Sunday, April 13, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Warning Of Violence As Ukraine Confronts Pro-Russia Rebels
By Ayman Mohyeldin
First published April 13 2014


DONETSK, Ukraine - Residents in the eastern city of Slovyansk were warned to stay indoors Sunday as Ukraine’s interior minister announced forces would attempt to regain control of official buildings from pro-Russian militant separatists.
Military helicopters were seen over the besieged buildings, but it was not clear if any clashes had taken place on the ground.

Pro-Russian groups on the ground have been preparing heavily-armed barricades in the city, and any attempt by Ukrainian forces to regain control is likely to be met with violence.

"Pass it on to all civilians: they should leave the center of town, not come out of their apartments, and not go near the windows," Interfax Ukraine news agency quoted Arsen Avakov as saying.

The unrest in Slovyansk and the nearby major industrial city Donetsk were the latest shows of spiraling anger in eastern Ukraine, which has a large Russian-speaking population and was also the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in February following months of protests in Kiev, the capital.
Ethnic Russians in Ukraine's east widely fear that the new pro-Western Ukrainian government will suppress them.

In a phone call with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Secretary of State John Kerry "expressed strong concern" that the attacks "were orchestrated and synchronized, similar to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea," according the State Department.

Kerry "made clear that if Russia didn't take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be additional consequences," the department said.

Avakov wrote on his Facebook page that the men who seized the buildings in Slovyansk had opened fire on the approaching troops and described the unrest as "Russian aggression" – however the reports of gunfire could not be verified.


Slovyansk is the site of Ukrainian attempts to remove the Pro-Russian group from official buildings. “Pass it on to all civilians: they should leave the center of town, not come out of their apartments, and not go near the windows," said Arsen Avakov. Avakov is the Ukrainian Interior Minister.

“Ethnic Russians in Ukraine's east widely fear that the new pro-Western Ukrainian government will suppress them,” writes Mohyeldin. Eastern Ukraine was the center of support of former President Yanukovych and is the area where most of the Russians in Ukraine now live.




Avakov wrote on his Facebook page that the Pro-Russian group had opened fire on the approaching Ukrainians. This article is sparse. See the following website from Aljazeera: http://www.aljazeera.com/news/europe/2014/04/gunfire-erupts-eastern-ukraine-town-2014412175057150674.html. In this article, it is stated that Yatsenyuk told pro-Russian leaders in Donetsk that he was willing to cede more power to the Eastern regions. U S President Joe Biden will travel to Ukraine on April 22 to aid the Ukrainian government in improving its energy security, maintaining its position in the country and moving toward decentralization, anti-corruption efforts, and a “free and fair” election on May 25. Government buildings in the cities of Kramatorsk, Slovyansk, and Donetsk have all been seized by pro-Russian separatists.

From http://en.alalam.ir/news/1584806, in an article entitled Ukraine Sends Military To Retake Control Of Slaviansk, Avakov's facebook page is quoted as saying “There are dead and wounded on both sides .... On our side -- a Ukrainian Security Service officer... On side of the separatists -- an unidentified number... The separatists have started to protect themselves using human shields."

Any operation to dislodge the armed separatists risks tipping the stand-off into a new, dangerous phase because Moscow has warned it will act to protect eastern Ukraine's Russian-speakers if they come under attack.” According to Avakov, “security units from across the country” have been brought in to oppose the separatists.

At the city of Kramatorsk there has been an exchange of gunfire, but no casualties on either side. The article continues, saying “Novosti Donbass, a local Internet news site, said that government forces had taken down two rebel barricades at entry points into Slaviansk, but there was no independent confirmation of this.
Residents in the town did not appear to have heeded the appeal by Avakov and families were out on the streets on their normal Sunday business.
Representatives of Russia, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union are due to meet in Geneva on Thursday for the talks.
Russia is expected to argue for a revamp of Ukraine's constitution to give a large degree of autonomy to eastern Ukraine, something Kiev and its Western backers reject." Aljazeera and Alalam are not European sites, but they seem to be well informed.




Last Call: Report About Co-Pilot Latest Bad Twist in Jet Mystery – NBC
Elisha Fieldstadt
First published April 12 2014

A Malaysian official denied a report Saturday that the co-pilot of the doomed Malaysia Airlines flight made a “desperate” cellphone call before its demise, further complicating the confusion-shrouded investigation.

