The Origins of Easter // USA

The Origins of Easter

The name Easter comes from Eastre, an ancient Anglo-Saxon goddess, originally of the dawn. In pagan times an annual spring festival was held in her honor. Some Easter customs have come from this and other pre-Christian spring festivals. Others come from the Passover feast of the Jews, observed in memory of their deliverance from Egypt. The resurrection of Jesus took place during the Passover. In the early days of Christianity Easter and the Passover were closely associated.

Prior to A.D. 325, Easter was celebrated on different days of the week, including Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. In that year, the Council of Nicaea was convened by emperor Constantine. They issued the Easter Rule which places Easter on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (first day of Spring). Therefore, Easter must be celebrated on a Sunday between the dates of March 22 and April 25.

Lent

Preceding Easter Sunday is the 40-day penitential season of Lent, beginning on Ash Wednesday and concluding at midnight on Holy Saturday. Lent is a season of prayer, abstinence, and fasting. This is observed in memory of the 40 days' fast of Christ in the desert. Lent is observed for six weeks and four days by the Western Christian churches that include Saturday and Sunday into the total. In Eastern Orthodox churches Lent is 50 days since they do not count Saturdays or Sundays.

Shrove Tuesday, the day before the beginning of Lent, was designed as a way to "get it all out" before the sacrifices of Lent began. Known the world over as Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) or Carnival. It is celebrated in many cities, the most famous American city being New Orleans, LA.

Ash Wednesday, the first day of Lent, gets its name from the practice, mainly in 
the Roman Catholic church, of putting ashes on the foreheads of the faithful to 
remind them that man is but dust.

Holy Week

• Palm Sunday: This is held on the Sunday before Easter Sunday. It recalls Jesus' triumphant entry into Jerusalem one week before his execution.
•  Holy Monday: commemorates Jesus' cleansing of the temple, when he assaulted money changers and overturned their tables. Some believe that this triggered his arrest and crucifixion.
• Holy Tuesday: recalls Jesus' description to his disciples on the Mount of Olives of the destruction of Jerusalem.
• Holy Wednesday: (once called Spy Wednesday) recalls Judas' decision to betray Jesus in exchange for 30 pieces of silver.
• Maundy Thursday: commemorates the Last Supper, Jesus' agony in the garden and his arrest.
• Good Friday: recalls Jesus' death on the cross. The origin of the word "good" has been lost. Some claim that it is a corruption of "God" and that the early Christians called this day "God's Friday." Others claim that "good" refers to the blessings of humanity that Christians believe arose as a result of Jesus' execution.
• Holy Saturday: (a.k.a. Easter Eve) is the final day of Holy Week and of Lent.
• Easter Sunday: commemorates Jesus' resurrection. In the early church, converts were baptized into church membership on this day after a lengthy period of instruction. This tradition continues today in some churches.

Symbols

Many Easter symbols and customs come from the Old World.

The Cross
 
The Cross is the symbol of the Crucifixion, as opposed to the Resurrection. However, at the Council of Nicaea, in A.D. 325, Constantine decreed that the Cross was the official symbol of Christianity. The Cross is not only a symbol of Easter, but it is more widely used, especially by the Catholic Church, as a year-round symbol of their faith.

Easter Lilly
 
The white lily symbolizes the Resurrection. Yet, lillies have long been revered by pagans of various lands as a holy symbol associated with reproduction. It was considered a phallic symbol!

The Easter Bunny
 
The Easter Bunny also originated with the pagan festival of Eastre. The goddess, Eastre, was worshipped by the Anglo-Saxons through her earthly symbol, the rabbit.

The Germans brought the symbol of the Easter rabbit to America. It was widely ignored by other Christians until shortly after the Civil War. Easter itself was not widely celebrated in America until after that time.

The Easter Egg
 
The exchange of eggs in the springtime is a custom that was centuries old when Easter was first celebrated by Christians. The egg was a symbol of rebirth in most cultures. Eggs were often wrapped in gold leaf or, if you were a peasant, colored brightly by boiling them with the leaves or petals of certain flowers.

Today, children hunt colored eggs and place them in Easter baskets along with the modern version of real Easter eggs -- plastic eggs filled with chocolate candy.

Happy Easter!

