Continuing the Quest

700 Billion Dollars

2008-09-28T22:24:00.002-04:00

"...for 700 billion dollars, we are rewarding companies that were mismanaged. Which means, I presume, that a very small number of already-absurdly-wealthy old white guys will be made even wealthier. And I will still be left trying to make ends meet every month."

Another video

2008-09-10T08:17:00.004-04:00

You may wonder why I've posted so much anti-McCain stuff lately ... because it scares me that this man thinks he could run the United States. I don't think he has what it takes, shown recently by his choice of running mate. Here's what another POW says about McCain:

Lost in space

2008-09-08T10:13:00.001-04:00

McCain's confusion

2008-08-23T04:38:00.002-04:00

Come on, people, don't blame this poor fella! Okay, so maybe John McCain doesn't know how many houses he owns ... well, maybe he has memorized the answer by now, with the help of his staff ... but he can't help it. Have you never noticed that he is often confused?

Click to watch this Dazed and Confused video of McCain.

Ethics ~ reconsidered

2008-06-04T04:41:00.003-04:00

"It is important to remember that Roe v. Wade did not mean that abortions could be performed. They have always been done, dating from ancient Greek days. What Roe said was that ending a pregnancy could be carried out by medical personnel, in a medically accepted setting, thus conferring on women, finally, the full rights of first-class citizens — and freeing their doctors to treat them as such." -- Waldo L. Fielding, Repairing the Damage, Before Roe (NYT on June 3, 2008)

Waldo L. Fielding was an obstetrician and gynecologist in Boston for 38 years. He is the author of “Pregnancy: The Best State of the Union” (Thomas Y. Crowell, 1971).

To the presidential candidates

2008-06-01T00:55:00.002-04:00

"I'm not scared of terrorists -- I'm scared of my own country. I see a government who cares more for large corporations than it does for individuals, and who would rather spend thousands of dollars investigating steroid use in baseball than think up a way to give all Americans basic health coverage."

~ from A Mommy Story

A question of ethics

2008-05-31T10:38:00.001-04:00

Where do you stand on this issue?

Report: Japanese mob boss gave $100,000 to UCLA
Sat May 31, 5:14 AM EDT

A Japanese gang boss and another alleged gangster who had liver transplants at UCLA Medical Center each donated $100,000 to the hospital soon after their surgeries, according to a published report.

The donations came from two of four Japanese gang figures who received liver transplants at a time when several hundred Los Angeles-area patients died while awaiting transplants, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The newspaper published a story Thursday about the liver transplants and posted a separate story on its Web site late Friday discussing the donations.

According to the Times, a donation of $100,000 came from Tadamasa Goto, 65, who leads a gang called the Goto-gumi.

A plaque on an entryway to a surgery office in the hospital reads, "In grateful recognition of the Goto Research Fund established through the generosity of Mr. Tadamasa Goto," the Times reported.

UCLA confirmed the amount of the donation and also acknowledged it received a separate $100,000 donation from another man who the Times said had suspected gang affiliations. He donated in 2002, the year of his transplant. The Times did not name that man because it was unable to reach him or his attorney.

The Times' original story cited several people familiar with the matter who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Goto had been barred from entering the United States because of his criminal history but with help from the FBI, he obtained a visa in 2001 in exchange for leads on potentially illegal activity in this country by Japanese criminal gangs, Jim Stern, retired chief of the FBI's Asian criminal enterprise unit in Washington, told the Times. The FBI did not help Goto arrange his surgery with UCLA.

The surgeries were performed between 2000 and 2004, and in each of those years more than 100 patients died awaiting liver transplants in the greater Los Angeles region, according to the Times.

In the year of Goto's transplant, 186 patients who needed new livers died while waiting for the operation in the greater Los Angeles region, according to the Times.

UCLA spokeswoman Dale Tate said the university had "no reason to question" the source of the donations. Both sums went to the surgery department's discretionary fund and were used to support research and education for the liver transplant program.

When asked if the donations influenced the men's transplants, Tate said: "Absolutely not."

The surgeries were performed by world-renowned liver surgeon Dr. Ronald W. Busuttil, executive chairman of UCLA's surgery department, according to the Times.

There is no indication UCLA or Busuttil knew any of the patients had ties to Japanese gangs, known as yakuza, the Times reported. The hospital and Busuttil said in statements they don't make moral judgments about patients, but treat them according to medical need.

U.S. transplant rules do not prohibit hospitals from performing transplants on foreign patients or those with criminal histories.

Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.

Cousins?

2008-05-30T16:15:00.001-04:00

In the name of war ~ a casual casuality

2008-05-18T01:25:00.004-04:00

Go read Rebecca's powerful piece of writing about this photo, then think about the words of Pete Seeger's song:

WHERE HAVE ALL THE FLOWERS GONE
words and music by Pete Seeger
performed by Pete Seeger and Tao Rodriguez-Seeger

Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the flowers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the flowers gone?
Girls have picked them every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young girls gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young girls gone?
Taken husbands every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the young men gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the young men gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the young men gone?
Gone for soldiers every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the soldiers gone?
Gone to graveyards every one
When will they ever learn?
When will they ever learn?

Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time passing
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Long time ago
Where have all the graveyards gone?
Covered with flowers every one
When will we ever learn?
When will we ever learn?

©1961 (Renewed) Fall River Music Inc
All Rights Reserved.

Watch how Joan Baez changes the words, oh so perfectly, oh so well.

Seeing

2008-04-26T12:58:00.005-04:00

We do not see things as they are.

We see them as we are.

Thanks to June for this quote from The Talmud

Obama’s Indonesian Lessons

2008-04-15T09:09:00.002-04:00

I like what Roger Cohen of the New York Times wrote about Barack Obama in his op-ed column yesterday.

April 14, 2008
Op-Ed Columnist
Obama’s Indonesian Lessons
by Roger Cohen

JAKARTA, Indonesia

When Barack Obama’s Indonesian classmates are asked to recall the boy they all called “Barry” (pronounced “Berry”), their description is unanimous: “chubby.”

He was the tall, chubby kid in Bermudas who joined their 4th grade class at the Besuki elementary school in 1970, the boy with the white mother and Indonesian stepfather who brought his own sandwiches to school (odd to a noodle-eating crowd) and, strangest of all, wrote with his left hand.

“It was so weird that he was left-handed,” recalled Ati Kisjanto, now a marketing consultant. “That was considered impolite here, and you were forced to write with your right hand.”

A dozen of Obama’s classmates were gathered at the house of Sandra Sambuaga, exchanging stories over Indonesian delicacies. For two years after Obama was elected to the Senate in 2004, they were unsure this was the boy registered at their school as Barry Soetoro (the family name of his stepfather).

“We just couldn’t believe this skinny U.S. senator with another name was our chubby, hyperactive Berry!” said Dewi Asmara Oetojo, a politician. “We were only convinced when we saw a photo of him as a boy.”

The atmosphere at the gathering was raucous. The school was in the upscale Menteng neighborhood; everyone has done all right. A small crucifix hangs from Sambuaga’s wall: she’s a Christian. Most of the other classmates are Muslims in this country that is home to the world’s largest Muslim population.

Only Citra Dewi wore a headscarf. “I used to sit next to him and I’d say ‘Berry, move away, you’re sweating!’ ” she told me. “In Indonesia we say active boys ‘smell of the sun.’ ” Everyone laughed at that.

I listened and tried to imagine the 9-year-old Obama too embarrassed to sing, swapping his sandwich for sticky rice, enduring the fascination with his hair (“it kept curling back, like our noodles,” said Sambuaga).

No wonder Obama is adept at exploring the spaces in between, the areas that are neither black nor white, neither “with us” nor “against us,” neither red state nor blue state: he has spent his life building bridges to assemble a coherent identity. Only by uniting disparate threads could he become whole under the name of Barack Obama in a world experienced as defined by divergent truths.

One such many-shaded truth was religion. His stepfather, according to Obama’s memoir, “followed a brand of Islam that could make room for the remnants of more ancient animist and Hindu faiths.” That tracks with the pliant, tropical Islam of Indonesia where a “you shall have your religion, and I shall have mine” tolerance dwarfs pockets of radicalism.

The United States has an Islam problem. Say the name of the religion of almost 20 percent of the world’s population and images of bearded, Wahhabi extremists surge. They reflect a reductive unease born of 9/11 and ignorance. A central challenge of the next president will be reinventing America’s relations with the Islamic world, and stimulating open dialogue between Muslims.

Obama has lived with Islam, from his boyhood Indonesia to a later encounter with the similarly malleable Islamic faith of Kenyan relatives. He can situate Saudi Wahhabism as one current among many. With Islam as with most things, it’s better to deal with a multi-faced reality than simplified demons.

I’m troubled by Hillary Clinton’s recent innuendo-dripping remark that her Christian faith “is the faith of my parents and my grandparents.” As opposed, of course, to Obama, who came to Christianity from a mother whose “secular humanism” held that “rational, thoughtful people could shape their own destiny,” and a Kenyan father born into a Muslim family, and a Muslim stepfather.

We live in the Age of Interaction. Fluidity and connectedness define the world, forging hybrid identities not fixed in formaldehyde. Clinton, on an Obama-is-aloof kick, now says she’s a pro-gun churchgoer. That may play in west Pennsylvania but won’t bridge the national and international chasms Bush bequeaths.

“I used to support Hillary, but now I look at her eyes and see someone always wired, always calculating, whereas in Berry I see some wisdom,” said Kisjanto.

I went to the school, where there’s a huge photograph of pilgrims at Mecca in the entrance; I imagined Fox News filming it one day to pronounce the place a Madrasa. It’s nothing of the sort. It’s a state school whose students are 85 percent Muslim, a little below the national average.

There’s a mosque and a small Christian prayer room with a sign saying: “I understand we are all different and include everyone.” Kuwadiyanto, the principal, told me: “Christians and Muslim kids mix easily. Maybe more Americans should come here to see what’s really happening.”

Obama already has. He’s shed his chubbiness but not Indonesia’s lesson, emblazoned on the national coat of arms, of “unity in diversity.”

Blog: www.iht.com/passages
From: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/14/opinion/14cohen.html?em&ex=1208404800&en=74375b02e08d11a6&ei=5087%0A

Words that are alive, 40 years after.....