Malaysia’s New Straits Times, citing unidentified investigators, said they discovered co-pilot Fariq Abdul Hamid had placed a call when the plane was flying about 200 nautical miles northwest of Penang. Its low altitude allowed for a telecommunications tower to pick up the signal, according to the report.

NBC News has not been able to independently confirm the report, and a Malaysian official said Saturday he “doesn’t think this is true.”

The latest knocked-down report comes as an earlier New Straits Times report last month claimed the plane was flying at a low altitude to avoid being detected by radar. But Air Chief Marshal Angus Houston, head of a new Joint Agency Coordination Center, later said, “We don't know what altitude the aircraft was travelling at.”

The New Straits Times said that the co-pilot’s call had not been disclosed by officials earlier because the probe is ongoing and revealed information could compromise the investigation.

Malaysian officials are focusing their attention on the crew and pilots after police cleared all 227 passengers of any involvement in the plane’s tragic disappearance on March 8, when it left Kuala Lumpur bound for Beijing.

Many experts also maintain that only someone with extensive knowledge of a Boeing-777 would have been able to switch off the communications systems on the Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.

While the investigation becomes more complicated, the search continues to grow in desperation, as the batteries on the black box could die any day, erasing any hope searchers have of picking up “pings” from the location of the ill-fated jet. Batteries of a black box last about a month, and the plane went missing more than five weeks ago.

Four “pings,” which could be from Flight 370’s black box have been detected by a U.S. Navy "Towed Pinger Locator,” but Australian Prime Minister Tony Abbott said Saturday that “the signal from the black box is rapidly fading.”

After expressing optimism about the search on Friday, Abbott cautioned on Saturday that the hunt might continue “for a long time.”

"No one should underestimate the difficulties of the task still ahead of us," Abbott said.




The New Straits Times, a Malaysian newspaper has made two claims that have been denied by the official government sources. First, that the co-pilot made a “desperate” cell phone call while flying low over the ocean about 200 miles northwest of Penang, and second, that the plane was flying low to avoid being detected by radar. The newspaper cites “unidentified investigators.” The nature of the telephone call is what the reading public wants to know. Maybe the newspaper will report that information soon. We are all waiting for the black boxes to be found, and hopefully they won't be damaged by being in salt water for months. This case continues to be full of high intrigue as reports dribble out one small piece at a time. I have quit reading every last report that comes out, as most of it isn't new.




Nevada rancher Cliven Bundy: “The citizens of America” got my cattle back
CBS/AP April 13, 2014

MESQUITE, Nev. - Federal land managers say "escalating tensions" led them to release all 400 or so head of cattle rounded up on public land in southern Nevada from a rancher who has refused to recognize their authority.

The rancher at the center of the dispute said it was "the citizens of America" that brought the standoff to an end.

Bureau of Land Management Chief Neil Kornze announced an abrupt halt to the weeklong roundup just hours before the release.

"Based on information about conditions on the ground and in consultation with law enforcement, we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concerns about the safety of employees and members of the public," Kornze said in a statement.

Hundreds of states' rights protesters, including militia members, showed up at corrals outside Mesquite to demand the animals' return to rancher Cliven Bundy. Some protesters were armed with handguns and rifles at the corrals and at an earlier nearby rally.
Bundy told CBS affiliate KLAS in Nevada that it was his protests and his supporters that concluded the standoff.
"There is no deal here. The cit
izens of America and Clark County went and took their cattle. There was no negotiations. They took these cattle," Bundy said.

Prior to the meeting that resolved the issue between the two sides, hundreds of protesters, some armed, tried storming the BLM's cattle gate, but weren't successful. The crowd was urged to wait 30 minutes and give both sides a chance to talk.
Las Vegas Police Lt. Dan Zehnder said the showdown was resolved with no injuries and no violence. Clark County Sheriff Doug Gillespie was able to negotiate a resolution after talking with Bundy, he said.