Source:

http://www.care2.com/gates/holidays/easter/easter.html

YOANI SÁNCHEZ-Generación Y // English, Spanish and German

Generación Y es un Blog inspirado en gente como yo, con nombres que comienzan o contienen una "i griega". Nacidos en la Cuba de los años 70s y los 80s, marcados por las escuelas al campo, los muñequitos rusos, las salidas ilegales y la frustración. Así que invito especialmente a Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky y otros que arrastran sus "i griegas" a que me lean y me escriban.

Generation Y is a Blog inspired by people like me, with names that start with or contain a "Y". Born in Cuba in the '70s and '80s, marked by schools in the countryside, Russian cartoons, illegal emigration and frustration. So I invite, especially, Yanisleidi, Yoandri, Yusimí, Yuniesky and others who carry their "Y's" to read me and to write to me.

Generación Y ist der weltbekannte Blog der Kubanerin Yoani Sánchez, die in Havanna trotz dauernder Überwachung mutig die Mauern der Zensur überwindet. Es gelingt ihr meisterhaft, anhand alltäglicher Situationen das Machtsystem in Kuba zu entlarven. Yoani Sánchez wurde in den letzten Jahren oft für ihren aufklärerischen Journalismus ausgezeichnet. Das Time Magazine wählte die kubanische Dissidentin unter die hundert einflussreichsten Persönlichkeiten des Jahres 2008. Das International Press Institute ernannte sie im Jahre 2010 zur „Heldin der freien Meinungsäußerung“. 2011 erhielt sie den Prinz-Claus-Preis. „Natürlich habe ich Angst in Kuba", sagt sie, „aber ich habe nichts zu verbergen, ich habe keine Waffen, meine Waffe ist die freie Meinungsäußerung." 

Mi perfil

Yoani Sánchez
La Habana, 1975

Estudié durante dos cursos en el Instituto Pedagógico la especialidad de Español-Literatura. En el año 1995, me trasladé a la Facultad de Artes y Letras donde terminé, después de cinco años, la especialidad de Filología Hispánica. Me especialicé en la literatura latinoamericana contemporánea y discutí una incendiaria tesis titulada “Palabras bajo presión. Un estudio sobre la literatura de la dictadura en Latinoamérica”. Al terminar la Universidad había comprendido dos cosas: la primera, que el mundo de la intelectualidad y la alta cultura me repugnaba y la más dolorosa, que ya no quería ser filóloga.

En septiembre del 2000, me fui trabajar a una oscura oficina de la Editorial Gente Nueva, mientras arribaba al convencimiento –compartido por la mayoría de los cubanos- de que con el salario ganado legalmente no podría mantener a mi familia. De manera que, sin concluir mi servicio social, pedí la baja y me dediqué a la mejor remunerada labor de profesora de español –freelance– para algunos turistas alemanes que visitaban La Habana. Era la etapa (prolongada hasta el día de hoy) en que los ingenieros preferían manejar un taxi, los maestros hacían hasta lo imposible por trabajar en la carpeta de un hotel y en los mostradores de las tiendas te podía atender una neurocirujana o un físico nuclear. En el 2002, el desencanto y la asfixia económica me llevaron a la emigración en Suiza, de donde regresé –por motivos familiares y contra la opinión de conocidos y amigos– en el verano del 2004.

En esos años descubrí la profesión que me acompaña hasta hoy: la informática. Me di cuenta que el código binario era más transparente que la rebuscada intelectualidad y que si nunca se me había dado bien el latín al menos podría probar con las largas cadenas del lenguaje html. En el 2004 fundé junto a un grupo de cubanos –todos radicados en la Isla– la revista de reflexión y debate Consenso. Tres años después trabajo como webmaster, articulista y editora del Portal desde Cuba.

En abril de 2007 me enredé en la aventura de tener un Blog llamado Generación Y que he definido como “un ejercicio de cobardía” que me permite decir en este espacio lo que me está vedado en mi accionar cívico.

Para sorpresa mía, esta terapia personal ganó, en poco tiempo, la atención de miles de personas en todo el mundo. Gracias a la red ciudadana y virtual que se ha tejido alrededor de GY, he podido seguir actualizando este blog cada semana. Desde marzo de 2008 el gobierno cubano implementó un filtró informático que impide ver mi bitácora en los sitios públicos de Internet en Cuba. De manera que necesito de la solidaridad de amigos fuera de la Isla para colgar mis textos en la red. Gracias también a otros colaboradores voluntarios, Generación Y está traducido a quince lenguas.