2008-04-04T18:37:00.005-04:00

"A nation that continues
year after year
to spend more moneyon military defense
than on programsof social uplift
is approaching spiritual doom."
~~~ the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr.

Out of the mouths of ... comics

2008-04-03T02:41:00.004-04:00

According to Chris Rock, Bush has done so poorly in office that he made it impossible for another white man to run for president.

Black and white thoughts from a zebra

2008-03-25T13:08:00.002-04:00

Obama’s Race Speech: This Zebra’s Thoughts
by Normandy (SPECIES: Horse), 20 Mar 2008

Being a zebra, I found Mr. Obama’s “race speech” to be exactly what this country needed to hear.

Things are rarely black and white (except me, of course.) The very definitions of who is black and who is white aren’t even black and white. Consider this: black people are not actually black (they’re shades of brown) but the term brown is reserved for people of Hispanic heritage. Meanwhile whites are not actually white (they’re flesh-colored) yet the infamous flesh-eating disease attacks all skin colors equally. It’s very confusing.

For these reasons I believe it’s time Americans took a page from both Mr. Obama and the Disease playbook and ignored skin color altogether. Am I white with black stripes or am I black with white stripes? What difference does it make? As Mr. Obama so elegantly pointed out in this speech, these definitions are old-fashioned and petty. Whatever the label, I’m the same animal on the inside. We’re ALL the same. A goat and a whitefish may LOOK different but inside there IS no difference. (Except that one is a warm-blooded mammal while the other has gills but let’s not let semantics and pigeon-holing definitions throw us off track.)

Senator Obama’s basic message is that we have to start looking beyond color. This is exactly the same sentiment that Paul McCarthy wrote in his song EBONY AND IVORY—the black keys and the white keys need each other and there can be harmony as long as the black keys stay in their place. I’m paraphrasing. (By the way, kudos to Mr. McCarthy for not cow-towing to political correctness by putting black players into The Beatles simply because beatles are black insects.)

The next time we hear the phrase, “That’s a horse of a different color,” let’s follow Mr. Obama’s advice and say, “So what? Color is on the outside but inside, where it counts, all horses are the same." (Except sea horses, which have an external exoskeleton and don’t poop grass clumps the size of tennis balls.)

I could go [on] but I think I’ve made my point.

21st century American

2008-03-25T10:16:00.002-04:00

Two Americas
• 22/03/08 •
by Uri Avnery

"WAR IS much too serious a thing to be left to military men," in Talleyrand's memorable words. In the same spirit, one could say: The American presidential elections are much too serious to be left to the Americans.

The US is now the only super-power on earth. It will remain so for quite some time to come. The decisions of the President of the United States affect every human being on this planet.

Unfortunately, the citizens of the world have no part in these elections. But they may, at least, voice an opinion.

Availing myself of this right I say: I am for Barack Obama.

FIRST OF ALL I must confess: my attitude towards the US is one of unrequited love. In my youth I was a great admirer. Like many others of my generation, I grew up on the legend of the new, idealistic country of pioneers, the world's torch of freedom. I admired Abe Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, who hastened to the rescue of besieged Britain, when it stood alone against the Nazi monster, and who entered World War II at the decisive moment. I grew up on Wild West movies.

Gradually, I lost my illusions. Joe McCarthy helped me along the way. I learned that with depressing regularity, the US is seized by some hysteria or other. But every time, just before the brink of the abyss, it draws back.

During the Vietnam War I took part in demonstrations. I happened to be in America in 1967, and participated in the legendary march of the half million to the Pentagon. I reached the entrance of the building and saw before me a line of cold-eyed soldiers who seemed to be just itching to open fire. At the last moment it occurred to me that it would be unseemly for an Israeli Member of the Knesset to be implicated, so I jumped from the ledge of the entrance and twisted my ankle.

Somehow I got on the CIA (or was it the FBI?) black list. I managed to obtain a visa only with great difficulty, and was struck forever from the list of invitees to the American embassy parties in Tel Aviv. I don't know if this happened because of those protests, or because of my friendship with Henri Curiel, a Jewish-Egyptian revolutionary who helped us in our contacts with the PLO. The Americans held him, quite mistakenly, to be a KGB agent.

At the same time, my name was struck by the Soviets from every list of people invited from Israel. Perhaps they considered me a CIA agent (as I was called in the Israeli Communist party paper). So I was one of the few people in the world who appeared simultaneously on the black lists of both the USA and the Soviet Union - a source of moderate pride to me.

My friend Afif Safieh, now the chief PLO representative in the US, argues that there are two Americas: the America which exterminated the Native Americans and enslaved the blacks, the America of Hiroshima and McCarthy, and the other America, the America of the Declaration of Independence, of Lincoln, Wilson and Roosevelt.

In these terms, George Bush belongs to the first. Obama, his opposite in almost every respect, represents the second.

ONE CAN arrive at Obama by a process of elimination.

John McCain is a continuation of Bush. More attractive, probably more intelligent (which doesn't mean much). But he is more of the same. The same policy - a dangerous mix of intoxication with power and simple-mindedness. The same world of the Wild West myth, of Good Guys (Americans and their stooges) and Bad Guys (everybody else). A macho world of sham masculinity, where everything is seen through the sights of a gun.

McCain will go on with the wars, and may start new ones. His economic agenda is the same "swinish capitalism" (Shimon Peres' phrase), which has now brought disaster on the economy of the US, and the economy of all of us.

Eight years of Bush are enough for us. Thank you.

Hillary? True, there is something very positive in the fact that a woman is a potential candidate for the leadership of the most powerful country in the world. As the old Jewish blessing has it: Blessed art thou, the Lord, our God, who let us live to see this day. I believe that the feminist revolution was by far the most important one of the 20th Century, since it overturns the social patterns of thousands of years, and perhaps also the biological patterns of million of years. This revolution is still going on, and the election of a woman president would be a milestone.

But it is not enough that it be a woman. It is also important which woman it is.

I spent some years struggling against Golda Meir, the worst Prime Minister Israel ever had. Almost all recent female leaders of countries have started wars: Margaret Thatcher started the Falklands War, Golda Meir bears the responsibility for the outbreak of the Yom Kippur War, Indira Gandhi made war on Pakistan, the current presidents of the Philippines and Sri Lanka are conducting internal wars.

The usual explanation is that in order to prevail in a man's world, a woman politician has to prove that she is at least as tough as the men are. When she comes to power, she wants to show that she, too, can make war and command armies. Hillary has already acted tough by voting for the disastrous Iraq war.

(Years ago, when she came out for a Palestinian state, Gush Shalom demonstrated in her honor in front of the US embassy in Tel Aviv. We wanted to present her with a bunch of flowers. The embassy people treated us as enemies and refused to accept the flowers. Since then, Hillary has not uttered another word in favor of the Palestinians.)

I don't know how much she was a partner to her husband's decisions in the White House. The President's wife may be closest to his ear - and the President's husband will probably be closest to her ear. Anyhow, in the eight years of Bill Clinton nothing good for Israeli-Palestinian peace happened. In his "peace team" there were a lot of American Jews, but not a single American Arab. He was totally subservient to the Israel lobby, and on his watch the number of Israeli settlers in the Palestinian territories more than doubled.

Israel doesn't really need another term of Billary.

Hillary is a run of the mill politician. If McCain is a continuation of Bush, Hillary is an extension of the entire present American political system, the present policy and the present routine. But the world needs another America.

THE NAME of another America is Obama. Full name: Barack Hussein Obama.

The very fact that this person can be a serious contender for the presidency at all restores my faith in the possibilities inherent in America. After the excesses of Senator Joe McCarthy there was President John Kennedy. After Bush there can be Obama. Only in America.

The great message of Obama is Obama himself. A person who has roots in three continents (and another half: Hawaii). A person whose education spans the wide world. A person who can see reality from the viewpoints of America, Africa and Asia. A person who is both black and white. A new kind of American, an American of the 21st Century.

I am not as naïve as I sound. I realize that in his speeches there is more enthusiasm than content. We can't know what he will do once elected president. President Obama may disappoint us. But I prefer to take a risk with a man like this than to know in advance what the two routine politicians, his competitors, will do.

I am not overly impressed by election speeches. I have conducted four election campaigns myself and I know that there are things one has to say and things one must not say. It's all with limited liability. But beyond all the speechifying, one fact is more important than a million words: Obama opposed the Iraq invasion from the start, when this took integrity and a lot of courage. Hillary voted for the war and changed her position only when public opinion had changed. McCain supports the war even now.

We in Israel know the huge difference between opposing a war in its first, decisive hour, and opposing it after a month, a year or five years.

On the other hand, perhaps this very fact - more even than the color of his skin, his middle name and his "lack of experience" - will work against him. The voters do not like a person who was right when they were wrong. It's like admitting: he was wise and we were stupid. When a politician wants to be elected, he would be well advised to hide the fact that he was right.

A personal note: as an optimist from birth, I like Obama's optimism. I prefer a candidate who brings hope over one destroying hope. Optimism spurs to action, pessimism produces nothing but despair.

America needs a complete overhaul. Not just a wash, not just a wax job, not just a new coat of paint. It needs a new motor, a change of the entire leadership, a reappraisal of its position in the world, a change of values.

Can Obama do this? I hope so. I am not sure. But I am quite sure that the other two will not.

HERE A JEW will pop the classic question: Is it good for the Jews?

The people who claim to speak for the American Jews, the "leaders" who were not elected by anyone, the chiefs of the fetid "organizations", are conducting a dirty campaign of defamation and sly hints against him. If his middle name is Hussein and he is black, he must be an "Arab-lover". Also, he did not distance himself enough from the anti-Semite Louis Farakhan.

The same "leaders" are in bed with the most loathsome racists in the US, obscurantist fundamentalists and blood-stained neo-cons. But most American Jews know that their place is not there. The unholy alliance with those types will inevitably come home to roost. The Jews have to be where they have always been: in the progressive camp, striving for equality and the separation between state and religion.

IT MUST be asked: Is it good for Israel?

All three candidates have groveled at the feet of AIPAC. The fawning of all three before the Israeli leadership is disgusting. They all show a lack of integrity. But I know that they have no choice. That's how it is in the USA.

In spite of this, Obama succeeded in getting out one courageous sentence. Speaking before a mainly Jewish audience in Cleveland, he said: "There is a strain within the pro-Israel community that says unless you adopt an unwavering pro-Likud approach to Israel, you're anti-Israel and that can't be the measure of our friendship with Israel."

I hope that the American Barack (blessed, in Arabic), if elected, will not turn into a replica of the Israeli Barak (lightning, in Hebrew).

Real friendship means: when you see that your friend is drunk, you don't encourage him to drive. You offer to take him home. I am longing for an American president who will have the courage and the honesty to tell our leaders: Dear friends, you are drunk with power! You are speeding along a highway that leads to an abyss!

Perhaps Barack Obama will be such a friend. This would be a blessing for us, too.

* * *Who is Uri Avnery?
Israeli activist, journalist, and former member of Israel’s Knesset who founded Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), one of Israel’s most influential peace organizations.
http://www.afsc.org/israel-palestine/profiles-of-peace/uri-avnery.htm

Profoundly intellectually incurious

2008-03-24T13:33:00.009-04:00

A friend sent me these St. Louis Post-Dispatch links. The comments below each link are my own.

Obama tests America's cult of ignorance ~ by Kevin Horrigan
When did it become fashionable to be stupid? Maybe a culture of stupidity and unreason explains why we have had nearly eight years of George W. Bush and may now elect McSame -- uh, McCain. Quoting this article: "This is not to say that President Bush is stupid, only that he is profoundly intellectually incurious, willing to substitute belief for science, ideology for fact. And in this, he is typical of his age." My favorite sentence is beyond the understanding of the deliberately stoopit: "America's endemic anti-intellectual tendencies have been grievously exacerbated by a new species of semiconscious anti-rationalism, feeding on and fed by an ignorant popular culture of video images and unremitting noise that leaves no room for contemplation or logic."

To the left of Obama ~ by Margaret Talev
Hey, Obama is running for President, not for theologian!

Why Obama's worldview varies from his ex-pastor's ~ by Ruben Navarrette Jr.

Off the record, frustration and anger speak loudly ~ by Sylvester Brown Jr.
Yeah, it's unfortunate that presidential issues have shifted from the economy, Iraq, and health care to race. But somebody needed to say it.

Slavery by Another Name ~ by Harper Barnes

Still stuck in Iraq, there are lessons to be learned ~ by Leonard Pitts
From this opinion piece: "There were no weapons of mass destruction. We were not greeted as liberators. The war did not pay for itself. The smoking gun was not a mushroom cloud. There was no connection to 9/11. The course we stayed led over a cliff."

And my favorite recently-spotted bumper sticker said, "Iraq is Arabic for Vietnam."

Beyond America’s Original Sin

2008-03-21T11:12:00.002-04:00

by Roger Cohen
NYT Op-Ed Columnist
March 20, 2008

There are things you come to believe and things you carry in your blood. In my case, having spent part of my childhood in apartheid South Africa, I bear my measure of shame.

As a child, experience is wordless but no less powerful for that. How vast, how shimmering, was Muizenberg beach, near Cape Town, with all that glistening white skin spread across the golden sand!

The scrawny blacks were elsewhere, swimming off the rocks in a filthy harbor, and I watched from my grandfather’s house and I wondered.

Once, a black nanny took me out across the road to a parapet above a rail track beside that harbor. “You wouldn’t want me to drop you,” she said.

The fear I felt lingered. I returned recently to measure how far I would have fallen. In memory, the abyss plunged 100 feet. Reality revealed a drop of 10. That discrepancy measures a child’s panic.

A “For Sale” sign was up on what had been the family house. I inquired if I might visit and received a surly rebuff. But not before I glimpsed the mountain behind where my father hiked and where I feared the snakes among the thorn bushes.

Fear, shadowy as the sharks beyond the nets at Muizenberg, was never quite absent from our sunlit African sojourns. My own was formed of disorientation: I was not quite of the system because my parents had emigrated from Johannesburg to London. So, on return visits, I wandered into blacks-only public toilet or sat on a blacks-only bench.

Blacks only — and I was white. Apartheid entered my consciousness as a kind of self-humiliation. The black women who bathed me as an infant touched my skin, but their world was untouchable.

Only later did a cruel system come into focus. I see white men, gin and tonics on their breath, red meat on their plates, beneath the jacarandas of Johannesburg, sneering at the impossibility of desiring a black woman.

A racial divide, once lived, dwells in the deepest parts of the psyche. This is what was captured by Barack Obama’s pitch-perfect speech on race. Slavery was indeed America’s “original sin.” Of course, “the brutal legacy of slavery and Jim Crow” lives on in forms of African-American humiliation and anger that smolder in ways incommunicable to whites.

Segregation placed American blacks in the U.S. equivalent of that filthy African harbor.

It takes bravery, and perhaps an unusual black-white vantage point, to navigate these places where hurt is profound, incomprehension the rule, just as it takes courage to say, as Obama did, that black “anger is real; it is powerful; and to simply wish it away, to condemn it without understanding its roots, only serves to widen the chasm of misunderstanding that exists between the races.”

Progress, since the Civil Rights Movement, or since apartheid, has assuaged the wounds of race but not closed them. To carry my part of shame is also to carry a clue to the vortexes of rancor for which Obama has uncovered words.

I understand the rage of his former pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, however abhorrent its expression at times. I admire Obama for saying: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community.”

Honesty feels heady right now. For seven years, we have lived with the arid, us-against-them formulas of Bush’s menial mind, with the result that the nuanced exploration of America’s hardest subject is almost giddying. Can it be that a human being, like Wright, or like Obama’s grandmother, is actually inhabited by ambiguities? Can an inquiring mind actually explore the half-shades of truth?

Yes. It. Can.

The unimaginable South African transition that Nelson Mandela made possible is a reminder that leadership matters. Words matter. The clamoring now in the United States for a presidency that uplifts rather than demeans is a reflection of the intellectual desert of the Bush years.

Hillary Clinton said in January that: “You campaign in poetry, but you govern in prose.” Wrong. America’s had its fill of the prosaic.

The unthinkable can come to pass. When I was a teenager, my relatives advised me to enjoy the swimming pools of Johannesburg because “next year they will be red with blood.”

But the inevitable bloodbath never came. Mandela walked out of prison and sought reconciliation, not revenge. Later Mandela would say: “It always seems impossible until it’s done.”

Like countless others, I came to America because possibility is broader here than in Europe’s narrower confines. Perhaps it’s my African “original sin,” but when Obama says he “will never forget that in no other country on earth is my story even possible,” I feel fear slipping away, like a shadow receding before the still riveting idea that “out of many we are truly one.”

Blog: www.iht.com/passages

Reconciliation, not rancor

2008-03-19T16:27:00.004-04:00

Frankly, I'm impressed that Barack Obama spoke up on the issue of racism in the United States. I hope his speech last night in Philadelphia helps everyone see more clearly the resentments and fears held by others around us, especially by those of a different skin color than our own. Reconciliation is ever so much better than rancor. In my opinion, addressing America's racial problems goes right along with his other priorities.

Washington Post question:
"What would be your top three overall priorities if elected?"

Obama's answer:
"My top priority as president will be ending this war in Iraq, a war that should have never been authorized and never been waged. In doing so, I will work to keep our country safe from terrorists and to restore American credibility around the world. Providing universal health care to the 47 million Americans who currently do not have it will be another top priority of my administration, as will combating global warming and putting our country on the path toward energy independence. But all of the issues that I have focused on in this campaign -- whether it's creating a 21st century education system and fighting poverty or achieving comprehensive immigration reform and strengthening our economy -- are vitally important and must be prioritized by the next president. And all of these issues share one thing in common: in order to fully address them, we have to do more than change political parties. We have to fundamentally change our politics and transform the way business is done in Washington."

Here's a transcript of Barack Obama's speech on racism, and here's a New York Times editorial: Mr. Obama’s Profile in Courage.

During the speech, I said to my roommate: "This speech will go down in history." She said, "If they let it." I responded, "No, it WILL go down in history." I'm happy to see that US New & World Report agrees with me: Obama's Race Speech Heralded as Historic.

She's ba-a-a-a-ack!

2008-03-15T16:03:00.005-04:00

Last year I wrote about my friend Gertrude (name changed to protect the guilty) in a post entitled Moral Mess. After our little exchange, she quit sending emails. Months and months went by with no forwarded junk mail from her. And then it began again: first an occasional email, then several, and now the flood has again become overwhelming. This afternoon I got another one from her, but this time I think I'll leave in all skips and spaces that indicate it's been around cyberspace for quite some time:

> Subject: Please help
>
> Please help do this... refuse to accept these when they are handed
> back to you. ? I received one from the Post Office as change and I
> asked for a dollar bill instead..the lady just smiled and said way to
> go, so she had read this e-mail. ? Please help out... our world is in
> enough trouble without this too!!!!!
>
> U.S. Government to Release New Dollar Coins
>
> >
>
> You guessed it....' IN GOD WE TRUST '
> IS GONE!!!
>
> If ever there was a reason to boycott something, THIS IS IT!!!!
>
> DO NOT ACCEPT THE NEW DOLLAR COINS AS CHANGE
>
> Together we can force them out of circulation.
>
> Please send to all on your
> mail list !!!

Here's my reply:

Gertrude, I don't know who your friends are, but you send me so much mis-information that I've begun to sigh when I see email forwarded from you. Here are some FACTS about the new dollar coin you are so concerned about:

Edge-Incused Inscriptions
The edge-incused inscriptions found on Presidential $1 Coins include the year of minting or issuance, "E Pluribus Unum," "In God We Trust" and the mint mark. However, there are two processes for producing the edge-incused lettering and each produces a different result.
See that part in red? That inscription you're so worried about is there, after all. It's inscribed along the edge of the coin. I got my information from the U.S. Mint page, here, where there's even a photo of that edge.

From now on, let's just pretend that if it's a forward from your mis-informed alarmist friends, I'd rather not be bothered with deleting it, okay?

Love,
~~~ Bonnie