The fight between Bundy and the Bureau of Land Management widened into a debate about states' rights and federal land-use policy. The dispute that ultimately triggered the roundup dates to 1993, when the bureau cited concern for the federally protected tortoise in the region. The bureau revoked Bundy's grazing rights after he stopped paying grazing fees and disregarded federal court orders to remove his animals.
Kornze's announcement came after Bundy repeatedly promised to "do whatever it takes" to protect his property and after a string of raucous confrontations between his family members and supporters and federal agents during the weeklong operation.
Republican Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval issued a statement praising the agency for its willingness to listen to the state's concerns. He earlier criticized the agency for creating "an atmosphere of intimidation" and trying to confine protesters to a fenced-in "First Amendment area" well away from the sprawling roundup area.

"The safety of all individuals involved in this matter has been my highest priority," Sandoval said. "Given the circumstances, today's outcome is the best we could have hoped for."

Nevada's congressional delegation urged the protesters to be calm and to leave the area.

"The dispute is over, the BLM is leaving, but emotions and tensions are still near the boiling point, and we desperately need a peaceful conclusion to this conflict," U.S. Sen. Dean Heller, R-Nev., said in a statement. "I urge all the people involved to please return to your homes and allow the BLM officers to collect their equipment and depart without interference."

The 400 cows gathered during the roundup were short of the BLM's goal of 900 cows that it says have been trespassing on U.S. land without required grazing permits for over 20 years.

Bundy, 67, doesn't recognize federal authority on land he insists belongs to Nevada. His Mormon family has operated a ranch since the 1870s near the small town of Bunkerville and the Utah and Arizona lines.

"Good morning America, good morning world, isn't it a beautiful day in Bunkerville?" Bundy told a cheering crowd after his cattle were released, according to the Las Vegas Review-Journal.

The crowd protesting Saturday recited the pledge of allegiance, and many offered prayers. Others waved placards reading, "This land is your land," and "We teach our children not to bully. How do we teach our government not to be big bullies?" according to the newspaper.

It's the latest skirmish since the 1980s when the Sagebrush Rebellion challenged federal ownership of Nevada rangeland ranchers said was rightfully theirs.
A federal judge in Las Vegas first ordered Bundy to remove his trespassing cattle in 1998. The bureau was implementing two federal court orders last year to remove Bundy's cattle after making repeated efforts to resolve the matter outside court, Kornze said, adding the rancher has not paid grazing fees in 20 years.

"This is a matter of fairness and equity, and we remain disappointed that Cliven Bundy continues to not comply with the same laws that 16,000 public-lands ranchers do every year," Kornze said. "After 20 years and multiple court orders to remove the trespass cattle, Mr. Bundy owes the American taxpayers in excess of $1 million. The BLM will continue to work to resolve the matter administratively and judicially."




There is a long string of mainly rancorous comments against Bundy attached to this article. The writer says, “... we have made a decision to conclude the cattle gather because of our serious concerns about the safety of employees and members of the public," said Bureau of Land Management Chief Neil Kornze after receiving information from law enforcement about “the conditions on the ground.” The article doesn't say that the BLM plans to go back and deal with Bundy again more forcefully, as many of the attached comments suggest. Instead, it states a plan to continue dealing with the rancher “administratively and judicially.” It hasn't worked so far.

This is the first time that I am aware of in which members of the right wing, racist and neo-Nazi “militia” groups have done anything other than complain about the plight of “white people” on their poisonous websites and commit occasional small crimes. In one case a local judge was threatened by a militia member and they have been involved in mail fraud. One member was convicted of putting a rattlesnake inside a hated neighbor's mailbox. In my book they are all modern-day outlaws. Why is the Tea Party linked with these people if they want to maintain any semblance of respectability? Why, also, are they taking up arms against a US government body?