Mi exorcismo personal también me hizo ganar en mayo de 2008 el premio de Periodismo Ortega y Gasset en la categoría de trabajo digital. Fui seleccionada por la revista Time entre las 100 personas más influyentes del mundo en la categoría “Héroes y pioneros” y mi bitácora fue incluida entre las 25 mejores blogs del mundo, en una selección hecha por esa misma revista junto a la CNN. Merecí el premio del jurado en el concurso español Bitácoras.com y el máximo  galardón en los connotados premios  The BOBs, que incluyen a más de 12 mil participantes de todo el mundo. La revista semanal del periódico El País publicó en su edición del 30 de noviembre una selección de los 100 hispanoamericanos más notables del año; la revista Foreign Policy eligió en diciembre los 10 intelectuales más importantes del año y otro tanto hizo la prestigiosa revista mexicana Gato Pardo. Esta modesta servidora está incluida en todas esas enumeraciones. ¡Mucho más de lo que podría haber soñado cuando comencé a unir frases para subir mi primer post!

Vivo en La Habana, he apostado por quedarme y cada día soy más informática y menos filóloga.

My Profile

Yoani Sánchez, born in Havana, 1975.

I studied for two terms at the Pedagogical Institute, majoring in Spanish Literature.  In 1995, I moved to the Faculty of Arts of Letters, and after five years finished a degree in Hispanic Philology.  I majored in contemporary Latin American Literature, presenting an incendiary thesis entitled, “Words Under Pressure: A Study of the Literature of the Dictatorship in Latin America.”  On finishing at the University I realized two things: first, that the world of the intellectual and high culture is repugnant to me and, most painfully, that I no longer wanted to be a philologist.

In September 2000, I went to work in a dark office at Gente Nueva publisher, meanwhile arriving at the conviction—shared by most Cubans—that with the wages I earned legally I could not support my family.  So, without concluding my social service, I asked to be let go and dedicated myself to the better-paid labor of freelance Spanish teacher for German tourists visiting Havana.  It was a time (which continues today) when engineers preferred to drive a taxi, teachers would do almost anything to get a job at the desk of a hotel, and at store counters you could find a neurosurgeon or nuclear physicist.  In 2002, disenchantment and economic suffocation led me to emigrate to Switzerland, from where I returned—for family reasons and against the advice of friends and acquaintances—in the summer of 2004.

In those years I discovered the profession I continue to practice today: computer science.  I discovered that binary code is more transparent than affected intellectualism, and that if I’d never really come to terms with Latin, at least I could work with the long chains of HTML language.  In 2004 I founded, with a group of Cubans all based on the Island, Consenso, a magazine of reflection and debate.  Three years later I work as a web master, columnist, and editor of the site Desde Cuba[From Cuba].

In April 2007, I entangled myself in the adventure of having a blog called Generation Y that I have defined as “an exercise in cowardice” which lets me say, in this space, what is forbidden to me in my civic action.

To my surprise, this personal therapy earned me, in a short time, the attention of thousands of people around the world.  Thanks to the virtual citizens’ network that has woven itself around GY, I have been able to update this blog every week.  Since March 2008, the Cuban government has enforced a computer filter that prevents seeing my blog from public Internet sites in Cuba.  So I need the solidarity of friends off the Island to post my texts on the web.  Thanks also to other volunteer collaborators, Generation Y is translated into fifteen languages.

In May 2008, my personal exorcism also won me the Ortega y Gasset Journalism Award in the digital category.  I was chosen by Time Magazine as one of the 100 Most Influential People in the World in the “Heroes and Pioneers” category, and my blog was included on the list of the 25 Best Blogs in the World issued by Time Magazine/CNN.  I won the Jury Prize on the Spanish blog contest, Bitacoras.com, and top honors in the well known blog contest, The BOBs Awards, with more than 12,000 participants from around the world.  The weekly magazine of the Spanish newspaper El Pais named the 100 Most Notable Hispanic Americans of 2008 in November of that year; Foreign Policy listed its 10 Most Influential IberoAmerican Intellectuals of 2008 in December; as did the Mexican magazine Gate Pardo. Your humble servant is included in each of these lists.  Much more than I could have dreamed of, when I started to combine sentences to upload my first post!