Xenophobia?

2008-02-08T12:54:00.000-05:00

Or Islamophobia?

The Fear of Holy Books by Farish A. Noor was posted yesterday on The Other Malaysia web site. Read the article and learn about

... a suggestion that the Quran should be banned in the Netherlands
... the recent seizure of thirty-two Bibles from a Malaysian Christian who was on her way back to Malaysia from the Philippines
... the need for controls on hate-speech and fear-mongering by far-right demagogues

Consider this quote taken from the short article:

In the same way that non-Muslims seemed relatively indifferent to the constant Muslim-bashing that is taking place in places like Europe today, Muslims are equally indifferent when injustices such as the seizure of holy books are meted out to those who are not of their flock. Should this trend continue then we are certainly on the verge of a balkanisation of the religious communities of the world, and this spells trouble for multi-faith nations like Malaysia and the countries of the West.

Read what Sharon Bakar of Bibliobibuli said about this article, here: Hands Off the Holy Books.

How we humans live

2008-01-22T02:27:00.000-05:00

Selma in the City, in a post entitled Pet Power, says this photo should be "the poster for a campaign for peace!" After you read that post, read what she says about the lorikeets: This Lorikeet Life.

Colleen's Dream for President Bush

2007-11-26T23:09:00.001-05:00

I want everybody to read the poem Colleen wrote in November 2002, before we invaded Iraq: Dream for President Bush. She is quite a poet, isn't she? I hope you tell her so.

Protesting Bush's War

2007-11-21T14:48:00.000-05:00

I always get irritated when I hear the press say "Americans have started to turn against the war" when I know how many were against it from the start, marched before it began and knew then that it was a phony premise that would open a Pandora's box. I went to two marches (my first time participating in a protest), one in October and another in January. Probably half a million marchers were there.

Posted by: c___ on November 21, 2007 11:18 AM

Maybe Bush's people have only seen the protestors at the end of a gunbarrel. I held signs protesting the war when Bush came to Chattanooga earlier this year ... which I reported here: http://continuingthequest.blogspot.com/2007/02/pantywaist-protestors.html

I didn't write about the gun pointing out the car window toward me (and others) because it chilled my soul so much that I wanted to process it. That was months ago, and I haven't written about it until now.

The man holding the black rifle (an AK-47, maybe?) was in the car behind President Bush. As they slowed to turn in towards the Convention Center where Bush was to speak, I could see right down the barrel of that powerful weapon ... and my heart caught in my throat. I wondered at the time why the man didn't have it pointed downward at least a little bit. And I just now had an involuntary shiver run through me, just writing about that day.

I am an ordinary citizen of the United States. I am an older woman (almost 67 at that time) who was standing apart from others on the sidewalk, as instructed by Chattanooga police. There were children in some of the clumps of people. I had two signs being held up, one in each hand, so I couldn't have been seen as a danger to the President or his entourage. What if the driver had hit a pot hole? I don't think there were any, but what if? I had the very distinct feeling that I had looked at death that day, and it was certainly a moment I will remember if ... WHEN ... I protest again.

Posted by: Bonnie Jacobs on November 21, 2007 2:46 PM (on C's blog)

The numbers keep rising

2007-11-05T15:27:00.000-05:00

Dollars spent:
June 11 = $433,793,000,000+
August 31 = $447,547,000,000+
November 5 = $466,092,945,520+

Troops lost:
by death = 3849
wounded = 28,171

Go here for $$ updates:
http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Cost-of-War/Cost-of-War-3.html

Go here for casualities:
http://icasualties.org/oif/

Go here to see their faces: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB1.html

Go here to see Backwards Bush:
http://www.backwardsbush.com/

Countdown on Bush's days left in office:
441 DAYS
7 Hrs 48 Min 54.7 Sec
(as of November 5th)
This "clock" is also in the sidebar.

Think GREEN today

2007-10-15T01:21:00.001-04:00

On October 15th, bloggers around the web will unite to put a single important issue on everyone’s mind - the environment. Every blogger will post about the environment in their own way and relating to their own topic. The idea is to get everyone talking towards a better future. Follow this link and take a look.

Today I plan to WEAR GREEN and offer TIPS and CHALLENGES and IDEAS (like these) on my blogs:

Ideal Bite offers daily TIPS ON BEING GREEN.

Diane of Big Green Purse has a CHALLENGE:
Her "One in a Million" Campaign is urging a million women to shift $1,000 of money they'd spend in a year anyway to green products and services that can help protect the environment. It's important because:

Manufacturing to meet consumer demand drives pollution and climate change.
Pollution and climate change affect our health and safety.
If we use our consumer clout to improve manufacturing, we protect ourselves and the planet, too.

Because women spend $.85 of every dollar in the marketplace, we have the clout to make a difference. Hybrid cars? Organic food? Safe cosmetics? Green shopping has already had an impact.

Women are finding all kinds of ways to swap out "brown" products for "green."

Erin, a Green Purse Alerts! subscriber, joined the One in a Million Campaign at the beginning of this year. She recently sent the balance sheet she downloaded from the Big Green Purse website to help her track her eco purchases and report back on her pledge. It only took her six months to become "One in a Million." Her secret? She bought two water saving toilets for a total of almost $600, then made up the difference in organic groceries, safe cleansers, and organic potting soil.

For IDEAS on how you can swap your current purchases for green ones that would make a difference, visit the One in a Million campaign web page.

Some of the most important options (and ones that should be readily available in your neighborhood as well as on-line) include:

____ Organic, locally grown food (reduce pesticides)

____ Energy-efficient appliances (stop global warming)

____ Phthalate-free cosmetics (protect your health)

____ Fuel-efficient car (save energy, clear the air)

____ Fair trade, shade grown coffee (protect rainforests)

____ Non-toxic cleansers (protect your health, reduce toxins)

The Iraq Quagmire

2007-08-31T11:20:00.000-04:00

First, let's update the dollar costs:

June 11 = $433,793,000,000+
August 31 = $447,547,000,000+

And the numbers clicking over still boggle my mind. If you want to see the costs rising, go to: http://www.nationalpriorities.org/Cost-of-War/Cost-of-War-3.html. There, you'll be able to get minute by minute (actually, second by second) updates on what the war in Iraq is costing American taxpayers.