The whole question of anyone being allowed to graze their cattle on national park lands is highly debatable. Those lands are to preserve forest and range land for wildlife. They shouldn't be logged or damaged by large herds of domestic livestock if the purpose of those lands is to be honored. But that has been a subject of conflict since a group of ranchers who saw a widespread abuse by some of the privilege of grazing on public lands. The following article is long, but very informative and good reading on the history of the disputes. I have excerpted a quick summary of the article. It is suggested reading: http://www.publiclandsranching.org/htmlres/wr_history_politics.htm

“By the 1890s, cattle had grazed in the West for three and a half centuries, but regulation of grazing practices was nonexistent. Yet even during the most reckless times, a few ranchers recognized the need for maintaining a dependable forage supply. The ruinous years after 1885 compelled a few more to face reality. Some even began to clamor for government intervention to help control abuse of the common resource.... As early as 1878, John Wesley Powell, the original explorer of the Colorado River, had urged in his Report on the Lands of the Arid Region of the United States that federal land policy must be fundamentally different in the West than in the moist East. But his ideas ran against the grain. During the grass boom of the 1870s and 1880s, his proposals were rejected....”

In 1906 Teddy Roosevelt set up a commission which issued a report on the current state of grazing lands. It said, “Included in the report were the results of a survey that gathered the opinions of 1,400 stockmen from throughout the West. An impressive 78 percent favored some sort of government control of grazing. Yet the commission's report was ignored by Congress.”

Under Franklin Roosevelt, there was another law: “President Roosevelt signed the Taylor Grazing Act into law on June 28, 1934. The United States of America was now in the business of managing its rangelands.... The Taylor Grazing Act officially ended the giveaway policy for federal lands, which had been the cornerstone of national land policy since the Revolution. All federal lands that had not already been appropriated or given away were set aside as "the public domain." But the heart of the act was its resolve to manage livestock grazing on this newly designated land: "To stop injury to the public grazing lands by preventing overgrazing and soil deterioration, to provide for their orderly use, improvement, and development, to stabilize the livestock industry dependent upon the public range, and for other purposes." The act authorized the secretary of the interior to establish grazing districts on lands that were, in his opinion, valuable chiefly for grazing. Furthermore, the secretary was instructed to provide "for cooperation with local associations of stockmen, State land officials and official State agencies engaged in conservation of wild life."

In 1946 the BLM or Bureau of Land Management was set up to oversee grazing on public lands. “In 1976, Congress passed the most significant law relating to BLM lands since the Taylor Grazing Act. The Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) provided comprehensive direction to the BLM. The new law confirmed that the BLM was a multiple-use agency. Six uses were classified as appropriate: grazing, fish and wildlife, minerals, rights-of-way, recreation, and timber. Prior to FLPMA's passage, over three thousand federal laws pertained to BLM lands; the new law superseded more than three hundred of them. For all its sweeping revisions and synthesis, though, FLPMA lacked clarity. Bedeviled by political compromise, Congress, in effect, told the BLM to consider conflicting values, but didn't specify any standards or desired results.”

In 1978 the "Sagebrush Rebels" came into being and advocated that the federal lands should be turned over to the states. Ronald Reagan put some of those men into key roles in the Federal Government, knowing they would oppose government regulations from within. In 1993, Senator Simpson of Wyoming declared, "We are defending a Western life style in this Administration's war on the West."

In summary, the article concludes, “Five hundred years after the first domestic cattle and sheep arrived in the Americas, and 450 years after they were brought to the western United States, domestic livestock are still nearly ubiquitous. Meanwhile, scores of native animal and plant species have been pushed to the margins. Some species are now extinct, owing in large part to the prerogatives of ranchers and the imperatives of an industry ill suited to the rugged, arid landscape. It remains to be seen whether future reforms, unlike those of the past, will make significant progress toward salvaging the native species, clean, free-flowing water, and diverse biological communities of the West.”





Can the government seize your tax refund to pay a relative's debt?
By Wyatt Andrews CBS News April 11, 2014

Two months ago, Mary Grice, a career employee at the Food and Drug Administration, was notified the U.S. Treasury had confiscated her state and federal tax refunds totaling $4,500.

The government had taken the money before she knew there was a problem.
"To be honest, I was ticked off," Grice said. "I'm like 'how can they intercept or take my funds without my first being notified about it?'"

The claim against her came from the Social Security Administration which said it overpaid death benefits to Mary's family after her father Scott Grice died in 1960. Mary was five years old. In other words, without notice and for a debt that was not hers, the government had her refund seized anyway.

Her attorney Robert Vogel has sued, demanding the government stop these collections.
"The government should not be in the business of trying to collect 30-year-old debts from people," Vogel said. "There is no way that people have any reason to keep their records for that long."