I live in Havana, I opted to stay and every day I am more computer scientist and less philologist.

Mein Profil

Yoani Sánchez, geb. 1975 in Havanna

Ich studierte zwei Jahre lang am pädagogischen Institut spanische Literatur. Im Jahr 1995 wechselte ich – im August desselben Jahres war gerade mein Sohn geboren worden – an die Fakultät für Geisteswissenschaften, wo ich nach fünf Semestern das Studium der Spanischen Philologie abschloss. Ich spezialisierte mich auf zeitgenössische lateinamerikanische Literatur und diskutierte in einer aufwiegelnden Abschlussarbeit mit dem Titel „Worte unter Druck. Eine Studie über die Literatur der Diktatur in Lateinamerika“. Bei Abschluss des Studiums hatte ich zwei Dinge verstanden: Erstens, dass die Welt der Intellektuellen und der Hochkultur mich anwiderte und, viel schmerzvoller, dass ich nicht mehr Philologin sein wollte.

Im September des Jahres 2000 begann ich in einem düsteren Büro des Verlages Gente Nueva zu arbeiten. Währenddessen kam ich zu der Überzeugung (die ich mit der Mehrheit aller Kubaner teile), dass ich mit meinem legal erworbenen Lohn meine Familie nicht würde ernähren können. Also habe ich, ohne den Sozialdienst zu Ende zu bringen, um meine Entlassung gebeten und mich der bestbezahltesten Arbeit gewidmet: Als freiberufliche Spanischlehrerin für deutsche Touristen, die Havanna besuchten. Das war die Zeit (die bis zum heutigen Tage andauert), in der Ingenieure es vorzogen, Taxifahrer zu sein, in der Lehrer selbst die unmöglichsten Versuche unternahmen, um an der Rezeption eines Hotels zu arbeiten, und in der sich, hinter den Ladentischen in den Geschäften, eine Neurochirurgin oder ein Atomphysiker um dich kümmerte. Im Jahr 2002 führten mich die Desillusionierung und die wirtschaftliche Notlage ins Schweizer Exil, aus dem ich – aus familiären Gründen und gegen den Rat von Freunden und Bekannten – im Sommer 2004 wieder zurückkehrte.

Während dieser Jahre entdeckte ich das Berufsfeld, das mich bis heute begleitet: die Informatik. Mir wurde klar, dass der binäre Code eindeutiger ist als das Stochern nach Intellektualität und dass ich, da ich mit Latein sowieso nie gut zurechtgekommen war, es wenigstens ein Mal mit den langen Zeilen der HTML-Sprache probieren könnte. Im Jahr 2004 gründete ich zusammen mit einer Gruppe von auf der Insel ansässigen Kubanern und Kubanerinnen die Zeitschrift für Betrachtungen und Debatten „Consenso“. Drei Jahre später arbeite ich weiterhin als Webmasterin, Autorin von Beiträgen und Herausgeberin des Portals Desde Cuba.

Im April 2007 ließ ich mich auf das Abenteuer ein, einen Blog namens „Generación Y“ ins Leben zu rufen, den ich als „Aufgabe der Feigheit“ bezeichnet habe: Erlaubt mir dieser Ort doch auszusprechen, was mir als Staatsbürgerin verboten ist. Ich lebe in Havanna, zusammen mit dem Journalisten Reinaldo Escobar – mit dem ich seit fünfzehn Jahren mein Leben teile. Ich habe mir für das Bleiben entschieden und mit jedem Tag werde ich mehr Informatikerin und weniger Philologin.

Sources to go to this blog:

English:  http://desdecuba.com/generationy/

 http://www.desdecuba.com/generationy/?page_id=108

Spanish:  http://desdecuba.com/generaciony/

German:  http://desdecuba.com/generationy_de/

Altered States : The New Yorker

 

SLIDE SHOW: Altered States: Michael Crawford Deconstructs the U.S. Map: http://tny.com/9tDrek

Online version of the weekly magazine, with current articles, cartoons, blogs, audio, video, slide shows, an archive of articles and abstracts back to 1925

Link

Thanksgiving

REVIEW
Category:	Other

DID YOU KNOW?