And don't forget those other costs, the people costs:

Forbes reported in their August 30 headline: "U.S. Military Deaths in Iraq at 3,735." As I phrased it last time: That's 3,592 since President Bush announced "mission accomplished" and 3,274 since Saddam Hussein was captured.

Shall I put a name to these numbers? Or better yet, a face? Tyler R. Seideman, age 20, died the other day; his photo isn't up yet. Neither is the photo of Jeremy S. Bohannon, age 18. But there are thousands of photos of other young men and women who didn't really get to live before they died. See the Faces of the Dead, along with their stories, here: http://www.nytimes.com/ref/us/20061228_3000FACES_TAB1.html

General Tommy Franks said, "We don't do body counts." Remember that? According to http://www.iraqbodycount.org/ the body count of Iraqi Civilians killed is now between 71,017 mimimum and 77,555 maximum. And the sad truth is that we don't know how many more didn't make the list.

Are you tired of seeing the numbers, the names, the faces, the casualities? So am I.

Prick flicks

2007-07-09T06:43:00.000-04:00

I like this definition, that chick flicks are more about "how people live instead of how they die." Do you agree? Let's talk about it.

In Defense of the 'Chick Flick'
By Gloria Steinem, Women's Media Center
Published on July 7, 2007
http://www.alternet.org/story/56219/

Here's a modest proposal to the young man on the plane from Los Angeles to Seattle who said of the movie that most passengers -- male and female -- voted to watch: "I don't watch chick flicks!"

So what exactly is a "chick flick?" I think you and I could probably agree that it has more dialogue than special effects, more relationships than violence, and relies for its suspense on how people live instead of how they die.

I'm not challenging your choice; I'm just questioning the term that encourages it. After all, if you think back to your school days, much of what you were assigned as great literature could have been dismissed as "chick lit." Indeed, the books you read probably only survived because they were written by famous guys.

Think about it: If Anna Karenina had been written by Leah Tolstoy, or The Scarlet Letter by Nancy Hawthorne, or Madame Bovary by Greta Flaubert, or A Doll's House by Henrietta Ibsen, or The Glass Menagerie by (a female) Tennessee Williams, would they have been hailed as universal? Suppose Shakespeare had really been The Dark Lady some people supposed. I bet most of her plays and all of her sonnets would have been dismissed as some Elizabethan version of ye olde "chick lit," only to be resurrected centuries later by stubborn feminist scholars.

Indeed, as long men are taken seriously when they write about the female half of the world -- and women aren't taken seriously when writing about themselves much less about men or male affairs -- the list of Great Authors will be more about power than about talent.

Still, I know this is not your problem. Instead, let me appeal to your self-interest as well as your sense of fairness: If the "chick flick" label helps you to avoid the movies you don't like, why is there no label to guide you to the ones you do like?

Just as there are "novelists" and then "women novelists," there are "movies" and then "chick flicks." Whoever is in power takes over the noun -- and the norm -- while the less powerful get an adjective. Thus, we read about "African American doctors" but not "European American doctors," "Hispanic leaders" but not "Anglo leaders," "gay soldiers" but not "heterosexual soldiers," and so on.

That's also why you're left with only half a guide. As usual, bias punishes everyone. Therefore I propose, as the opposite of "chick flick" and an adjective of your very own, "prick flick." Not only will it serve film critics well, but its variants will add to the literary lexicon. For example, "prick lit" could characterize a lot of fiction, from Philip Roth to Bret Easton Ellis and beyond. "True prick" could guide readers to their preferred non-fiction, from the classics of Freud to the populist works of socio-biologists and even Rush Limbaugh.

Most of all, the simple label "prick flick" could lead you easily and quickly through the thicket of televised, downloaded and theatrical releases to such attractions as:

All the movies that glorify World War II. From classics with John Wayne and Ronald Reagan, those master actors who conveyed heroism without ever leaving the back lot, to Spielberg's "Band of Brothers," in which the hero would rather die than be rescued, Hollywood has probably spent more on making movies about the war than this country spent on fighting it. After all, World War II was the last war in which this country was clearly right. Without frequent exposure to it, how are we to believe we still are?

All the movies that glorify Vietnam, bloody regional wars, and the war on terrorism. These may not be as much fun to watch -- you probably are aware that we aren't the winners here -- but they allow you to enjoy mass mayhem in, say, South Asia or Africa or the Middle East that justifies whatever this country might do.

All the movies that portray violence against women, preferably beautiful, sexy, half-naked women. These feature chainsaws and house parties for teenage guys, serial killers and sadistic rapists for ordinary male adults, plus cleverly plotted humiliations and deaths of powerful women for the well-educated misogynist.

All the movies that insist female human beings are the only animals on earth that seek out and even enjoy their own pain. From glamorized versions of prostitution to such complex plots as "Boxing Helena," a man's dream of amputating all a rebellious woman's limbs -- and then she falls in love with him -- these provide self-justification and how-to manuals for sadists.

As you can see, one simple label could guide you through diversity, and help other viewers to practice avoidance.

But if you really think about it, I'm hope-a-holic enough to think you might like to watch a chick flick after all.

Gloria Steinem travels widely as a feminist activist, organizer, writer and lecturer. She co-founded New York Magazine and Ms. Magazine where continues to serve as a consulting editor. She has been published in many magazines and newspapers here and in other countries, and is also a frequent guest commentator on radio and television.

© 2007 Independent Media Institute. All rights reserved.
View this story online at: http://www.alternet.org/story/56219/
__________
Wikipedia has this list of chick flicks:

Agnes of God
Always
A Walk to Remember
As Good as It Gets
Beaches
Because I Said So
Before Sunrise
Before Sunset
The Bridges of Madison County
Crossroads
Divine Secrets of the Ya-Ya Sisterhood
50 First Dates
Flashdance
Four Weddings and a Funeral
Fried Green Tomatoes
Girl, Interrupted
Heathers
How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
Love Actually
Mermaids
Moonstruck
The Notebook
Notting Hill
An Officer and a Gentleman
Pretty Woman
A Room with a View
Sleepless in Seattle
Steel Magnolias
Terms of Endearment
Thelma & Louise
Titanic
Under the Tuscan Sun
Waiting to Exhale
When Harry Met Sally
Working Girl
You've Got Mail

What films would you nominate for the prick flick category?
__________
Here's how Word Spy defines the category:
http://www.wordspy.com/words/chickflick.asp

Hunger is not about food

2007-07-05T17:33:00.000-04:00

"We have to step out of this charity model, and as nonprofits, we have to start being involved in the political discourse. Hunger's not about food."

- Robert Egger, anti-hunger activist, founder of D.C. Central Kitchen, and recent recipient of the Duke Zeibert Capital Achievement Award. (Source: The Washington Post)

The cost of war

2007-06-12T00:10:00.000-04:00

On June 11, 2007, the cost of the war in Iraq passed the $433,793,000,000 mark. Look at that number again: that's 433 trillion + nearly 800 million more. The way the numbers are clicking over boggles the mind.

And that's just the dollar cost.

The real cost is in human lives. Somebody's son, somebody's daughter, somebody's daddy, mother, uncle, cousin, best friend. Somebody died. The number of US troop deaths on the same date was 3,508. That's 3,369 since President Bush announced "mission accomplished" and 3,047 since Saddam Hussain was captured.

Cost means more than the number of dead, though, so let's ask, how many have been wounded? That number is a staggering 25,830, officially, though estimates range up to almost four times that many. In many ways we could even say that ALL troops who have been in battle will come home psychologically wounded, having seen faces blown off, body parts scattered by roadside bombs, friends obliterated in battle.

And for what?

Why are we still there when we are not wanted? Why are our children and grandchildren still dying? And I haven't even mentioned the Iraqi deaths, the families, the children.

Jimmy Carter has said, "We will not learn how to live together in peace by killing each other's children." When will we learn?

Tin can targets

2007-06-09T05:00:00.000-04:00

Three things for us to consider as we read this op-ed piece from the NYT:
(1) News as entertainment
(2) Entertainment as news
(3) What are we doing to our children?
====================

School to Prison Pipeline
By BOB HERBERT, Op-Ed Columnist
published in today's New York Times

The latest news-as-entertainment spectacular is the Paris Hilton criminal justice fiasco. She’s in! She’s out! She’s — whatever.

Far more disturbing (and much less entertaining) is the way school officials and the criminal justice system are criminalizing children and teenagers all over the country, arresting them and throwing them in jail for behavior that in years past would never have led to the intervention of law enforcement.

This is an aspect of the justice system that is seldom seen. But the consequences of ushering young people into the bowels of police precincts and jail cells without a good reason for doing so are profound.

Two months ago I wrote about a 6-year-old girl in Florida who was handcuffed by the police and taken off to the county jail after she threw a tantrum in her kindergarten class.

Police in Brooklyn recently arrested more than 30 young people, ages 13 to 22, as they walked toward a subway station, on their way to a wake for a teenage friend who had been murdered. No evidence has been presented that the grieving young people had misbehaved. No drugs or weapons were found. But they were accused by the police of gathering unlawfully and of disorderly conduct.

In March, police in Baltimore handcuffed a 7-year-old boy and took him into custody for riding a dirt bike on the sidewalk. The boy tearfully told The Baltimore Examiner, “They scared me.” Mayor Sheila Dixon later apologized for the arrest.

Children, including some who are emotionally disturbed, are often arrested for acting out. Some are arrested for carrying sharp instruments that they had planned to use in art classes, and for mouthing off.

This is a problem that has gotten out of control. Behavior that was once considered a normal part of growing up is now resulting in arrest and incarceration.

Kids who find themselves caught in this unnecessary tour of the criminal justice system very quickly develop malignant attitudes toward law enforcement. Many drop out — or are forced out — of school. In the worst cases, the experience serves as an introductory course in behavior that is, in fact, criminal.

There is a big difference between a child or teenager who brings a gun to school or commits some other serious offense and someone who swears at another student or gets into a wrestling match or a fistfight in the playground. Increasingly, especially as zero-tolerance policies proliferate, children are being treated like criminals for the most minor offenses.

There should be no obligation to call the police if a couple of kids get into a fight and teachers are able to bring it under control. But now, in many cases, youngsters caught fighting are arrested and charged with assault.

A 2006 report on disciplinary practices in Florida schools showed that a middle school student in Palm Beach County who was caught throwing rocks at a soda can was arrested and charged with a felony — hurling a “deadly missile.”

We need to get a grip.

The Racial Justice Program at the American Civil Liberties Union has been studying this issue. “What we see routinely,” said Dennis Parker, the program’s director, “is that behavior that in my time would have resulted in a trip to the principal’s office is now resulting in a trip to the police station.”

He added that the evidence seems to show that white kids are significantly less likely to be arrested for minor infractions than black or Latino kids. The 6-year-old arrested in Florida was black. The 7-year-old arrested in Baltimore was black.

Shaquanda Cotton was black. She was the 14-year-old high school freshman in Paris, Tex., who was arrested for shoving a hall monitor. She was convicted in March 2006 of “assault on a public servant” and sentenced to a prison term of — hold your breath — up to seven years!

Shaquanda’s outraged family noted that the judge who sentenced her had, just three months earlier, sentenced a 14-year-old white girl who was convicted of arson for burning down her family’s home. The white girl was given probation.

Shaquanda was recently released after a public outcry over her case and the eruption of a scandal involving allegations of widespread sexual abuse of incarcerated juveniles in Texas.

This issue deserves much more attention. Sending young people into the criminal justice system unnecessarily is a brutal form of abuse with consequences, for the child and for society as a whole, that can last a lifetime.

=============================================
(1) News as entertainment

Did I see news photos of the police car taking Paris Hilton back to jail that were taken from a helicopter? Bringing in a helicopter? Why? Why are people so interested in her problems? For that matter, why are we interested in her at all?