This tracking of old debt stems from an obscure change in the 2008 farm bill that allows the government for the first time to seize debt more than 10 years old.
Social Security released a statement saying it found 400,000 taxpayers with long-term debt that could total $714 million, claiming that "Social Security attempts multiple times to notify debtors" before collection. But Mary Grice, as a government employee, should have been easy to find.

What does Grice think about the fact the government never notified her?
"To be honest I think it's a ploy," she said. "We'll get your money first."
Mary Grice's story, which was first reported in the Washington Post, led to a very quick reaction from Congress. Two senators -- Barbara Boxer and Barbara Mikulski -- have asked that Social Security stop going after decades-old debt when the taxpayer involved was a child.




“This tracking of old debt stems from an obscure change in the 2008 farm bill that allows the government for the first time to seize debt more than 10 years old.” The Social Security Administration claims that there are as many as 400,000 people with such debt in their past which could equal $714,000,000. The government supposedly tries numerous times to locate and warn people before taking their funds, but Grice had received no communication from them, she said.

Both Barbara Boxer and Barbara Mikulski have “asked” that the practice be stopped. Hopefully they will move to amend the 2008 Farm Bill and possibly write a law specifically banning such actions. I wonder if Grice and her lawyer Robert Vogel will take the case up to the Supreme Court if necessary. Such a procedure, after all, goes against all logic and is grotesquely unfair if it proves to be judged constitutional. I hope to hear more about this case in the next few months.






Ukraine to launch "large-scale" operation against pro-Russian forces
CBS/AP April 13, 2014

SLOVYANSK, Ukraine - Ukraine is launching a "large-scale anti-terrorist operation" to resist attacks of armed pro-Russian forces, Ukraine's President Oleksandr Turchynov said on Sunday in a televised address.

The authorities in Kiev will use the army in order to prevent Russian forces from moving in, as they did in Crimea, Turchynov said, pledging amnesty to anyone laying down arms by Monday morning.

"The Security Council has made a decision to begin a large-scale anti-terrorist operation with participation of army forces," he said. "We're not going to allow Russia to repeat the Crimean scenario in Ukraine's east."


While there has been no formal response from Russia yet, that country's foreign ministry announced late Sunday it wanted the Ukraine crisis urgently put on the U.N. Security Council's agenda, Reuters reports.

Ukraine's central government has repeatedly blamed its problems in in the escalating crisis on an increasingly aggressive Kremlin.

"The blood of Ukrainian heroes has been shed in a war which the Russian Federation is waging against Ukraine," Turchynov said in an address to the nation, according to Reuters. "The aggressor has not stopped and is continuing to sow disorder in the east of the country."

NATO described the appearance in eastern Ukraine of men with specialized Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia - as previously worn by Moscow's troops when they seized Crimea - as a "grave development," Reuters reports. The White House has repeatedly condemned Russia's behavior in the Ukraine.

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry "expressed strong concern" that the recent attacks in the east "were orchestrated and synchronized, similar to previous attacks in eastern Ukraine and Crimea," according the State Department. Kerry "made clear that if Russia didn't take steps to de-escalate in eastern Ukraine and move its troops back from Ukraine's border, there would be additional consequences," the department said.

On Sunday, Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said on CBS' "Face the Nation" the rising unrest is the result of U.S. failure to "enact anything really meaningful and important as a result of [Russian President] Vladimir Putin's incursion and annexation under Crimea, which was predictable. And what he's doing now is predictable."

McCain called on the Obama administration to provide more small arms to Ukraine's central government, as well as intelligence sharing, adding that Kiev feels abandoned by Washington.

Ukrainian special forces exchanged gunfire with a pro-Russia militia in an eastern city Sunday morning, with at least one security officer killed and five others wounded. It was the first reported gunbattle in eastern Ukraine, where armed pro-Russia men have seized a number of government buildings in recent days.

Turchynov said a Security Service captain was killed and two colonels wounded in a gunbattle outside Slovyansk, where the police station and the Security Service office were seized a day earlier.

An Associated Press reporter found a bullet-ridden SUV on the side of the road and a pool of blood on the passenger seat where the gunbattle was supposed to have taken place.

