Tuesday, January 20, 2015


News Clips For The Day


http://news.yahoo.com/which-current-members-of-congress-voted-against-making-mlk-day-a-federal-holiday-190609235.html

Which current members of Congress voted against making MLK Day a federal holiday?
No. 3 House Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana isn’t the only one who opposed honoring Martin Luther King Jr.
By Meredith Shiner 12 hours ago Yahoo News
Monday, January 19, 2015

In 1983, Congress voted overwhelmingly to approve legislation to honor the memory of the late Martin Luther King Jr. by observing a federal holiday on the third Monday of every January. But not every elected official was onboard with the effort.

Now the decades-old issue of who opposed making MLK Day a holiday has returned to the political scene, as one House Republican leader has faced scrutiny for his opposition to the day in conjunction with a larger controversy over race.

New House Majority Whip Steve Scalise, a Republican from Louisiana, came under fire last month for having voted twice against a state version of the holiday while serving in the local legislature. (The votes were unearthed as part of a larger story about a previously unreported speech Scalise delivered at a 2002 conference sponsored by a white-supremacist group.) Because many states took decades after the federal decision to implement MLK Day, Scalise’s votes against the holiday came late: He was one of six Louisiana statehouse members to vote against the holiday in 2004 and one of three to vote against it in 1999.

But Scalise is not the only lawmaker still in office — nor the only prominent politician — to have opposed the holiday. When the House voted 338-90 in August 1983 to establish Martin Luther King Jr. Day, several members who would go on to become U.S. senators also voted “no.”

Two current U.S. senators voted against the holiday during their time as representatives in the House: former GOP presidential nominee John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. And four other men who went on to join the Senate (though they have now left it) opposed is as well: Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Larry Craig of Idaho and Phil Gramm of Texas.

Current House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) also voted against the MLK Day measure. Interestingly, so did Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who decades later would emerge as the top Republican advocate in defense of the Voting Rights Act.

In October 1983, the Senate voted 78-22 in favor of establishing MLK Day, sending the bill to President Ronald Reagan’s desk. Current senators serving then who voted against the legislation include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah.

Most of the other notable opponents of the holiday have since left office, such as Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska (current Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s father), former GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.

So, too, have most of the day’s supporters, for that matter. Among the “yes” votes in the House were former Vice President Dick Cheney of Wyoming, former Democratic Senator and Vice President Al Gore of Tennessee and former Democratic Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle of South Dakota (current Minority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada was a “yes,” too). Also gone are prominent Senate “yes” voters Bob Dole of Kansas, later the Republican presidential nominee, GOP Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, former Republican Vice President Dan Quayle of Indiana and Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina. 

Of those still in office, current Republican Sens. Pat Roberts of Kansas and Dan Coats of Indiana voted as House members in favor of establishing the federal holiday, while long-serving Republican Sen. Thad Cochran of Mississippi supported the measure in the Senate.




“Because many states took decades after the federal decision to implement MLK Day, Scalise’s votes against the holiday came late: He was one of six Louisiana statehouse members to vote against the holiday in 2004 and one of three to vote against it in 1999.... Two current U.S. senators voted against the holiday during their time as representatives in the House: former GOP presidential nominee John McCain of Arizona and Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama. And four other men who went on to join the Senate (though they have now left it) opposed is as well: Jim Jeffords of Vermont, Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, Larry Craig of Idaho and Phil Gramm of Texas. Current House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) also voted against the MLK Day measure. Interestingly, so did Rep. Jim Sensenbrenner of Wisconsin, who decades later would emerge as the top Republican advocate in defense of the Voting Rights Act.... Current senators serving then who voted against the legislation include Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Senate Finance Committee Chairman Orrin Hatch of Utah. Most of the other notable opponents of the holiday have since left office, such as Republican Sen. Frank Murkowski of Alaska (current Sen. Lisa Murkowski’s father), former GOP presidential candidate Barry Goldwater of Arizona and Sen. Jesse Helms of North Carolina.”

I am surprised to find John McCain among those who opposed the holiday, as he has always struck me as being fairly moderate and has a history of voting “across the aisle”. Likewise Jim Jeffords who in 2001 left the Republican Party to become first an Independent and then a Democrat. Jim Sensenbrenner, though a Republican, later voted in favor of the Voting Rights Act. Some of those mentioned in the article are not well-known to me. Most of them are not surprises, though, such as Jesse Helms of NC and Orrin Hatch of Utah. I'm pleased to see that five prominent Republicans voted for the holiday, including Strom Thurmond.