„Don't cry fowl, but the first Thanksgiving was not celebrated by the Pilgrims. In fact, Thanksgiving Day has been celebrated in one way or another throughout history by cultures around the world. Today, Americans of all religions and ethnicities take the fourth Thursday of November to appreciate all that we have to be thankful for.

Animist tribes believed that plants and animals had spirits which were angered by the 
harvest. To appease these spirits, tribes would make offerings which often included elaborate festivals. These ceremonies provided the foundation for today's Thanksgiving Day holiday."

Today I received this information... I didn't know about this issue. This year Thanksgiving will be celebrated November 26! The mail came from Care2....
This is what I knew before about Thanksgiving:

"Thanksgiving, or Thanksgiving Day is an annual one-day holiday to give thanks at the close of the harvest season. In the United States, Thanksgiving is celebrated on the fourth Thursday of November. Thanksgiving is traditionally celebrated with family, enjoying a meal often featuring turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, and pumpkin pie. Thanksgiving is also a time to be thankful, remember and cherish all the things you have been blessed with..."


Source:
http://www.care2.com

The Card I loaded here is also form Care2 © Denton

To find some more you can go to: http://www.care2.com/send/catthanks1.html

or to this one http://www.care2.com/send/categories/artists/1230


They are always amazing ;-)

BLANK CUBAN TICKER SENDS SIGNAL

REVIEW
Category:	Other

By Marc Frank in Havana           
Published: July 27 2009 01:01 | Last updated: July 27 2009 01:01


The US has turned off a Times Square-style news ticker – a source of irritation for the Castro government – at its diplomatic mission in Havana that since 2006 streamed propaganda and news into the night, western diplomatic sources said.

The measure is the latest in a series of initiatives by the Obama administration as it seeks to engage Cuba and to end 50 years of enmity viewed in Latin America and the Caribbean as a relic of the cold war.

“It is a beginning – and it is encouraging. It has to do with the atmosphere. It suggests that we are moving toward a more normal diplomatic relationship,” said Wayne Smith, who opened the US mission’s Interests Section under President Jimmy Carter.


The crimson ticker – five feet high and running through 25 windows of the Swiss embassy building that hosts the US mission on Havana’s sea-side drive – began to stream messages on January 16 three and a half years ago, to mark Martin Luther King Jr’s birthday at the height of tension with the Bush administration.

“I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up,” was the ticker’s first message.

Then president Fidel Castro dug up the mission’s parking lot a few feet from the front door in response, to replace it with 138 flag polls reaching 100ft in the air to conceal the ticker. Mr Castro also marched a million people by in protest and erected billboards around the building depicting the Bush administration as linked to anti-Castro terrorists. All contact between Havana-based US diplomats and the Cuban Foreign Ministry was declared at an end until the ticker ticked no more.

It is believed the ticker was turned off late last month.

“That they turned off the ticker is important – and that nobody has noticed is significant, too,” a western diplomat said.

“The Cubans could have howled victory – but [they] said nothing, indicating they are serious about improving relations.”

The diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some local contact may have resumed already. Easing of travel restrictions for US and Cuban diplomats in each other’s capitals was expected soon. US diplomats stationed in Havana and Cubans in Washington are currently restricted to a 25-mile radius from the Interests Sections.

It appears the standoff about the US mission – an attraction for tourists and a symbol of relations with the Bush administration – is winding down. The Cuban government took the billboards down soon after Barack Obama took office. There have been no marches past the building since Raul Castro took over from his ailing brother Fidel in February last year.

The US broke off relations with Cuba in 1961 and declared a trade embargo in 1962. Interests Sections were established in Washington and Havana in 1977. The US is the only country in the western hemisphere that does not have normal relations with Cuba.

The Obama administration has lifted restrictions on Cuban American travel to the Communist-run Caribbean island and the sending of remittances. Immigration talks, called off by the Bush administration, resumed this month. Cuba has expressed interest in broadening discussions to include drug trafficking, human smuggling and disaster preparedness.

“We’re . . . seeing if, as we change some of the old approaches . . . we [see] movement on the Cuban government side,’’ Mr Obama told reporters.

Mr Smith was in Havana last week to lead a delegation on disaster co-operation, particularly after hurricanes. Among its members were Retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore, former commander of the Joint Task Force Katrina, and Stewart Simonson, former assistant secretary for emergency preparedness of the Department of Health and Human Services from 2004 to 2006.