Vladimir Kolodchenko, a lawmaker from the area who witnessed the attack, said a car with four gunmen pulled up on the road in a wooden area outside Slovyansk and open fire on Ukrainian soldiers who were standing beside their vehicles. Both attackers and the Ukrainian servicemen left soon after the shooting.

Unrest has spread to several municipalities in eastern Ukraine, including the major industrial city of Donetsk, which has a large Russian-speaking population.
Donetsk was also the support base for Viktor Yanukovych, the Ukrainian president ousted in February following months of protests in Kiev, the capital, that were ignited by his decision to back away from closer relations with the European Union and turn toward Russia. Ethnic Russians in Ukraine's east widely fear that the new pro-Western Ukrainian government will suppress them.

The regional administration in Donetsk issued a statement, confirming one dead and saying nine were wounded. It did not identify them, but said one person was shot outside Slovyansk.

Avakov has described the unrest as "Russian aggression."
Ukraine's foreign ministry issued a statement late Sunday afternoon accusing "the Russian special service and saboteurs" of fomenting unrest and pledged to present "concrete evidence" of Russia's involvement at next week's Ukraine summit in Geneva.

In an earlier post, he said the separatists who had seized the buildings in Slovyansk had opened fire on Ukrainian special forces sent to the city on Sunday. He called on residents to remain calm and stay at home.

An Associated Press reporter saw no signs of any shots fired at the police station, which was surrounded by a reinforced line of barricades. Unlike on Saturday, the men patrolling the barricades were largely unarmed. One of the guards who asked not to be identified denied reports of fighting at the police station.

Armed camouflaged men were guarding a checkpoint at the main entrance into the city.
Ukrainian lawmaker Oleh Lyashko said Sunday afternoon that Ukrainian forces managed to take control of the city hall, the Security Service's branch and the police station in Slovyansk. This could not be immediately verified.

Two rival rallies in another regional capital in eastern Ukraine, Kharkiv, turned violent. At the end of both rallies, a group of pro-Russian protesters followed several pro-Ukrainian activists, beating them with bats and sticks, Interfax Ukraine reported. A video on Espresso TV showed one activist with blood on his head and hands waiting for paramedics on the steps of the underground passage. Several men and women came up to him and started kicking him.

Interfax quoted Kharkiv authorities saying that 10 people were injured at the rallies.




President Turchynov has announced today that Kiev will mount a military offensive using its army against the pro-Russian dissidents in Eastern Ukraine. He has pledged amnesty to anyone who lays down their arms before that time. I am so glad to hear this. If the Russians keep on as they are doing now there will soon be no peace to be saved in Ukraine. Suddenly now Russia is “urgently” asking for the UN Security Council to act on the Ukraine crisis. How they could dare to play it as though they are not the aggressors, I don't understand. It truly takes cajones!

“NATO described the appearance in eastern Ukraine of men with specialized Russian weapons and identical uniforms without insignia - as previously worn by Moscow's troops when they seized Crimea - as a 'grave development,' Reuters reports.” Kerry stated that the actions in Eastern Ukraine have been “staged” rather than being spontaneous uprisings. He threatens “additional consequences” if Russia continues to behave so aggressively.

Senator John McCain blames the failure of the US to do anything “meaningful” against Russia for the continued incursion into Eastern Ukraine, and advocates the US sending “small arms” (how small, I wonder?) as well as intelligence sharing with US sources.

As for the gunfire, Vladimir Kolodchenko, a lawmaker from the area said he witnessed four gunmen drive up beside some Ukrainian soldiers and open fire against them. All parties left the area soon after the shooting. The regional government in Donetsk confirmed that one person is dead and nine are wounded.

Ukraine's foreign ministry accuses Russia of sending in “special service and saboteurs" to foment unrest, and promises to provide proof of Russian actions at the upcoming summit in Geneva. I hope tomorrow will bring more news on these matters.

Finally, Kharkiv was the site today of another conflict between demonstrators. It seems the Russian protesters brought “bats and sticks” while the Ukrainian side was either purposely pacifist or at any rate unprepared to fight back, and they were beaten. One wounded man waiting for an ambulance was seen by an AP reporter to be kicked by several Russians, both men and women. The Ukrainians will have to come prepared for a fight or they will lose the day every time.