(2) Entertainment as news

Once upon a time news was newsworthy; it meant news reporters told us "what's new?" and "what's happening?" Now we seem to hear of nothing but what's going on in the lives of people in the entertainment business: Who is dating whom? Who is pregnant? Who is getting a divorce? Who is feuding with whom? And the "news" media are reporting what we want to hear.

Do the majority of us not care that people are dying all over the world? Don't we care that people are starving? While we waste food and resources, I might add. What's wrong with us?

(3) What are we doing to our children?

I kind of like what Bob Herbert wrote about this problem: "We need to get a grip." Why are we arresting tantrum-throwing toddlers and boys throwing rocks at cans? I remember boys throwing rocks at ME, but my mother didn't call the police because she knew it was enough to warn my friends that rocks could hurt more than they realized. The boys may have wanted it to hurt (a little), but they didn't want to kill me -- and I knew that. Later that same day we would likely be playing ball in the big open area in our neighborhood.

What's wrong with our thinking these days?

How come?

2007-06-08T03:04:00.000-04:00

(click picture to enlarge it)

Ruth's got it right !

2007-06-07T08:57:00.000-04:00

The Supreme Court just delivered a huge blow to the fight for equal pay for equal work. It told Lilly Ledbetter, a 60-year-old "fiery mother of two," that even though, for years, she was paid between 15% and 40% less than her male counterparts on the management team (a fact she learned late in her 19-year career), she could not make a claim of workplace discrimination. Why couldn't she make a claim? Lily Ledbetter learned about the pay discrepancies too late. The court ruled that claims must be made within 180 days after the pay is set. But how many of us know what our co-workers make? In fact, it's illegal to ask in many states.

Justice Ruth Ginsburg wrote the dissenting opinion for the 5-to-4 decision, and in it she asked Congress to overturn the ruling and clarify the intent of the law. Several Congressional leaders are already stepping forward to counter this outrage by drafting new fair-minded legislation. Let's get behind them so they can pass this legislation immediately. Sign the petition (see below) and then pass it on to friends so we can build support for the Congressional leaders who are stepping forward to right this wrong. Frankly, they need our help -- because as the Washington Post reports, business groups, such as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, are applauding this dangerous, short-sighted ruling.

CITIZEN VOICES ARE CRUCIAL: Citizen voices are going to be crucial to giving leaders the "political capital" they need to fix this problem. Here's what several of the key leaders who are fighting for us have to say about the ruling:

"Yesterday's Supreme Court decision reflects a poor understanding of the real problems with long-term pay discrimination," said Senator Harkin. "Most new employees feel less comfortable challenging their salaries, and it is very difficult to determine when pay discrimination begins. Furthermore, a small pay gap tends to widen over time, only becoming noticeable when there is systemic discrimination over a period of years. I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to ensure every worker receives the paycheck he or she deserves."

"Unless Congress Acts, this Supreme Court ruling will have far-reaching implications for women, and will gravely limit the rights of employees who have suffered pay discrimination based on their race, sex, religion or national origin. All Americans deserve equal pay for equal work and it is our responsibility to get this right," said Senator Clinton.

"This week's Supreme Court decision sends a dangerous message about the value of pay equity in this country. It is unacceptable that women and others would be limited in their opportunities to stand up for themselves and for their families. I am proud to team up with my colleagues to right this wrong," said Senator Mikulski.

"As Justice Ginsburg suggests, the ball has now fallen into Congress' court and we intend to address this ruling," said Representative George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee. "The Supreme Court's narrow decision makes it more difficult for workers to stand up for their basic civil rights at work and that is unacceptable."

WHAT CAN WE DO?

SIGN ~ this petition. Tell Congress, "We Need Equal Pay for Equal Work — it's good law, so make it enforceable!" Then support congressional leaders who come forward to right this wrong. Signing is one way of showing democracy in action.

SHARE ~ Tell your friends about this outrage.

WRITE ~ Have you experienced workplace discrimination? What happened? Share your story and experiences with all at: http://www.momsrising.org/node/536

READ ~ Here are some good articles:
- Washington Post - CNN Money - New York Times

FIND OUT ~ about related issues, like the "Motherhood Manifesto" film and DVD. Did you know that only four countries in the world — Lesotho, Swaziland, Papua New Guinea and the United States — fail to provide paid maternity leave to all workers? And did you know that businesses that create flexible work environments find that productivity goes up, they attract more talent, turnover is reduced, and their bottom line is improved? Want to know more? It's in the film.

PEACE

2007-06-06T02:25:00.000-04:00

Let's talk ethics

2007-05-30T12:45:00.000-04:00

This article was in The Guardian yesterday. Read it and then leave a comment: Do you think this is ethical? Would you watch a show like this if it were broadcast in your country?

TV contestants to compete for woman's kidneys
Kate Connolly
Tuesday May 29, 2007
The Guardian

A Dutch reality television show in which a terminally ill woman is to select one of three contestants to receive her kidneys when she dies is to air this week despite criticism that it pushes the boundaries of the format too far.

The government has called for De Grote Donorshow (The Big Donor show) to be dropped because it is "unethical" and "wretched" but the broadcaster BNN said it would go ahead to highlight the difficulties of searching for kidney donors.

In the show, due to be broadcast on Friday, a woman identified only as Lisa, 37, will select a recipient based on their history, profile and conversations with their families and friends. Throughout the 80-minute show, viewers will be invited to send Lisa text messages to advise her.

The ruling coalition parties the Christian Democrats and the Christian Union have condemned the show.

But BNN's chairman, Laurens Drillich, said the show would increase by a third the participants' chances of getting a new kidney. "The chance for a kidney for the contestants is 33%," he said. "This is much higher than that for people on a waiting list. You would expect it to be better, but it is worse."

BNN said it wanted to focus on the plight of kidney sufferers as a tribute to its founder, Bart de Graaff, who died of kidney failure five years ago in spite of several transplants. ... [A]ttempts in 2005 to launch a sperm donor show, in which a woman was to select a father for her baby in front of the cameras, collapsed following a huge public outcry.

Babies see more details than adults do

2007-05-27T02:13:00.000-04:00

Infants Have 'Amazing Capabilities' That Adults Lack
Robin Lloyd
LiveScience Senior Editor
LiveScience.com
Fri May 25, 2:25 AM ET

Babies might seem a bit dim in their first six months of life, but researchers are getting smarter about what babies know, and the results are surprising.

The word "infant" comes from the Latin, meaning "unable to speak," but babies are building the foundations for babbling and language before they are born, responding to muffled sounds that travel through amniotic fluid.

Soon after birth, infants are keen and sophisticated generalists, capable of seeing details in the world that are visible to some other animals but invisible to adults, older children and even slightly older infants.

Recently, scientists have learned the following:

At a few days old, infants can pick out their native tongue from a foreign one. At 4 or 5 months, infants can lip read, matching faces on silent videos to "ee" and "ah" sounds. Infants can recognize the consonants and vowels of all languages on Earth, and they can hear the difference between foreign language sounds that elude most adults. Infants in their first six months can tell the difference between two monkey faces that an older person would say are identical, and they can match calls that monkeys make with pictures of their faces. Infants are rhythm experts, capable of differentiating between the beats of their culture and another.

The latest finding, presented in the May 25 issue of the journal Science, is that infants just 4 months old can tell whether someone is speaking in their native tongue or not without any sound, just by watching a silent movie of their speech. This ability disappears by the age of 8 months, however, unless the child grows up in a bilingual environment and therefore needs to use the skill.

In fact, all the skills outlined above decline somewhere around the time infants pass the 6-month mark and learn to ignore information that bears little on their immediate environment.

Astounding babies

The new study involved showing videos to 36 infants of three bilingual French-English speakers reciting sentences. After being trained to become comfortable with a speaker reciting a sentence in one language, babies ages 4 and 6 months spent more time looking at a speaker reciting a sentence in a different language—demonstrating that they could tell the difference.

"In everything that we do in our research, babies seem to come out with these amazing capabilities," said Whitney M. Weikum, a graduate student at the University of British Columbia whose work is overseen by language processing specialist Janet F. Werker. "As young infants, they come set with abilities to make a lot of fine discriminations, and they continue to astound us."

The research also serves as a reminder that language is a multimedia experience, said psychologist George Hollich of Purdue University.

"We don't just see a rose," Hollich explained. "We feel the softness of its petals and we smell its perfume. Likewise, language isn't just hearing or seeing a word 'rose.' We immediately relate that word to a rose's sight, touch and smell, even the sight of a person saying that word. Ben Franklin noted that he could 'understand French better by the help of his spectacles.' This work shows that infants too can recognize some languages solely by looking on the face."

Infant intelligence

Weikum's study adds to mounting evidence showing how infants move from being "universal perceivers," equally capable of learning any of the world's languages, to being specialists in the sounds, meanings and structure of their own native tongue over the first year of life, said Hollich, who studies infant language.

The findings raise questions about what is meant by intelligence when speaking of young children.

"Newborns can be said to be 'intelligent' in that they have the ability to almost effortlessly learn any of the world's languages," Hollich told LiveScience. Some of Hollich's research shows that babies start to understand grammar by the age of 15 months, processing grammar and words simultaneously.

"We scientists consider infants more intelligent when they begin to notice and respond to familiar things. Of course, figuring out how exactly to best respond to familiar sights and sounds is something children will spend the rest of their lives learning to do and that is the hallmark of what most would consider true 'intelligence.'"

(Oh, by the way, the "babies" in the photo above are marzipan babies, not living infants. Got your attention, though, didn't it?)

Is Morality Innate and Universal?

2007-05-26T03:16:00.000-04:00

A healthy man walks into a hospital where five patients are awaiting organ transplants. Is it morally acceptable to kill the man in order to harvest his organs to save the lives of five others? If you instantly answered no, you share a near-universal response to the dilemma, one offered by peoples and cultures all over the globe. (Test your moral instincts here.)

But how did you reach this conclusion? Was it a rational decision learned in childhood, or was it—as Harvard evolutionary biologist and cognitive neuroscientist Marc Hauser claims—based on instincts encoded in our brains by evolution? In his recent book Moral Minds: How Nature Designed Our Universal Sense of Right and Wrong (HarperCollins), Hauser argues that millions of years of natural selection have molded a universal moral grammar within our brains that enables us to make rapid decisions about ethical dilemmas. (Read a review of the book here.)

That's the beginning of an article in a recent issue of Discover Magazine, found here: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/the-discover-interview-marc-hauser

Non-thinkers

2007-05-24T00:09:00.000-04:00

If everyone is thinking alike, then somebody isn't thinking.
George S. Patton

A hiker comes through Chattanooga

2007-05-17T15:49:00.000-04:00

Susan at Patchwork Reflections wrote about Sue Turner hiking a trail through Chattanooga. I'm picking up on it because I want to share the pictures of my area on the American Hiking site.

We the people want an end to this war!

2007-05-10T14:47:00.000-04:00

Chimp as person?

2007-05-08T10:37:00.000-04:00

Are animals persons? My cat has a very definite personality, so does that make her a person? Read this AP article about a couple of chimpanzees in Austria and let's talk about it. What do you think?

Rosi, a 26-year-old female chimpanzee looks through the glass at her enclosure at an animal sanctuary in Voesendorf, south of Vienna, on Friday, May 4, 2007. Austrian animal rights advocates are waging an unusual court battle to get Rosi's companion, Hiasl, legally declared a "person." Supporters argue that the chimps need that status to become legal entities who can receive donations and get guardians to look out for their interests. (AP Photo/Lilli Strauss)

Activists Want Chimp Declared a 'Person'
By WILLIAM J. KOLE, Associated Press Writer
Fri May 4, 2007 at 12:24 AM

VIENNA, Austria - In some ways, Hiasl is like any other Viennese: He indulges a weakness for pastry, likes to paint and enjoys chilling out watching TV. But he doesn't care for coffee, and he isn't actually a person - at least not yet.

In a case that could set a global legal precedent for granting basic rights to apes, animal rights advocates are seeking to get the 26-year-old male chimpanzee legally declared a "person." Hiasl's supporters argue he needs that status to become a legal entity that can receive donations and get a guardian to look out for his interests.