There are Republicans who are not so much racially biased as socially conservative in general, following the status quo and in general disliking that particular tactic of street marches for changing laws. Also, there are some hard-core racists who have changed their minds. Governor Wallace of Alabama is one such case, and I think a pretty large percentage of ordinary conservative Americans have broadened their minds on the issues. Mixing with blacks in school and on the job has in general helped. I think there has definitely been progress since I was graduating from high school and first became involved in political issues at UNC. We need to do more, certainly, but life is better now. Racist incidents have increased in frequency, it seems to me, however and I'm glad to see the NAACP being active since the Ferguson shooting. Whether conservative people like street marches or not, it's time for some more disciplined and peaceful marches. Some laws need to be made – and enforced – on the issue of police brutality in general.





http://www.cbsnews.com/news/king-protege-moves-leaders-vision-of-non-violence-forward/

King protégé moves leader's vision of non-violence forward

By ANNA WERNER CBS NEWS
January 19, 2015

SELMA, Ala. - Just hours before Martin Luther King Jr., was gunned down on April 4, 1968, he had a talk with one of his fellow activists. A simple conversation that laid out the future for Bernard Lafayette, the author of "In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma."

"Martin Luther King said, "now Bernard, the next thing we have to do, the next movement is to institutionalize and to internationalize nonviolence."

After King's death, Lafayette vowed to turn King's words into action.

The 27-year-old was a veteran of protests, sit-ins and the freedom bus rides in the south, and was beaten and arrested numerous times.

In Selma, Ala., on the very bridge where he marched for equal voting rights, he remembered the demonstration.

"See, the whole idea of marching, it's not just wearing out leather or rubber on your shoes, it's about being able to step together," said Lafayette. "It shows a sense of unity.

Lafayette is now a professor at Emory University and the chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization once led by King. He has spent the last five decades doing as King instructed, teaching non-violence at home and in 35 countries around the world, including to prisoners in California and gang members in Columbia.

He contemplated if King's idea of institutionalizing non-violence has happened in this country.

"No," it hasn't happened," he said. "You see, violence is a language of the inarticulate, when people don't know how to talk and communicated with each other."

Which is why he also went to Ferguson, Mo., to help a new generation find alternatives to violence and defeat those who hate.

"Their purpose was to silence Martin Luther King, his voice," said Lafayette. "But we can hear it everywhere we go. And that's what my life was devoted to and has been and is now."

A life dedicated to King's ideal of achieving peaceful ends through peaceful means.



Bernard Lafayette
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Bernard Lafayette Jr. (born July 29, 1940) is a longtime civil rights activist and organizer, who was a leader in the 1960s Civil Rights Movement. He played a leading role in early organizing of the Selma, Alabama, voting rights campaign; was a member of the Nashville Student Movement; and worked closely throughout the 1960s movements with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC), and the American Friends Service Committee.[1]

Early life[edit]

Lafayette was born in Tampa, Florida. His parents were Bernard Lafayette, Sr., and Verdell Lafayette. Lafayette spent much of his childhood in Tampa, Florida, but also lived in several other places, as his father was an itinerant laborer. His mother's job is unknown. His family spent two years in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where his sister Rozelia was born. Philadelphia was where the young Bernard first lived in anintegrated community.[1]

Early career[edit]

As a young man at the age of twenty, Lafayette moved to Nashville, Tennessee, and enrolled in the American Baptist Theological Seminary. During the course of his freshman year, he took classes in nonviolence at the Highlander Folk School run byMyles Horton, and attended many meetings promoting nonviolence. He learned more about the philosophy of nonviolence as lived by Gandhi, while taking seminars from activist James Lawson, a well-known nonviolent representative of the Fellowship of Reconciliation.
Lafayette began to use the nonviolent techniques as he became more exposed to the strong racial injustice of the South. In 1959, he, along with his fellow friends Diane Nash, James Bevel, and John Lewis, all members of the Nashville Student Movement, led sit-ins, such as the 1960 Lunch Counter Sit-In, at restaurants and businesses that practiced segregation. As a strong advocate of nonviolence, Lafayette, in 1960, assisted in the formation of a group known as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC).