Statue Of A Homeless Jesus Startles A Wealthy Community
by John Burnett
April 13, 2014

A new religious statue in the town of Davidson, N.C., is unlike anything you might see in church.

The statue depicts Jesus as a vagrant sleeping on a park bench. St. Alban's Episcopal Church installed the homeless Jesus statue on its property in the middle of an upscale neighborhood filled with well-kept townhomes.

Jesus is huddled under a blanket with his face and hands obscured; only the crucifixion wounds on his uncovered feet give him away. The reaction was immediate. Some loved it; some didn't.

"One woman from the neighborhood actually called police the first time she drove by," says David Boraks, editor of DavidsonNews.net. "She thought it was an actual homeless person." That's right. Somebody called the cops on Jesus.

"Another neighbor, who lives a couple of doors down from the church, wrote us a letter to the editor saying it creeps him out," Boraks added.

Some neighbors felt it was an insulting depiction of the Son of God, and what appears to be a hobo curled up on a bench demeans the neighborhood.

The bronze statue was purchased for $22,000 as a memorial for a parishioner, Kate McIntyre, who had loved public art. The rector of this liberal, inclusive church is Rev. David Buck, a 65-year-old Baptist-turned-Episcopalian who seems not at all averse to the controversy, the double-takes and the discussion the statue has provoked.

"It gives authenticity to our church," he says. "This is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society."

The sculpture is intended as a visual translation of the passage in the Book of Matthew, in which Jesus tells his disciples, "as you did it to one of the least of my brothers, you did it to me." Moreover, Buck says, it's a good Bible lesson for those used to seeing Jesus depicted in traditional religious art as the Christ of glory, enthroned in finery.

"We believe that that's the kind of life Jesus had," Buck says. "He was, in essence, a homeless person."

This lakeside college town north of Charlotte has the first Jesus the Homeless statue on display in the United States. Catholic Charities of Chicago plans to install its statue when the weather warms up. The Archdiocese of Washington, D.C., is said to be interested in one, too.

The creator is a Canadian sculptor and devout Catholic named Timothy Schmalz. From his studio in Ontario, Schmalz says he understands that his Jesus the Homeless is provocative.

"That's essentially what the sculpture is there to do," he says. "It's meant to challenge people."

He says he offered the first casts to St. Michael's Cathedral in Toronto and St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York. Both declined.

A spokesman at St. Michael's says appreciation of the statue "was not unanimous," and the church was being restored so a new work of art was out of the question. That statue found a home in front of the Jesuit School of Theology at the University of Toronto.

A spokesperson at St. Patrick's in New York says they liked the homeless Jesus, but their cathedral is also being renovated and they had to turn it down.

The most high-profile installation of the bronze Jesus on a park bench will be on the Via della Conziliazione, the avenue leading to St. Peter's Basilica — if the City of Rome approves it. Schmalz traveled to the Vatican last November to present a miniature to the pope himself.

"He walked over to the sculpture, and it was just chilling because he touched the knee of the Jesus the Homeless sculpture, and closed his eyes and prayed," Schmalz says. "It was like, that's what he's doing throughout the whole world: Pope Francis is reaching out to the marginalized."

Back at St. Alban's in Davidson, the rector reports that the Jesus the Homeless statue has earned more followers than detractors. It is now common, he says, to see people come, sit on the bench, rest their hand on the bronze feet and pray.




Davidson, N.C is the home of a thought-provoking statue on the grounds of St. Alban's Episcopal Church. With his hands and face covered, the crucifixion wounds on his feet are the only identifying features. Reactions were negative in a number of cases, with people thinking it demeaned Jesus while others thought it was a bad reflection on the neighborhood. The pastor Rev. Buck weighed in on the statue: “It gives authenticity to our church," he says. "This is a relatively affluent church, to be honest, and we need to be reminded ourselves that our faith expresses itself in active concern for the marginalized of society.... "We believe that that's the kind of life Jesus had," Buck says. "He was, in essence, a homeless person."

The sculptor, a Catholic named Timothy Schmalz, says “It's meant to challenge people." Several other churches, both Catholic and Protestant, have either ordered a casting or are considering it. According to Rev. Buck most people he has seen have approved the statue.