"Our main argument is that Hiasl is a person and has basic legal rights," said Eberhart Theuer, a lawyer leading the challenge on behalf of the Association Against Animal Factories, a Vienna animal rights group. "We mean the right to life, the right to not be tortured, the right to freedom under certain conditions," Theuer said. "We're not talking about the right to vote here."

The campaign began after the animal sanctuary where Hiasl (pronounced HEE-zul) and another chimp, Rosi, have lived for 25 years went bankrupt. Activists want to ensure the apes don't wind up homeless if the shelter closes. Both have already suffered: They were captured as babies in Sierra Leone in 1982 and smuggled in a crate to Austria for use in pharmaceutical experiments. Customs officers intercepted the shipment and turned the chimps over to the shelter.

Their food and veterinary bills run about $6,800 a month. Donors have offered to help, but there's a catch: Under Austrian law, only a person can receive personal donations. Organizers could set up a foundation to collect cash for Hiasl, whose life expectancy in captivity is about 60 years. But without basic rights, they contend, he could be sold to someone outside Austria, where the chimp is protected by strict animal cruelty laws.

"If we can get Hiasl declared a person, he would have the right to own property. Then, if people wanted to donate something to him, he'd have the right to receive it," said Theuer, who has vowed to take the case to the European Court of Human Rights if necessary.

Austria isn't the only country where primate rights are being debated. Spain's parliament is considering a bill that would endorse the Great Ape Project, a Seattle-based international initiative to extend "fundamental moral and legal protections" to apes.

If Hiasl gets a guardian, "it will be the first time the species barrier will have been crossed for legal 'personhood,'" said Jan Creamer, chief executive of Animal Defenders International, which is working to end the use of primates in research.

Paula Stibbe, a Briton who teaches English in Vienna, petitioned a district court to be Hiasl's legal trustee. On April 24, Judge Barbara Bart rejected her request, ruling Hiasl didn't meet two key tests: He is neither mentally impaired nor in an emergency.

Although Bart expressed concern that awarding Hiasl a guardian could create the impression that animals enjoy the same legal status as humans, she didn't rule that he could never be considered a person.

Martin Balluch, who heads the Association Against Animal Factories, has asked a federal court for a ruling on the guardianship issue. "Chimps share 99.4 percent of their DNA with humans," he said. "OK, they're not homo sapiens. But they're obviously also not things - the only other option the law provides."

Not all Austrian animal rights activists back the legal challenge. Michael Antolini, president of the local Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, said he thinks it's absurd. "I'm not about to make myself look like a fool" by getting involved, said Antolini, who worries that chimpanzees could gain broader rights, such as copyright protections on their photographs.

But Stibbe, who brings Hiasl sweets and yogurt and watches him draw and clown around by dressing up in knee-high rubber boots, insists he deserves more legal rights "than bricks or apples or potatoes."

"He can be very playful but also thoughtful," she said. "Being with him is like playing with someone who can't talk."

A date for the appeal hasn't been set, but Hiasl's legal team has lined up expert witnesses, including Jane Goodall, the world's foremost observer of chimpanzee behavior.

"When you see Hiasl, he really comes across as a person," Theuer said. "He has a real personality. It strikes you immediately: This is an individual. You just have to look him in the eye to see that."
___
Great Ape Project, http://www.greatapeproject.org
Animal Defenders International, http://www.ad-international.org

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Taking a stand

2007-04-28T18:45:00.000-04:00

Here's the way one artist chooses to take a stand: Johan Lorbeer showing his still-life performance "Tarzan-Standbein" on the facade of the city hall of Chemnitz, in eastern Germany, as pedestrians look on. Click HERE to see my post on drunk driving.

The Imus Virus

2007-04-24T09:16:00.000-04:00

"No black man and white woman are going to tell me what I can or can't say!" the man shouted at me from the back of the room.

It was 1980 and my partner Rick and I were leading management training on EEOC compliance.

"Fine," I replied, "as long as you realize you can be held personally and finacially responsible for what you say."

The man shut up, but the scowl on his face remained.

At the time Rick and I were trying to help them understand what sorts of things could get them in trouble, what questions were not to be asked of prospective employees, what was acceptable, what to avoid. That was 27 years ago, and the lesson has still not been learned. Some people just don't get it; they cannot see that words can become weapons, and words can wound.

Let me give you a couple of recent examples, both of which have happened SINCE what we could call the Imus incident. I learned about both of these cases from Bob Herbert's op-ed column in yesterday's New York Times:

Just days after Don Imus was taken off the air for a slur hurled at members of the Rutgers women's basketball team, a police sergeant conducting a roll call at a precinct in Brooklyn is reported to have called the three female officers in the room "hos" as he gave them an order to stand up. The women, two of whom are black and one a Latina, refused to stand.

Another officer, unable to resist the great "fun" of mocking his female colleagues, is reported to have called out, "No, sergeant, not just hos, but nappy-headed hos." The women said they were stunned almost to the point of disbelief by the comments. ... The women remained silent, and seated.

That was April 15, nine days ago. Two days before that a narcotics sergeant in Queens is alleged to have "jokingly" said to a black female officer, "Don't give me no lip or I'll have to call you a nappy-headed ho."

These men seem to think it's all a big joke; the women don't. How can we get it across to them that "racism and sexism are always contemptible and are never harmless" (using Bob Herbert's words again). Degrading comments like these poison the atmosphere, but they are also illegal discrimination in the workplace. Do you suppose a supervisor is likely to recommend a big promotion for an employee he calls a "ho"?

The EEOC response

Naomi C. Earp, Chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the nation’s leading civil rights enforcement agency, spoke out after the remarks by Don Imus, who regularly uses offensive words to shock his radio audience. Earp said in an open letter to Imus and his producer,

As I read the media coverage of the racist and sexist remarks made by radio jock Don Imus and his producer Bernard McGuirk, who collectively referred to the Rutgers University women’s basketball team as “rough,” “hard-core hos,” “nappy-headed hos,” and “jigaboos,” I shuddered and became outraged at the unfairness of the situation. ...

How dare these two men utilize the airwaves to assassinate the reputations and denigrate the accomplishments of these talented Black collegiate women who, against all odds, advanced to the NCAA championship and represented their university in stellar fashion. Given their academic and athletic achievements, these young ladies should have been celebrated and not castigated.

The popular ditty, “sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me,” is untrue. Names, especially racial and sexist slurs, can and do hurt! ... the EEOC intends to make clear that race and color discrimination in the workplace, whether verbal or behavioral, is unacceptable and will not be tolerated. The offensive remarks of Imus and McGuirk, the belated reaction of the networks and radio station, and Imus’ defense of his comments by pointing to rap lyrics -– as if two wrongs make a right -- indicate the need for a clear and unambiguous dialogue about racism in America.

Dialogue? That's what I was trying to do in 1980. It obviously hasn't been enough. What else can be done? Targets of racist and sexist comments should be prepared to do more than remain silent in the face of the despicable remarks. They should react as if they had been slapped in the face. Let me give you an example:

Not all "clergymen" are men

In the late 1980s a ordained clergywoman got up and walked out of a required monthly ministers meeting when the man (yes, of course it was a man) continually referred to ministers as "he" this and "he" that and "him" and "his" and "he" again. She walked up the center aisle from the front of the room to the back and left, slamming the door behind her. After the meeting the clergymen (and they were all men except for me and the clergywoman who was feeling very "slapped" that day) came up to me to ask why she had left. I had not been sitting near her and she had not stopped to tell me why she left, but I knew the answer and tried patiently to explain it to the men. Some of them "got it" but most of them couldn't see what "HER problem" was. *SIGH* It's going to take a long time.

Earp of the EEOC said, "During their diatribe, Imus and McGuirk mentioned Spike Lee’s movie, Do The Right Thing. That’s my challenge to you all – do the right thing. Otherwise, you are part of the problem, and not the solution."

Let's tie up some loose ends. What happened to the people in my examples?

(1) Imus was fired.

(2) The three Brooklyn policewomen who were called "hos" decided to fight back; after initially complaining to the sergeant himself immediately after the roll call (their complaint was brushed aside), they complained to the precinct's integrity control officer and hired a lawyer, Bonita Zelman, who was to file a complaint yesterday morning in federal court.

(3) Their sergeant has been transferred out of their precinct and will no longer be serving in a supervisory position; both he and the officer who joined in the "fun" could be subject to disciplinary charges.

(4) The narcotics sergeant in Queens is also likely to face disciplinary action by the department.

(5) The other clergywoman transferred to another Conference of the United Methodist Church and is now pastor of a large church.

(6) I continued to face those clergymen, but I began to make waves ... during a clergy picnic to welcome new ministers to the district, for instance, one of the men announced there would be a short meeting for the clergy and "the women" (he meant the preachers' wives) would meet inside. To be sure I was heard by all, I asked loudly where exactly he expected ME to go since I was a woman but also clergy? He looked a little annoyed and said, "You know what I meant, Bonnie." Yes, but did HE?

It wasn't just within my own United Methodist denomination that I encountered such lack of awareness and sensitivity. The Catholic hospital in town had a form for "clergymen" to sign. During every hospital visit, I "doctored" the form by scratching out MEN, leaving only CLERGY. It took several years, but the hospital did eventually change the form.

(7) Bonita Zelman, the lawyer hired by the three policewomen, coined a phrase I plan to start using. The police departments and other organizations around the country, she says, are infected with "the Imus virus."

------------
On the Web:

Bob Herbert's column: http://select.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/opinion/23herbert.html?ex=1177473600&en=20ae1659c5818470&ei=5121&emc=eta1

EEOC press release: http://www.eeoc.gov/press/4-12-07a.html
------------

manunkind

2007-04-23T23:42:00.000-04:00

000000poem by e. e. cummings

pity this busy monster,manunkind,

not. Progress is a comfortable disease:
your victim(death and life safely beyond)

plays with the bigness of his littleness
--electrons deify one razorblade
into a mountainrange;lenses extend

unwish through curving wherewhen till unwish
returns on its unself.
000000000000000000 A world of made
is not a world of born--pity poor flesh

and trees,poor stars and stones,but never this
fine specimen of hypermagical
ultraomnipotence. We doctors know

a hopeless case if--listen:there's a hell
of a good universe next door;let's go

Taking a stand against torture

2007-04-23T06:55:00.001-04:00

I am taking a zero-tolerance stance on torture by any government for any reason, including the United States in our war on terror. I recently read The Witch of Cologne by Tobsha Learner, a novel about the Church's own sin, during the inquisition, of torturing a woman accused of being a witch. While taking her from her prison cell to the torture chamber, the guard escorting her was thinking, "If the church is doing it, it must be okay" (my paraphrase). I read about her torture and was appalled. Today many Americans seem to think, "If the government is doing it, it must be okay." It is no "better" for the military or the CIA to be torturing people than the Church. Torture is cruel, inhuman, degrading, and an extreme violation of human rights and should not be tolerated, ever.

Stand up for ...

2007-04-21T17:10:00.000-04:00

Five of us challenged ourselves to list five or more things we'd be willing to take a stand on. I have five, so far, and want to share them here. I may add more in this post, so tell me, what is it that YOU are passionate about?
---------------------
1 ~ I started by taking a stand against drunk driving, which killed my dad.
2 ~ I took a stand on climate change a long time ago and recently got a letter to the editor published in the local newspaper about the National Day of Climate Action.
3 ~ I stand for a war-free planet because I don't believe violence solves anything, and a man called me "a pantywaist protestor" at a recent demonstration.
4 ~ I have taken a stand for integrity in government and against our lying leaders who took us to war on trumped-up charges.
5 ~ I have taken a zero-tolerance stance against torture because it is cruel, inhuman, and degrading.

In the beginning ...

2007-04-21T11:04:00.001-04:00

In the beginning, God created the Heavens and the Earth and populated the Earth with broccoli, cauliflower and spinach, green, yellow, and red vegetables and fruits of all kinds, so Man and Woman would live long and healthy lives.

Then using God's great gifts, Satan created Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream and Krispy Creme Donuts. And Satan said, "You want chocolate with that?" And Man said, "Yes!" and Woman said, "And as long as you're at it, add some sprinkles." And they gained 10 pounds. And Satan smiled.

