I met a woman just the other day in Baltimore who told me about her video "Apple vs. Snack Cake battle to the death for the farm bill", and I was intrigued. After reading Animal Vegetable Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver, I've been extra pumped about spreading local farming and supporting small organic co-ops. The Farm Bill is definitely Pork-laden and unsavory. Everyone should learn about it and do something soon! Even if just sharing this video with friends. It's a humorous look at a complicated subject. Let's hear it for the Apple!
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Old-Fashioned American Arrogance
When the E.U. implored Texas to halt the death penalty, the Governor's rep responded:
Seriously, there's a respectful way to handle disagreement, and then an asinine way. Besides which, I will never understand why Texas thinks they are effective. Shouldn't they have the least number of executions if they deter people?
"Two hundred and thirty years ago, our forefathers fought a war to throw off the yoke of a European monarch and gain the freedom of self-determination.
"Texans long ago decided the death penalty is a just and appropriate punishment for the most horrible crimes committed against our citizens.
"While we respect our friends in Europe ... Texans are doing just fine governing Texas."
According to the Washington-based Death Penalty Information Center, 1,090 executions have taken place in the US since the Supreme Court lifted a ban on capital punishment in 1976.
Texas has carried out more than a third of those.
Read more hereSeriously, there's a respectful way to handle disagreement, and then an asinine way. Besides which, I will never understand why Texas thinks they are effective. Shouldn't they have the least number of executions if they deter people?
Thursday, August 9, 2007
Facebook and MySpace, the class divide?
Class War: MySpace vs. Facebook
By Claire Cain Miller, Forbes.com
I can see that. It's interesting that their concern is how to make us consume MORE and MORE instead of why affluence is displayed the way it is. I, for one, didn't ever consider MySpace. It's cluttered, SPAMrific and POP-UP laden and messy. I don't know if I know anyone with
one. I got Facebook when my school was added (after some resistance!) as an easy alternative to online journaling. Just the facts :) Now it too is cluttered and becoming a creepy
stalker zone. Sad. And I don't click the ads, for the record!
By Claire Cain Miller, Forbes.com
A flurry of recent articles have observed that young people are leaving
MySpace for Facebook in droves, setting off speculation that MySpace is becoming
the latest victim of fickle teens following the hot new thing.Not so, says
University of California, Berkeley, researcher Danah Boyd. Not all teens are
leaving MySpace, she wrote in a recent essay--instead, they're splitting up
along class lines.Boyd confirms what teens in any high school across the country
already know: Affluent kids from educated, well-to-do families have been fleeing
MySpace for Facebook since it opened registration to the general public in
September, while working-class kids still flock to MySpace.
That could have
big implications for advertisers targeting the coveted teenaged population
online, three-quarters of whom have a profile on a social network. Both
sites have been powerhouses for advertisers because of their huge,
wide-reaching
audiences, says Robin Neifield, chief executive of interactive
marketing agency
NetPlus Marketing. That strategy could change if the sites
become more like the
niche social networks popping up across the Web for
groups of like-minded people
from similar backgrounds.
Boyd's essay came
amid speculation about the future of the social network giants. Despite the fact
that MySpace still gets more than twice as many unique visitors as Facebook,
it's littered with postings announcing that users, often teens, are switching to
its rival.The number of Facebook visitors ages 12 to 17 jumped 149% over the
past year, while MySpace lost 27% of teens, according to ComScore Media Metrix.
Rupert Murdoch, whose News Corp.owns MySpace, even lamented in an interview that
he was losing readers to Facebook. News Corp. is rumored to be considering
swapping MySpace for a 25% stake in Yahoo! Estimated ad revenue for 2007
calendar year for Facebook is $125 million, $525 million for MySpace, according
to research firm eMarketer.
