreaming of the hammer's claw, the drill whining to the screw, the dust like snow in a globe, then the shy genius raising her hand in the e back of the room.

morir soñando: i know you died dreaming of the poets who stank of weed in the parking lot, then stood before the mike you electrified for them and rubbed their eyes when the faces in their poems crowded there, waiting for the first word, so we could all die dreaming, morir soñando, intoxicated by the elixir of the tongue, oh rocking prophet at my table. award-winning poet and professor of english at the university massachusetts amherst martin espada. lul us how you came to know is garden. he was not only your friend, but your father. amy: and ,juan a dear friend of yours as well,. >> my father was not only

--umenting photographer documentary photographer, was a he workedactivist, for the administration for a while. luis was a political protege of my father. we lived in the linden projects in these new york and i woke up one morning and i must have been seven or eight years old so this was in 1965. i found luuis sprawled on the couch asleep. i woke him up and to keep me quiet so i did not wake up the rest of the household, he had me bring him a book. it was mcbeth. apparently, he played mcbeth at school. he opened it up and read these passages and i was enthralled. he then asked me to memorize the a passage that he read. then he was astonished when a few weeks later he came back and it turned out i had indeed memorized it. he was a personal inspiration

for me over the years when i was 20 years old, he handed me an anthology called "latin american revolutionary poetry." a poet. you will be and here i am. be: martin, we want you to able to read one more poem. introduce "floaters" to us and they just take it away. most of your viewers and listeners will be familiar with the photograph that went viral of oscar to salvadoran migrants, father and daughter who drowned in the rio grande. familiar with the facebook group where there some

truthism one on regarding that photograph. i wrote a poem and response. it is called "floaters." that is the term the border patrol uses for those crossing over. i'm going to go ahahead and ask. have youou ever seen floaters ts clean? butnot trying to be an ass, i've never seen floaters like this. this be another edited photo. we've all seen the dems and liberal parties do some pretty posts.ings, anonymous like a beer bottle thrown into the river by a boy too drunk to cry, like the shard of a styrofoam cup drained of coffee brown as the river, like the

plague of a fishing boat broken in half by the river, the dead float and the dead have a name. floaters, sediment of the border patrol, keeping watch all night of the riviver, hearts pumping coffee as they say the word floater soft as a bubble card as issue as it nudges the body to see if it breathes, to see if it moans, to see if it sits up and speaks. and the dead have names, a feast day parade of names, names that dress all in red, names that twirl skirts, names that blow whistltles, names that shake rattles, names that sing in praise of the saints: say oscar alberto martinez ramirez. say angie valeria martinez avalos. see how they rise off the tongue, the calling of bird to bird somewhere in the trees above our heads, trilling in the dark heart of the leaves. say what we know of them now

they are dead: oscar slapped dough for pizza with oven-blistered fingers. daughter valeria sang, banging a toy guitar. he slipped free of the apron he wore in the blast of the oven, sold the motorcycle he would kick till it sputtered to life, counted off pesos for the journey across the river, and the last of his 25 years, and the last of her 23 months. there is another name that beats its wings in the heart of the trees: say tania vanessa avalos, oscar's wife and valeria's mother, the witness stumbling along the river. now their names rise off her tongue: say oscar y valeria. he swam from matamoros across to brownsville, the girl slung around his neck, stood her in the weeds on the texas side of the river, swore to return with her mother in hand, turning his back as fathers do who later say: i turned around and she was

gone. in the time it takes for a bird to hop from branch to branch, valeria jumped in the river after her father. maybe he called out her name as he swept her up from the river; maybe the river drowned out his voice as the water swewe them away. tania called out the names of the saints, but the saints drowsed in the stupor of birds in the dark, their cages covered with blankets. the men on patrol would never hear their pleas for asylum, watching for floaters, hearts pumping coffee all night on the texaxas side of the river. no one, they say, had ever seen floaters so clean: oscar's black shirt yanked up to the armpits, valeria's arm slung around her father's neck even after the light left her eyeses, both face down in te weweeds, back on the mexican siside of te river. another edited photo: see how

her head disappears in his shirt, the waterlogged diaper bunched in her pants, the blue of the blue cans. the radio warned us about the crisis actors we see at one school shooting after another; the man called oscar will breathe, sit up, speak, tug the black shirt over his head, shower off the mud and shake hands with the photographer. yet, the floaters did not float down the rio grande like olympians showing off the backstroke, nor did their souls float up to dallas, land of rumored jobs and a president shot in the head as he waved from his motorcade. no bubbles rose from their breath in the mud, light as the iridescent circles of soap that would fascinate a two-year-old. and the dead still have names, names that sing in praise of the saints, names that flower in blossoms of white, a cortege of names dressed

all in black, trailing the coffins to the cemetery. carve their names in headlines and gravestones they would never know in the kitchens of this cacophonous world. enter their names in the book of names. say oscar alberto martinez ramirez; say angie valeria martinez avalos. bury them in a corner of the cemetery named for the sainted archbishop of the poor, shot in the heart saying mass, bullets bought by the taxes i paid when i worked as a bouncer and fractured my hand 40 years ago, and bumper stickers read: el salvador is spanish for vietnam. when the last bubble of breath escapes the body, may the men who speak of floaters, who have never seen floaters this clean, float through the clouds to the heavens, where they paddle the air as they wait for the saint who flips through the keys on his

ring like a drowsy janitor, till he fingers the key that turns the lock and shuts the gate on their babble-tongued faces, and they plunge back to earth,

thank you for joining us on nhk "newsline." i'm kyoko tash irro in tokyo. three european nations have decided to trigger a dispute resolution mechanism over iran's violations to the 2015 pact aimed at curbing its nuclear program. the foreign ministers of britain, france, and germany issued a joint statement on tuesday. in it they say they have been left with no choice but to start the mechanism stipulated in the