And God created the healthful yogurt that Woman might keep the figure that Man found so fair. And Satan brought forth white flour from the wheat, and sugar from the cane and combined them. And Woman went from size 6 to size 14.

So God said, "Try my fresh green salad." And Satan presented Thousand-Island Dressing, buttery croutons, and garlic toast on the side. And Man and Woman unfastened their belts following the repast.

God then said, "I have sent you heart healthy vegetables and olive oil in which to cook them." And Satan brought forth deep fried fish and chicken-fried steak so big it needed its own platter. And Man gained more weight and his cholesterol went through the roof.

God then created a light, fluffy white cake, named it "Angel Food Cake," and said, "It is good." Satan then created chocolate cake and named it "Devil's Food."

God then brought forth running shoes so that His children might lose those extra pounds. And Satan gave cable TV with a remote control so Man would not have to toil changing the channels. And Man and Woman laughed and cried before the flickering blue light and gained pounds.

Then God brought forth the potato, naturally low in fat and brimming with nutrition. And Satan peeled off the healthful skin and sliced the starchy center into chips and deep-fried them. And Man gained pounds.

God then gave lean beef so that Man might consume fewer calories and still satisfy his appetite. And Satan created McDonald's and its 99-cent double cheeseburger and said, "You want fries with that?" And Man replied, "Yes! And super size them!" And Satan said, "It is good." And Man went into cardiac arrest.

God sighed and created quadruple bypass surgery. Then Satan created HMOs.

Curious about George?

2007-04-20T04:03:00.000-04:00

Curious George is a monkey. This little fellow wants to know about everything. He explores all kinds of activities and gets into all sorts of fun. But there's another George who is so completely opposite that when asked to explore other options, he insists he will "stay the course" no matter what.

Things keep getting "curiouser and curiouser," as Alice so famously said, as George closes his eyes and ears to what the voters tried to tell him last November. Look in the top left corner of this blog and watch how the financial cost of the Irag war is adding up by the second. Look at the picture of suffering below it. Think about our country's inability to clean up after a hurricane and refusal to do anything official about the dangers of global warming. Consider the anger and hatred toward America that has built up since 9/11. I've had enough, and I'm ready to take another stand. (See the first one below.) I want us to be "curious about George" (George W, that is) and ask ourselves some hard questions, and the first one is this: Why is the United States in such a mess?

I've found someone who articulates some of my concerns very well. Even though he mixes metaphors by saying we have "a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff," this excerpt from Lee Iacocca's new book Where Have All the Leaders Gone? makes some very good points. Click HERE to read an excerpt and become motivated to speak out.

Taking a stand against drunk driving

2007-04-11T14:08:00.000-04:00

Some friends and I have agreed to take a stand on issues dear to our hearts. I have never before blogged about THIS particular issue, but today I'm ready to rant about drinking and driving. Here's why.

This photo shows a wreck involving a car and a semitrailer truck. I'm sure it happens every day, somewhere in the world. But the day that most affected me was in May of 1964, before seat belts were regularly installed in trucks and cars.

My dad was an alcoholic. Not one who got violent, but one who got sappy and teary-eyed when he drank. He had lost his job ... again. So it was his first day on a new job. That evening a couple of young women went out drinking and apparently over-did it. They were in a part of town that was unfamiliar to them, speeding because a car was following them. The semitrailer had just been loaded with mail at the Terminal Station, which is today called "The Chattanooga Choo-Choo." The truck turned onto Main Street and had travelled only two blocks before the women's car shot out of a side street and hit the side of the cab. The car's driver had ignored the stop sign.

Picture this: truck hit from the right, jack-knifes to the left, coming to a stop on the corner of Main and Cowart Streets. The driver, obviously shaken, turned to the other man to express relief that they weren't hurt, but the man was not there! The shocked driver discovered the other fellow, not strapped in (remember, there were no seatbelts in the truck), had been thrown out when the impact flipped open the passenger-side door and then slammed it shut. The momentum of the truck careening to the left threw the other man out of the cab, and he was pinned under the wheels of the fully-loaded trailer.

That man was my dad. He was not the drunken one; that was the driver of the car. Two people died that night, my father and one of the young women. Ironic, isn't it, that he, an alcoholic, was killed by a drunk driver. He had quit drinking and was sober for the last part of his life, yet alcohol still managed to kill him. And there's another irony: Dad had grown up on that corner, where HIS father had had a meat market.

Drunk driving put my dad here:

The Witch of Cologne

2007-03-24T06:33:00.000-04:00

by Tobsha Learner, 2003 (2005 in USA)

I've just read this exchange (on pages 112, 113) between Ruth bas Elazar Saul, a Jew accused of being a witch, and Solitario, one of the inquisitors, while Detlef, a canon (clergy), stands there listening:

Ruth: “I have learned that perception is very much in the eye of the beholder, Monsignor Solitario. A man will see what he desires. You see a witch where others simply see a very good midwife.” ...
Solitario: “I assume this is a philosophy of the heretic of whom you were a disciple, the Jew, Benedict Spinoza, a man who has been excommunicated by his own people.”
“I am one of his followers, this I cannot deny.”
“This man is evil personified, he does not believe in sin. He does not believe in the notion of Heaven and Hell nor even that a man has a soul. He is godless, senorina, like yourself.”
"Liar! I am not godless, and neither is Spinoza. He believes that to understand the knowledge of nature is to know the works of God. And to know the works of God within the creation is to understand God himself, for God dwells in every visible work! Even you, Monsignor.”
“I know what I am.”
But Detlef notices that the inquisitor hesitates as if, like the canon, he is surprised by the young woman’s flawless high German and her urbane articulation of these revolutionary ideas. Concepts Detlef himself has secretly studied in the illegal imported pamphlets Maximilian Heinrich confiscates regularly, heretical treatises by the English Quakers, the Dutch Mennonites, the Tremblers and the Seekers. All pouring across the border from Amsterdam like light radiating out from a submerged city below a dark horizon. The ecstasy he has experienced on reading these writings is tantamount to eroticism. The notions of pantheism, of the marriage of scientia nova with religion, the idea that man may shape his destiny through rational conduct, deeply excite the young canon. For the first time in his life he has found himself doubting the indisputable right of the aristocrat – a hierarchy he was born into and has profited by. On occasion he has even feared for his soul.
And now here before him is a creature – a woman, no less – who has studied and had discourse with those revolutionaries of the Enlightenment who challenge not only a faith but a whole worldview. What is she – witch or philosopher?

We have come so far from the time of the Inquisition of the 1600s, haven't we? We don't hunt down Jews ... well, not since Germany in the 1940s. We don't have witch hunts ... well, not since Joe McCarthy in the 1950s. We don't go to war against other religions ... well, not since we invaded Iraq in 2003. How many Americans believe we are fighting for God and country? Which god? The Christian God? Really?

Women now have equal rights with men ... at least in theory. I remember when job interviews always included, "Do you type?" At least for women. The men weren't asked that question. I found a poster showing Golda Meir, then Prime Minister of Israel, and below her photo was this caption: "But can she type?" As a woman in management, I was expected to type my own reports, although the men in management did not.

Golda Meir (1898-1978)
"But can she type?"

Do I type? Oh, yeah. I type so fast and so accurately that one of my secretaries would close the door between me and her outer office because my speed embarrassed her. Nevertheless, I had decided if I ever applied for another job, I would flat-out LIE if asked, "Do you type?" Oh, no, not I!

Girls in my junior high school were required to take "Home Ec" (home economics, for the uninitiated) and learn how to cook. Boys, on the other hand, were required to take "Shop" (building things). Never the twain shall meet, literally. Entrance to the shop was through the boys' rest room!

Jobs were divided into his and hers, even in the newspaper ads. Women were called "girls" even on the job. Colleges steered "girls" away from medical school or law school; yes, it happened to me. Men were paid more than women, even when they did the same jobs, because "men have families to support."

We don't have second-class citizens ... well, not since President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Of course, after he signed it there was never again another incident of civil rights abuse, right? NOT! Back to the book:

"If she has been arrested by the church, then it must be just," thinks one of the guards escorting Ruth to be tortured (p. 139).

We don't torture people in our enlightened world ... well, not since Abu Ghraib in 2004, during this very war in Iraq. Uh, and maybe in Guantanamo since then. Torture? Yes, condoned by President Bush's cronies.

War-Free Planet

2007-03-18T11:36:00.000-04:00

These two photos from yesterday's demonstrations are probably my favorites. I'm willing to work for a war-free planet! Anti-war protests were held across the country. The people above were in Washington, DC, and the group below was in Hartford, Connecticut.

Credit for both photos goes to the Associated Press.

EU challenges the world

2007-03-09T17:47:00.000-05:00

Today leaders of the European Union (EU) have challenged the world to join them in fighting global warming. The EU has called for energy-saving lighting to be required in homes, offices and streets by the end of this decade and a binding target for 20% renewable sources of energy in use by 2020.

Here's part of the challenge: The leaders are now committed to a target of reducing EU greenhouse gas emissions by 20% by 2020, but they will make that 30% if major nations such as the United States, Russia, China, and India will follow suit.

I don't believe the United States will do much, if anything, as long as the current administration is in office. Somehow we need to educate the American people on this issue. The problem is that our news sources seem more interested in keeping us up-to-date on scandals and the sex lives of the stars rather than REAL NEWS.

What's wrong with this picture? Do we not think it is important to protect the very air we breathe? Do we not understand that if we ruin this earth we don't have anywhere else to go?

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer said, just an hour ago, "The Bush administration is ordering federal wildlife officials headed for international meetings on polar bears not to talk about how climate change and melting ice are affecting the imperiled animals. It is the latest in a string of cases in which the administration has carefully controlled or even banned government employees' public speech about global warming."

Yet the polar bear's habitat is threatened by the melting Arctic sea ice. No, this administration won't take the EU challenge. I hope other countries do.

Make levees, not war

2007-03-06T20:06:00.000-05:00

This reinterpretation of "Make love, not war" that was so popular during the Vietnam War era reminds me that the Bush administration is set on rebuilding Iraq but, after a year and a half, New Orleans is still not rebuilt. Though the Republican party claims Democrats are big on spending tax dollars, this is only semantics. We are spending much more on the wasteful Iraq war than it would cost to feed, house, and educate our nation's poorest people. Food and eduction for Darfur and Somalia would make the whole world safer than propping up corrupt regimes who skim money from the aid we pretend to be sending to feed the people. Maybe we should try compassion instead of bullets. Maybe love and levees and food and education would be a better use for our tax dollars.

Pantywaist Protestors

2007-02-21T13:47:00.000-05:00

President George W. Bush is just now leaving the Convention Center in downtown Chattanooga as I type this. An hour ago I was there on the sidewalk as his entourage swept past and around to the back door of the building. In my hands were two signs protesting the war in Iraq . I was interviewed by the Associated Press, the Chattanooga Times Free Press, and Chattanoogan.com, an "online source for breaking news." At least a hundred people were protesting, some in large groups, some in small groups, some marching along the sidewalks.

And one man was busy protesting against me! He was standing with Bush supporters and shoved HIS sign in front of mine when a local citizen was taking my picture. As with other Bush supporters this man was a name-caller. His sign said "Pantywaist Protestors" and something about "frends [sic] of Osama." My friend Donna, whose sign said "Love thy neighbors pre-emptively," grinned a big grin and proclaimed herself "a proud pantywaist!" One is certainly not being timid when she protests a sitting Republican president in a RED state. I told one reporter, "I have the RED state BLUES."

I'm adding this at 2:30 p.m. EST as our television is showing Bush arrive at Lovell Field, Chattanooga's airport, and wave as he enters Air Force One. He's running late leaving town, over an hour late. The door of the 747 is being closed, getting ready to lift off. He's been here for about 3 hours. And there it goes, as we watch the plane taxi to the end of the runway for takeoff. And up and gone, over the skies of Chattanooga.