General Honore, who advocates normal relations, said the delegation was well-received: “Everyone should stop looking in the rear view mirror. A failed state so near to home is not in our interest.”

He said turning off the ticker was a good thing and it would be better if the two countries looked forward by working on a host of security related issues from immigration to drug trafficking and coping with the hurricanes that regularly pass over Cuba on their way to the United States.

“Peace and prosperity are in the interest of both countries as we are neighbours and there are now many Cubans in the United States,” he said.





Source: 
© The Financial Times Limited 2009
Photo: I found it online sometime ago... probably a work from Andy Warhol.



See this one too. That one is a very important first step:
USA AGREES TO END CUBA'S O.A.S. EXILE
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1e764c8e-508d-11de-9530-00144feabdc0.html

Waterboard: Bush for charity. Rhode Island legislator proposition // Abbgeordneter ( Rod Driver) schlägt George W. Bush, Dick Cheney und Condoleezza Rice Waterboarding für guten Zweck vor.

Review
Category:	Other

vor 7 Std. 34 Min. 
AP
Westerly/USA (AP)

Ein demokratischer Abgeordneter im US-Staat Rhode Island will den früheren US-Präsidenten George W. Bush das sogenannte Waterboarding am eigenen Leib spüren lassen: Er werde einer Wohltätigkeitsorganisation 100 Dollar (73 Euro) für jede Sekunde spenden, die Bush dem Waterboarding standhalte, sagte der Abgeordnete Rod Driver laut einem Bericht der Zeitung «The Westerly Sun» vom Donnerstag. Bei dieser inzwischen untersagten Verhörpraxis haben die Betroffenen das Gefühl, kurz vor dem Ertrinken zu stehen, was von Kritikern als Folter eingestuft wird.


Seinen Vorschlag unterbreitete Driver in Briefen an Bush, Exvizepräsident Dick Cheney und die frühere Außenministerin Condoleezza Rice. Die damalige Regierung hatte das Waterboarding für Verhöre von Terrorverdächtigen zugelassen. Driver erklärte, wenn Bush der Ansicht sei, dass es sich dabei nicht um Folter handele, könne er es selbst ausprobieren. Rice wies den Vorschlag bereits zurück.

Cheney hatte erst am Donnerstag die von Bushs Nachfolger Barack Obama untersagten Verhörmethoden noch einmal nachdrücklich verteidigt und erklärt, sie hätten zu wichtigen Erkenntnissen geführt und «den gewaltsamen Tod Tausender, wenn nicht Hunderttausender unschuldiger Menschen verhindert».

© 2009 The Associated Press.

___________________________________________________________________________
 ENGLISH


Associated Press • May 21, 2009

WESTERLY, R.I. — A Rhode Island Democratic lawmaker says he’ll donate $100 to charity for every second former President George W. Bush withstands waterboarding.
Advertisement

State Rep. Rod Driver sent letters making the offer to Bush as well as to former Vice President Dick Cheney and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Bush’s administration allowed the interrogation technique, which simulates drowning, to be used on terrorism suspects. Driver says if Bush is confident it isn’t torture, he should try it himself. His offer was reported today in the Westerly Sun.

A representative for Rice said she wouldn’t participate. Bush’s and Cheney’s offices didn’t return calls seeking comment.

Cheney has defended waterboarding and other interrogation methods used against suspected terrorists, saying they yielded specific information critical to combating would-be attackers.

__________________________________________________________________________

Source: http://de.news.yahoo.com/1/20090522/tpl-abgeordneter-schlgt-bush-waterboardi-cfb2994.html

U.S.A.: Welcome to " JUSTICE FOR US".

JUSTICE FOR US. ORG is a non profit organization to reform the criminal justice system in USA.

OUR GOALS: To reform the criminal justice system in America. Establish fair, equal and just sentencing. Redefine the rules of punishment. Make justice equal for the indigent as well as the wealthy. Protect the civil and Constitutional rights of the accused as well as the convicted. Hold law enforcement and the judicial system accountable for their actions. Establish training and rehabilitation programs within the jail and prisons. Assist felons and ex-felons in obtaining work and housing. Assist the accused and convicted and their families through the judicial process. Establish an amnesty program for ex-felons.

The text was taken from here where you can find them as well:
http://www.justiceforus.org/welcome.html