Together, the two account for 72% of all online
advertising on social networks. There's a reason why the "goody-two-shoes,
jocks, athletes or other 'good' kids" are going to Facebook, says Boyd, who
studies social networks and youth culture and made her observations based on
formal interviews with 90 teens, informal interviews with hundreds more, and the
perusal of tens of thousands of teens' online profiles. Facebook launched in
2004 as a site for Harvard students. Gradually, it opened up to other college
students, then to high school kids if a college student invited them. "Facebook
is what the college kids did. Not surprisingly, college-bound high schoolers
desperately wanted in," Boyd writes. MySpace, meanwhile, is the "cool
working-class thing" for high school students getting a job after graduation
rather than heading to the Ivy League, Boyd writes. Constant local news stories
on predators targeting kids on MySpace further alienated the "good kids," she
says. Both companies declined to comment on Boyd's essay.
I can see that. It's interesting that their concern is how to make us consume MORE and MORE instead of why affluence is displayed the way it is. I, for one, didn't ever consider MySpace. It's cluttered, SPAMrific and POP-UP laden and messy. I don't know if I know anyone with
one. I got Facebook when my school was added (after some resistance!) as an easy alternative to online journaling. Just the facts :) Now it too is cluttered and becoming a creepy
stalker zone. Sad. And I don't click the ads, for the record!
Monday, August 6, 2007
In Memory of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
Peace Declaration, August 6, 2007
That fateful summer, 8:15. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast ― silence ― hell on Earth.
The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies―Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.
Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.
But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.
And yet, the message born of that agony is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. To ensure that “no one else ever suffers as we did,” the hibakusha have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.
Despite their best efforts, vast arsenals of nuclear weapons remain in high states of readiness―deployed or easily available. Proliferation is gaining momentum, and the human family still faces the peril of extinction. This is because a handful of old-fashioned leaders, clinging to an early 20th century worldview in thrall to the rule of brute strength, are rejecting global democracy, turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings and the message of the hibakusha.
However, here in the 21st century the time has come when these problems can actually be solved through the power of the people. Former colonies have become independent. Democratic governments have taken root. Learning the lessons of history, people have created international rules prohibiting attacks on non-combatants and the use of inhumane weapons. They have worked hard to make the United Nations an instrument for the resolution of international disputes. And now city governments, entities that have always walked with and shared in the tragedy and pain of their citizens, are rising up. In the light of human wisdom, they are leveraging the voices of their citizens to lift international politics.
Because “Cities suffer most from war,” Mayors for Peace, with 1,698 city members around the world, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.
In Hiroshima, we are continuing our effort to communicate the A-bomb experience by holding A-bomb exhibitions in 101 cities in the US and facilitating establishment of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses in universities around the world. American mayors have taken the lead in our Cities Are Not Targets project. Mayors in the Czech Republic are opposing the deployment of a missile defense system. The mayor of Guernica-Lumo is calling for a resurgence of morality in international politics. The mayor of Ypres is providing an international secretariat for Mayors for Peace, while other Belgian mayors are contributing funds, and many more mayors around the world are working with their citizens on pioneering initiatives. In October this year, at the World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of our planet’s population, cities will express the will of humanity as we call for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The government of Japan, the world’s only A-bombed nation, is duty-bound to humbly learn the philosophy of the hibakusha along with the facts of the atomic bombings and to spread this knowledge through the world. At the same time, to abide by international law and fulfill its good-faith obligation to press for nuclear weapons abolition, the Japanese government should take pride in and protect, as is, the Peace Constitution, while clearly saying “No,” to obsolete and mistaken US policies. We further demand, on behalf of the hibakusha whose average age now exceeds 74, improved and appropriate assistance, to be extended also to those living overseas or exposed in “black rain areas.”
Sixty-two years after the atomic bombing, we offer today our heartfelt prayers for the peaceful repose of all its victims and of Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki shot down on his way toward nuclear weapons abolition. Let us pledge here and now to take all actions required to bequeath to future generations a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima
That fateful summer, 8:15. The roar of a B-29 breaks the morning calm. A parachute opens in the blue sky. Then suddenly, a flash, an enormous blast ― silence ― hell on Earth.
The eyes of young girls watching the parachute were melted. Their faces became giant charred blisters. The skin of people seeking help dangled from their fingernails. Their hair stood on end. Their clothes were ripped to shreds. People trapped in houses toppled by the blast were burned alive. Others died when their eyeballs and internal organs burst from their bodies―Hiroshima was a hell where those who somehow survived envied the dead.