From Chattanoogan.com (Feb 21, 07)
... Mr. Sklom said he was part of a group of protesters who originally gathered directly across the street from the Convention Center, about a block away from a group of Bush supporters. But a police officer confronted his group and demanded that they move three blocks away, he explained, as other protesters nodded in agreement.
“The group supporting the president was allowed to stay where they were, he said, “but when we asked the police officer why we had to move, he just said, ‘Because I say so,’ ” Mr. Sklom said indignantly. ...
Some of the people outside the Trade Center said religion played a part in their decisions to be there.
“Jesus wouldn’t go to war,” declared ordained minister Bonnie Setliffe Jacobs, noting that her last assignment prior to her retirement was at Signal Mountain United Methodist Church.
Carrying a large sign covered with photos of victims of the war in Iraq, she said she viewed the president’s visit as an opportunity to protest a variety of wrongs, including the toll that the war is taking on the nation’s poor.
“It’s killing people,” she said. “People don’t have money for health care. They join the military because they can’t get jobs, and then they get sent to Iraq and killed . . . Poverty is a weapon of mass destruction.”

Our priorities

2007-02-20T21:51:00.000-05:00

We built a beautiful church

so men can have a beautiful place

to beg for food.

Moral Mess

2007-02-17T16:02:00.001-05:00

The world is in a moral mess. Take mindlessly forwarding emails, for example. How many of us realize it is like saying these things ourselves? In this case, a friend I shall call "Gertrude" sent me this FWD yesterday:

Darn Tootin, Amen!!!!

WOULDN'T IT BE GREAT TO TURN ON THE TV AND HEAR ANY U.S. PRESIDENT, DEMOCRAT OR REPUBLICAN GIVE THE FOLLOWING SPEECH?

My Fellow Americans: As you all know, the defeat of Iraq regime has been completed. Since congress does not want to spend any more money on this war, our mission in Iraq is complete. This morning I gave the order for a complete removal of all American forces from Iraq. This action will be complete within 30 days. It is now time to begin the reckoning.

Before me, I have two lists. One list contains the names of countries which have stood by our side during the Iraq conflict. This list is short. The United Kingdom, Spain, Bulgaria, Australia, and Poland are some of the countries listed there. The other list contains everyone not on the first list. Most of the world's nations are on that list. My press secretary will be distributing copies of both lists later this evening.

Let me start by saying that effective immediately, foreign aid to those nations on List 2 ceases immediately and indefinitely. The money saved during the first year alone will pretty much pay for the costs of the Iraqi war.

The American people are no longer going to pour money into third world Hellholes and watch those government leaders grow fat on corruption. Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France.

In the future, together with Congress, I will work to redirect this money toward solving the vexing social problems we still have at home. On that note, a word to terrorist organizations. Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth. Thirsting for a gutsy country to terrorize? Try France, or maybe China.

I am ordering the immediate severing of diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia. Thanks for all your help, comrades. We are retiring from NATO as well. Bon chance, mes amis.

I have instructed the Mayor of New York City to begin towing the many UN diplomatic vehicles located in Manhattan with more than two unpaid parking tickets to sites where those vehicles will be stripped, shredded and crushed. I don't care about whatever treaty pertains to this. You creeps have tens of thousands of unpaid tickets. Pay those tickets tomorrow or watch your precious Benzes, Beamers and limos be turned over to some of the finest chop shops in the world. I love New York.

A special note to our neighbors. Canada is on List 2. Since we are likely to be seeing a lot more of each other, you folks might want to try not pissing us off for a change.

Mexico is also on List 2. President Fox and his entire corrupt government really need an attitude adjustment. I will have a couple extra tank and infantry divisions sitting around. Guess where I am going to put em? Yep, border security. Oh, by the way, the United States is abrogating the NAFTA treaty -- starting now.

We are tired of the one-way highway. Immediaely, we'll be drilling for oil in Alaska - which will take care of this country's oil needs for decades to come. If you're an environmentalist who opposes this decision, I refer you to List 2 above: pick a country and move there. They care.

It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens. Some will accuse us of isolationism. I answer them by saying, "darn tootin."

Nearly a century of trying to help folks live a decent life around the world has only earned us the undying enmity of just about everyone on the planet. It is time to eliminate hunger in America. It is time to eliminate homelessness in America. To the nations on List 1, a final thought. Thank you guys. We owe you and we won't forget.

To the nations on List 2, a final thought: You might want to learn to speak Arabic.

God bless America. Thank you and good night.

Dear Gertrude,

I think we've been through this before, but here's another email that is so far beyond my understanding of Jesus's command to love one another, that I am hard pressed to find words to respond to you. Getting out of Iraq's civil war is a good idea, but pay back for being "on the wrong list" sounds exactly like the agenda of al-Qaeda to me. Did Jesus say "love your enemies" or "become exactly like the worst of them"? You said, "Screw with us and we will hunt you down and eliminate you and all your friends from the face of the earth." Yep, that sounds exactly like al-Qaeda to me.

I really would like for us not to "pour money into third world hellholes" because our money (and our meddling) has caused more hell on earth than if we had stayed out of other people's business. "Need help with a famine? Wrestling with an epidemic? Call France," you said. What comes to mind for me is something similar, but with a twist: "Sitting on your roof for days? Drowning in the aftermath of Katrina? Call France or some country with compassion because President Bush sure as heck doesn't care about you!"

Severing diplomatic relations with France, Germany, and Russia? Leaving NATO? Telling Canada to "try not pissing us off"? Why don't we forget about diplomacy and just tell the rest of the world we prefer having all enemies rather than friends. Dubya has already taken us farther along THAT road than I like. On the other hand, we do need to work out a way that UN diplomats not be able to flaunt their privileges by hurting their host city of New York. Chop shops for their cars is NOT the best way to deal with that problem. Violence doesn't solve problems, but creates new ones. You said, "I love New York." I guess that means "as opposed to New Orleans"?

Paying for the costs of the Iraq war? Money saved by eliminating foreign aid doesn't "pay the costs" of the war in Iraq. Who would bring back the lives of the thousands who have died? Who can replace the legs and arms and bodies of our troops maimed and crippled? Who understands their suffering and pain and mental anguish? Who can erase the horrors our young people can't get out of their minds after seeing blood and gore and disembodied limbs? War is hell, as one general so famously said, and money can't even begin to cover the costs to the people involved.

Drilling for oil in Alaska? Have you bothered to read about the damage that would cause? Are you aware of what's happening because of global warming? Why not find an alternative to gasoline, which is NOT a renewable resource, instead of making sure the good ole boys of the oil industry continue to rake in billions of dollars in profits? We need an alternative that stops our massive pollution of the atmosphere, which is causing climate change and melting the glaciers all over the world. Global warming is now so obvious that even George W. Bush is finally beginning to get the picture, slow as he is.

"God bless America," you say, but you don't ask God's blessings on the rest of the world, not even the hungry and dying around the world. I do agree with this sentence: "It is time for America to focus on its own welfare and its own citizens." Good idea, if we could convince Bush and the Republicans that the tired, the poor, the homeless, and the underpaid are also "American citizens" as much as the bloated, pampered, obscenely wealthy, and overpaid billionaire executives and their crowd. If any president ever said these things, I would be embarassed to be an American and would move to the Netherlands.

God, I cannot understand people who are as self-centered as that email indicates, and I pray that you will soften their hard hearts so love can grow there. Amen.

~~~ Bonnie

And now the follow-up. Gertrude wrote back saying, "Dear Bonnie, I don't remember who sent this to me, but I forwarded it to you and one other. Fortunately, I didn't write this!! So, I didn't SAY any of these things. I'm going to send your reply to the person who sent it to me. Your reply makes good sense and I'm also sending it to my former pastor..."

Ah, Gertrude, you forget having typed "Only in our dreams!!!!" when you forwarded the email to me. Four, count them, FOUR exclamation marks. Yes, dear Gertrude, you DID write this email, "in your dreams." You agreed with it, perhaps mindlessly, but you did agree with it or you wouldn't have sent it to all your friends. When you forward an email, unless you post a disclaimer that this is such rubbish (or whatever), then you ARE saying it is what you think. And that is so sad. Worst of all is the moral mess in the minds of those who fail to follow the way of compassion and love, but instead spew more hatred around the world. God help us!

The Great Transformation

2007-02-13T19:27:00.000-05:00

: The Beginning of our Religious Traditions
by Karen Armstrong, copyright 2006

In the ninth century BCE, the peoples of four distinct regions of the civilized world created the religious and philosophical traditions that have continued to nourish humanity to the present day: Confucianism and Daoism in China, Hinduism and Buddhism in India, monotheism in Israel, and philosophical rationalism in Greece. Despite some differences of emphasis, there was a remarkable consensus in their call for a spirituality of compassion and an abandonment of selfishness.

Armstrong says that the sages of the Axial age gave their people, and give us, two important pieces of advice: first there must be personal responsibility and self-criticism, and it must be followed by practical, effective action. These spiritualities challenge the way we are religious today, when we often equate faith with doctrinal conformity, but the traditions of the Axial Age were not about dogma. All insisted on the primacy of compassion, even in the midst of suffering.

John Templeton says the same thing in his book Agape Love: A Tradition Found in Eight World Religions, copyright 1999. The eight religions he searched for evidence of love and compassion were Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, and Native American Spirituality. (Notice the spelling of "Taoism," which is pronounced as Armstrong spells it, "Daoism.")

Even though I have taught Religions of the World for over a decade at Chattanooga State, reading the tiny book Agape Love was the first time I had realized that compassion tied together all the major religions of the world. And now we have Karen Armstrong's 469-page tome to show us how and when this call for compassion occurred. She, however, has added a dimension I have long thought should be included, the philosophical rationalism of the Greeks that so clearly affects Western thinking.

This book needs the insights of several good minds exploring it together, so I hope some of you will speak up with your observations. I plan to post comments here as I continue to read the book, and I welcome your perceptions.

The Heart of Christianity

2007-02-03T03:56:00.000-05:00

: Rediscovering a Life of Faith

"Listen to your life. Listen to what happens to you because it is through what happens to you that God speaks. It's in language that's not always easy to decipher, but it's there powerfully, memorably, unforgettably." -- Frederick Buechner, quoted by Borg (page 73)

Emerging Paradigm
Increasingly, people are beginning to understand Christianity in a different way. This division, according to Borg, can be seen as an "earlier" paradigm and an "emerging" paradigm. A paradigm, of course, is a way of seeing the whole; it's a large framework for understanding reality. The earlier paradigm is centered on belief, but the emerging paradigm revolves around the need for transformation: (1) transforming the self through a dynamic experience of God, who is not separate from us but a part of us, and (2) transforming society. Religions are "communities of transformation" (page 215).

Metaphorical Language
We need to move beyond literalism, Borg says, and see that religious language is mostly metaphorical language, which can be profoundly true.

When children ask about a biblical story, "Is that a true story?" they may be asking, "Did it happen?" But they are likely to be satisfied with an answer like, "Well, I don't know if it happened or not, but I know it's a true and important story" (page 195).

Metaphorical language is MORE than historical or factual and has a surplus of meaning. As Borg said in a lecture on March 11, 2006, "The Bible is true, and some of it happened."

Relationships
The really important issue is relationship and the transformation that flows out of it. We "grow" our relationships by paying attention to the beloved. How do we experience God? How are we supposed to "love" God?

Loving God means paying attention to God and to what God loves. The way we do this is through "practice" (page 187).

In other words, it is something we DO, not something we believe. Modern Christianity, especially Protestant Christianity, has not made practice central. Other religions do: Judaism is primarily about following the way of Torah. Buddhists follow the eightfold path. Four of the five pillars of Islam are about practice, one of which is praying five times a day. Borg says:

"I have been told that the five prayers together take about forty minutes, and I have often wondered how we as Christians would be different if we spent forty minutes a day in prayer" (page 188).

Practicing our relationship with God is all about "beloving" God. Christianity is a way of life. To love God and neighbor, we must love what God loves -- and that means not only loving the people (neighbor, self, enemy), but loving all of creation. Have you practiced compassion today? Have you done justice today? Have you cared for the earth today? Oops, now I've quit preaching and gone to meddling! I'll end with something Borg said, when I heard him last March: "Practice is how we actualize grace."

========================================
Click here to connect with the "Emerging" community
http://www.copperhousepress.com/archive.html
========================================