Within the year, 140,000 had died. Many who escaped death initially are still suffering from leukemia, thyroid cancer, and a vast array of other afflictions.
But there was more. Sneered at for their keloid scars, discriminated against in employment and marriage, unable to find understanding for profound emotional wounds, survivors suffered and struggled day after day, questioning the meaning of life.
And yet, the message born of that agony is a beam of light now shining the way for the human family. To ensure that “no one else ever suffers as we did,” the hibakusha have continuously spoken of experiences they would rather forget, and we must never forget their accomplishments in preventing a third use of nuclear weapons.
Despite their best efforts, vast arsenals of nuclear weapons remain in high states of readiness―deployed or easily available. Proliferation is gaining momentum, and the human family still faces the peril of extinction. This is because a handful of old-fashioned leaders, clinging to an early 20th century worldview in thrall to the rule of brute strength, are rejecting global democracy, turning their backs on the reality of the atomic bombings and the message of the hibakusha.
However, here in the 21st century the time has come when these problems can actually be solved through the power of the people. Former colonies have become independent. Democratic governments have taken root. Learning the lessons of history, people have created international rules prohibiting attacks on non-combatants and the use of inhumane weapons. They have worked hard to make the United Nations an instrument for the resolution of international disputes. And now city governments, entities that have always walked with and shared in the tragedy and pain of their citizens, are rising up. In the light of human wisdom, they are leveraging the voices of their citizens to lift international politics.
Because “Cities suffer most from war,” Mayors for Peace, with 1,698 city members around the world, is actively campaigning to eliminate all nuclear weapons by 2020.
In Hiroshima, we are continuing our effort to communicate the A-bomb experience by holding A-bomb exhibitions in 101 cities in the US and facilitating establishment of Hiroshima-Nagasaki Peace Study Courses in universities around the world. American mayors have taken the lead in our Cities Are Not Targets project. Mayors in the Czech Republic are opposing the deployment of a missile defense system. The mayor of Guernica-Lumo is calling for a resurgence of morality in international politics. The mayor of Ypres is providing an international secretariat for Mayors for Peace, while other Belgian mayors are contributing funds, and many more mayors around the world are working with their citizens on pioneering initiatives. In October this year, at the World Congress of United Cities and Local Governments, which represents the majority of our planet’s population, cities will express the will of humanity as we call for the elimination of nuclear weapons.
The government of Japan, the world’s only A-bombed nation, is duty-bound to humbly learn the philosophy of the hibakusha along with the facts of the atomic bombings and to spread this knowledge through the world. At the same time, to abide by international law and fulfill its good-faith obligation to press for nuclear weapons abolition, the Japanese government should take pride in and protect, as is, the Peace Constitution, while clearly saying “No,” to obsolete and mistaken US policies. We further demand, on behalf of the hibakusha whose average age now exceeds 74, improved and appropriate assistance, to be extended also to those living overseas or exposed in “black rain areas.”
Sixty-two years after the atomic bombing, we offer today our heartfelt prayers for the peaceful repose of all its victims and of Iccho Itoh, the mayor of Nagasaki shot down on his way toward nuclear weapons abolition. Let us pledge here and now to take all actions required to bequeath to future generations a nuclear-weapon-free world.
Tadatoshi Akiba
Mayor
The City of Hiroshima
Eating local vs. Reducing Fuel Consumption
THE term “food miles” — how far food has traveled before you buy it — has entered the enlightened lexicon. Environmental groups, especially in Europe, are pushing for labels that show how far food has traveled to get to the market, and books like Barbara Kingsolver’s “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle: A Year of Food Life” contemplate the damage wrought by trucking, shipping and flying food from distant parts of the globe.
There are many good reasons for eating local — freshness, purity, taste, community cohesion and preserving open space — but none of these benefits compares to the much-touted claim that eating local reduces fossil fuel consumption. In this respect eating local joins recycling, biking to work and driving a hybrid as a realistic way that we can, as individuals, shrink our carbon footprint and be good stewards of the environment.
On its face, the connection between lowering food miles and decreasing greenhouse gas emissions is a no-brainer. In Iowa, the typical carrot has traveled 1,600 miles from California, a potato 1,200 miles from Idaho and a chuck roast 600 miles from Colorado. Seventy-five percent of the apples sold in New York City come from the West Coast or overseas, the writer Bill McKibben says, even though the state produces far more apples than city residents consume. These examples just scratch the surface of the problem. In light of this market redundancy, the only reasonable reaction, it seems, is to count food miles the way a dieter counts calories.
But is reducing food miles necessarily good for the environment? Researchers at Lincoln University in New Zealand, no doubt responding to Europe’s push for “food miles labeling,” recently published a study challenging the premise that more food miles automatically mean greater fossil fuel consumption. Other scientific studies have undertaken similar investigations. According to this peer-reviewed research, compelling evidence suggests that there is more — or less — to food miles than meets the eye.
It all depends on how you wield the carbon calculator. Instead of measuring a product’s carbon footprint through food miles alone, the Lincoln University scientists expanded their equations to include other energy-consuming aspects of production — what economists call “factor inputs and externalities” — like water use, harvesting techniques, fertilizer outlays, renewable energy applications, means of transportation (and the kind of fuel used), the amount of carbon dioxide absorbed during photosynthesis, disposal of packaging, storage procedures and dozens of other cultivation inputs.
Incorporating these measurements into their assessments, scientists reached surprising conclusions. Most notably, they found that lamb raised on New Zealand’s clover-choked pastures and shipped 11,000 miles by boat to Britain produced 1,520 pounds of carbon dioxide emissions per ton while British lamb produced 6,280 pounds of carbon dioxide per ton, in part because poorer British pastures force farmers to use feed. In other words, it is four times more energy-efficient for Londoners to buy lamb imported from the other side of the world than to buy it from a producer in their backyard. Similar figures were found for dairy products and fruit.
These life-cycle measurements are causing environmentalists worldwide to rethink the logic of food miles. New Zealand’s most prominent environmental research organization, Landcare Research-Manaaki Whenua, explains that localism “is not always the most environmentally sound solution if more emissions are generated at other stages of the product life cycle than during transport.” The British government’s 2006 Food Industry Sustainability Strategy similarly seeks to consider the environmental costs “across the life cycle of the produce,” not just in transportation.
“Eat local” advocates — a passionate cohort of which I am one — are bound to interpret these findings as a threat. We shouldn’t. Not only do life cycle analyses offer genuine opportunities for environmentally efficient food production, but they also address several problems inherent in the eat-local philosophy.
Consider the most conspicuous ones: it is impossible for most of the world to feed itself a diverse and healthy diet through exclusively local food production — food will always have to travel; asking people to move to more fertile regions is sensible but alienating and unrealistic; consumers living in developed nations will, for better or worse, always demand choices beyond what the season has to offer.
Given these problems, wouldn’t it make more sense to stop obsessing over food miles and work to strengthen comparative geographical advantages? And what if we did this while streamlining transportation services according to fuel-efficient standards? Shouldn’t we create development incentives for regional nodes of food production that can provide sustainable produce for the less sustainable parts of the nation and the world as a whole? Might it be more logical to conceptualize a hub-and-spoke system of food production and distribution, with the hubs in a food system’s naturally fertile hot spots and the spokes, which travel through the arid zones, connecting them while using hybrid engines and alternative sources of energy?
As concerned consumers and environmentalists, we must be prepared to seriously entertain these questions. We must also be prepared to accept that buying local is not necessarily beneficial for the environment. As much as this claim violates one of our most sacred assumptions, life cycle assessments offer far more valuable measurements to gauge the environmental impact of eating. While there will always be good reasons to encourage the growth of sustainable local food systems, we must also allow them to develop in tandem with what could be their equally sustainable global counterparts. We must accept the fact, in short, that distance is not the enemy of awareness.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
Condoleezza Rice Biggest Threat to Mideast
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6923430.stm
Iran 'biggest threat to Mid-East'
US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has warned that Iran poses the biggest threat to US Middle East interests, as she begins a major regional tour.
Ms Rice says Iran, not the US is the region's main problemMs Rice and US Defence Secretary Robert Gates are meeting Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Arab ministers at the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh.
The meeting comes after Washington confirmed plans for a massive arms deal for the region.
The tour is aimed at uniting US allies against Iran, Syria and Hezbollah.
Ms Rice denied Iranian claims that US policies were spreading fear in the Middle East.
Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini had accused the US of tarnishing good relations between countries of the region.
Tuesday: meeting ministers from the Gulf Co-operation Council, as well as Egyptian President Hosni MubarakSaudi Arabia
Tuesday: meeting King Abdullah to discuss Iraq and other issuesIsrael
Wednesday: meeting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, President Shimon Peres and other senior ministersWest Bank
Wednesday-Thursday: talks with President Mahmoud Abbas
Iran's nuclear programme and influence among Shia Muslim militant groups have long been sources of US concern.
During a stop-over in Shannon, Ireland, Ms Rice told reporters: "There isn't a doubt, I think, that Iran constitutes the single most important, single-country challenge to... US interests in the Middle East and to the kind of Middle East that we want to see."
The trip is the two officials' first joint tour of the region.
They will visit Egypt and Saudi Arabia together, and other countries separately.
Mr Gates told reporters travelling with him that US officials wanted "to reassure all of the countries that the policies that (US President George W Bush) pursues in Iraq have had and will continue to have regional stability and security as a very high priority".
Congressional opposition
The main beneficiaries of the deals are Israel, Egypt and Saudi Arabia.
The $30bn aid to Israel over 10 years represents a 25% increase from present levels.
The Jewish state said the package would allow it to maintain its military "qualitative edge" in the region.
The sale of satellite-guided bombs to Saudi Arabia, the first such sale to any Arab country, is thought to be part of the proposed $20bn arms deal with the kingdom and give other Gulf states - the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman.
During their lobbying tour of the region, Ms Rice and Mr Gates are expected to ask Saudi King Abdullah to do more to support the Iraqi government of Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Maliki.
The US ambassador to the United Nations, Zalmay Khalilzad, has gone as far as accusing Saudi Arabia of undermining efforts to stabilise Iraq.
The weapons deals need to be approved by Congress, and appear set to encounter opposition.
Two Democratic congressmen, Anthony Weiner and Jerrold Nadler of New York, said at the weekend they would introduce legislation to block military aid to Saudi Arabia.
God help us! This is totally absurd. More money to Israel, antagonizing Iran, and calling for peace. Will someone please do something?!?!
Friday, July 27, 2007
Empathetic Evictee
As I glanced out the front window of our office yesterday, I was surprised to see several men carrying what appeared to be an entire household's worth of belongings outside and setting them in the busy street. It only took a few moments to gather that I was witnessing an eviction, though in my lifetime I had not seen one before. I don't live in the city.
My boss was sort of amused by my curiosity and astonishment, he having worked years with tenants to prevent them from losing their homes. Amused in a dark way, his shrug saying "there's nothing we can do, it happens all the time" but his eyes filled with the sorrow of the perpetual tragedy of homelessness. Then the human crows and vultures arrived, with their instinct to take that which can be taken, to feed their own need. Crowds gathered around the carcass of a family, the material things that sustained their life. Like ants they carried off the treasures that seemed too large for transport, leaving only the skeletal remains of the furnishings.
I wonder what happened when the family came 'home' to their empty locked apartment, to their possessions strewn across York Road.
Driving home past the free-for-all, I recalled the experience I had just weeks ago standing on the rubble of a home in the West Bank, another family destroyed by official decree. When I stepped into my comfortable suburbian residence, I was not prepared for the storm of emotional trauma that awaited me. Apparently my father was upset about something and I had once again triggered his wrath to be released on myself in a fit of fury. I could not do another thing until I had removed all signs of my existence from the lower half of the house, at my father's oh-so-gracious request. He wasn't the only one who had had a long day! I wept as I carried everything I owned to a "safe spot" in my room, now so full I can't walk in it.
This I coined "emotional eviction" because I was profoundly impacted with the realization that my dad wanted nothing to do with me anymore, that I have always been, in his eyes, a waste of good space. My naivety that suggested I could blithely carry on living with my parents as though all was well was shattered last evening, when I discovered that I am merely an annoyance to my family, and that our relationships have dissolved to nothing more than my parasitic use of their space. My mom was blessedly distraught and on my side, but also helpless to my plight of being removed from the premise, figuratively, and from the living area, physically.
So seven o' clock rolled around as I thankfully escaped the oppressive environment of my parents' house for a lecture by Arik Ascherman, founder/director of Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He was speaking a lot about Palestinian home demolitions as a human rights violation, in which I concurred fully. I can easily see how anger, sorrow, and humiliation well up inside as you are evicted from your safe place and forced to watch your years of hard work turn to dust, until all you want is to destroy someone. It is dreadful and violent and I feel guilty for feeling angry and hateful, but it seems only natural sometimes. I empathize.
So many people in the world have no home or have had theirs taken from them by force. So many people who have roofs over their heads do not feel secure and safe where they live. It is a crime. I had a friend who took me in for the night, many are not so fortunate to have such connections. It seems so hopeless, how can humans do this to one another?
My boss was sort of amused by my curiosity and astonishment, he having worked years with tenants to prevent them from losing their homes. Amused in a dark way, his shrug saying "there's nothing we can do, it happens all the time" but his eyes filled with the sorrow of the perpetual tragedy of homelessness. Then the human crows and vultures arrived, with their instinct to take that which can be taken, to feed their own need. Crowds gathered around the carcass of a family, the material things that sustained their life. Like ants they carried off the treasures that seemed too large for transport, leaving only the skeletal remains of the furnishings.
I wonder what happened when the family came 'home' to their empty locked apartment, to their possessions strewn across York Road.
Driving home past the free-for-all, I recalled the experience I had just weeks ago standing on the rubble of a home in the West Bank, another family destroyed by official decree. When I stepped into my comfortable suburbian residence, I was not prepared for the storm of emotional trauma that awaited me. Apparently my father was upset about something and I had once again triggered his wrath to be released on myself in a fit of fury. I could not do another thing until I had removed all signs of my existence from the lower half of the house, at my father's oh-so-gracious request. He wasn't the only one who had had a long day! I wept as I carried everything I owned to a "safe spot" in my room, now so full I can't walk in it.
This I coined "emotional eviction" because I was profoundly impacted with the realization that my dad wanted nothing to do with me anymore, that I have always been, in his eyes, a waste of good space. My naivety that suggested I could blithely carry on living with my parents as though all was well was shattered last evening, when I discovered that I am merely an annoyance to my family, and that our relationships have dissolved to nothing more than my parasitic use of their space. My mom was blessedly distraught and on my side, but also helpless to my plight of being removed from the premise, figuratively, and from the living area, physically.
So seven o' clock rolled around as I thankfully escaped the oppressive environment of my parents' house for a lecture by Arik Ascherman, founder/director of Rabbis for Human Rights in Jerusalem. He was speaking a lot about Palestinian home demolitions as a human rights violation, in which I concurred fully. I can easily see how anger, sorrow, and humiliation well up inside as you are evicted from your safe place and forced to watch your years of hard work turn to dust, until all you want is to destroy someone. It is dreadful and violent and I feel guilty for feeling angry and hateful, but it seems only natural sometimes. I empathize.
So many people in the world have no home or have had theirs taken from them by force. So many people who have roofs over their heads do not feel secure and safe where they live. It is a crime. I had a friend who took me in for the night, many are not so fortunate to have such connections. It seems so hopeless, how can humans do this to one another?
Monday, July 23, 2007
Letty Russell, feminist theologian, dies
New York, July 16, 2007 (Yale Divinity School News) – Letty Mandeville Russell, one of the world's foremost feminist theologians and longtime member of the Yale Divinity School faculty, died Thursday, July 12 at her home in Guilford, Conn. She was 77.
"Letty Russell served a whole generation of women who were ordained in the 1970s in a special way," said the Rev. Dr. Eileen W. Lindner, deputy general secretary of the National Council of Churches for Research and Planning. "Mentor and friend, she set the bar high and enabled many women to acquire the skills and depth to take up their vocations and to sustain them."
She was one of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church and served the East Harlem Protestant Parish in New York City from 1952-68, including 10 years as pastor of the Presbyterian Church of the Ascension. She joined the faculty of Yale Divinity School in 1974 as an assistant professor of theology, rose to the rank of professor in 1985 and retired in 2001. In retirement, she continued to teach some courses at Yale Divinity School as a visiting professor.
"There is perhaps no other feminist theologian who has been more dedicated to ecumenical, interfaith, and international theological dialogue. Hers has been the influence not of imposition but of partnership. Yet her work has challenged everyone, not only because of its substance but because of her own commitment to making the world both more just and more hospitable."
Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza, the Krister Stendahl Professor at Harvard Divinity School, said, "She pioneered feminist theology not only in theology and ethics but also in biblical studies....Letty was not only a great liberation theologian but also a great church-woman. She knew how to utilize the resources of church and university for nurturing a feminist movement around the world....As a skilled organizer she worked tirelessly for wo/men and feminist liberation theology."
Russell graduated with a B.A. in biblical history and philosophy in 1951 from Wellesley College, and she was among the first women to receive an S.T.B. from Harvard Divinity School, in theology and ethics, in 1958. She earned an S.T.M. from Union Theological Seminary in New York in Christian education and theology in 1967 and two years later received a Th.D. in mission theology and ecumenics from Union.
A global advocate for women, Russell was a member of the Yale Divinity School Women's Initiative on Gender, Faith, and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa and was co-coordinator of the International Feminist Doctor of Ministry Program at San Francisco Theological Seminary. The author or editor of over 17 books, her book Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretations of the Church and her co-edited work, Dictionary of Feminist Theologies, characterized her commitment to feminist/liberation theologies and to the renewal of the church. In 2006, she co-edited a book with Phyllis Trible of Wake Forest University entitled, Hagar, Sarah and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives.
Letty Mandeville Russell was born in Westfield, NJ in 1929. She was predeceased by her sister, Jean Berry of New Jersey and former husband, the late Prof. Hans Hoekendijk. She is survived by her partner, Shannon Clarkson; her sister, Elizabeth Collins of Salem, OR.
Sunday, July 22, 2007
BBC "Israeli textbook states Arab view"
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6910859.stm
 Ms Tamir (right) says both viewpoints need to be shown |
The Israeli government has approved a school textbook that for the first time presents the Palestinian denunciation of the creation of Israel in 1948.I assure you that Arab Israelis do not need these facts told to them by Israeli textbooks, though some indication that Israel is creeping out of its denial is always appreciated. If only Jewish AND Palestinian school children learned "two sides" of every story or God forbid, three or four!The book, to be used only in Israeli Arab schools, notes that Palestinians describe the event as a "catastrophe".
"Both the Israeli and Palestinian versions have to be presented," education minister Yuli Tamir said.
The book was condemned by right-wing politicians but hailed by Arab Israelis who say all schools should use it.
The new textbook notes that "some of the Palestinians were expelled following the War of Independence and that many Arab-owned lands were confiscated", the education ministry said.
Palestinians refer to Israel's creation in 1948 - in which hundreds of thousands of Arabs fled in the wake of the independence war - as "al nakba", or the catastrophe.
They blame the Jewish state for usurping their land.
The new textbook also says Arab leaders rejected a UN partition plan for Palestine to be split into Israeli and Palestinian states, and that Jewish leaders accepted it.
Strategic Affairs Minister Avigdor Lieberman denounced the book on army radio, blaming "the masochism and defeatism of the Israeli left, which constantly seeks to apologise, while we did what we had to".
Former Education Minister Limor Livnat of the right-wing Likud party said it would encourage Arabs to take up arms against Israel.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Welcome!
Sensing a personal need to share my discoveries of an intellectual and contemporary nature with an anonymous public, I have finally established a blog. Admittedly, it will be a tempting outlet from study and assignments, which may threaten to destabilize my delicately balanced motivation...and it also will separate me further from the natural world in which I ought to be residing. While I am not so arrogant as to believe that anything I post will matter much, I still feel compelled to take this step in order to bring to light that on which I internally dwell. In spite of the risk to my relational well-being (that is, the amount of time I spend in the company of real human beings), I hope that this will in fact be a beneficial medium through which to express myself more fully.
So welcome to the musings of my bleeding heart--full of sorrow and full of hope!
So welcome to the musings of my bleeding heart--full of sorrow and full of hope!
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