Freedom rides[edit]

In 1961, the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE) initiated a movement to enforce federal integration laws on interstate bus routes. This movement, known as theFreedom Rides, had African American and white volunteers ride together on bus routes through the segregated South. Lafayette wanted to participate, but his parents forbade him. After the Freedom Riders were violently attacked in the city ofBirmingham, Alabama, the Nashville Student Movement, of which Lafayette was a member, vowed to take over the journey. At the time, some civil rights leaders worried that the Freedom Rides were too provocative and would damage the movement. Despite many doubts, these Nashville students were determined to finish the job.

In May 1961, in the city of Montgomery, Alabama, Lafayette and the other riders were "greeted" at the bus terminal by an angry white mob, members of Ku Klux Klanchapters, and were viciously attacked. The Freedom Riders were brutally beaten. Their attackers carried every makeshift weapon imaginable: baseball bats, wooden boards, bricks, chains, tire irons, pipes, and even garden tools.[2]

During the Montgomery attack, Lafayette stood firm; his fellow riders William Barbee and John Lewis were beaten until they fell unconscious. Lafayette, Fred Leonard and Allen Cason narrowly escaped being killed by jumping over a wall and running to the post office. Everyone inside was carrying on individual business, just like nothing was happening outside.[2] Lafayette later stated, " I thought they were shooting Freedom Riders." It was the gunshot of Alabama's Director of Public Safety, Floyd Mann, who was fighting for the protection of the freedom riders.

Lafayette with other Riders was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, and jailed at Parchman State Prison Farm during June 1961.[3] During Lafayette's participation in civil rights activities, he was beaten and arrested 27 times.[citation needed]….
 
In early 1965, Lafayette, Bevel, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Orange, Nash and others organized a series of public demonstrations that finally—with the march from Selma-to-Montgomery initiated by Bevel—put enough pressure on the federal government to take action, and gave enough support to President Lyndon Johnsonfor Johnson to demand the drafting and passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965.[1

Life after Selma[edit]

Lafayette went on to work on the 1966 Chicago Open Housing Movement (he had worked in Chicago earlier with Kale Williams, Bill Moyer, David Jehnsen and other leaders of the American Friends Service Committee). He later became ordained as a Baptist minister and served as president of the American Baptist Theological Seminary.[4]

In 1973, Lafayette was named first director of the Peace Education Program atGustavus Adolphus College, Saint Peter, Minnesota. The Gustavus program enabled Lafayette to infuse the entire curriculum of the college with peace education. Lafayette served this Lutheran liberal arts college for nearly three years.

Lafayette has been recognized as a major authority on strategies for nonviolent social change.[5] He is also recognized as one of the leading exponents of nonviolent direct action in the world.[6]

He was a Senior Fellow at the University of Rhode Island,[7] where he helped to found the Center for Nonviolence and Peace Studies. The Center promotes nonviolence education using a curriculum based on the principles and methods of Martin Luther King, Jr.[8] He is a Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Candler School of Theology, at Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia.[9]

Lafayette was honored as a Doctor of Humane Letters from Mount Holyoke College, in May 2012.




"Martin Luther King said, "now Bernard, the next thing we have to do, the next movement is to institutionalize and to internationalize nonviolence."... "See, the whole idea of marching, it's not just wearing out leather or rubber on your shoes, it's about being able to step together," said Lafayette. "It shows a sense of unity. Lafayette is now a professor at Emory University and the chairman of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, an organization once led by King. He has spent the last five decades doing as King instructed, teaching non-violence at home and in 35 countries around the world, including to prisoners in California and gang members in Columbia.... "You see, violence is a language of the inarticulate, when people don't know how to talk and communicated with each other." Which is why he also went to Ferguson, Mo., to help a new generation find alternatives to violence and defeat those who hate. "Their purpose was to silence Martin Luther King, his voice," said Lafayette. "But we can hear it everywhere we go. And that's what my life was devoted to and has been and is now."

“Bernard Lafayette, the author of "In Peace and Freedom: My Journey in Selma” has spent most of his adult life teaching non-violence. His college career (see the Wikipedia article) is interesting in that I had no idea students at the time he went through college were actually taking courses in non-violence, or that such a course existed. I knew both King and Gandhi had practiced it, but I thought it was their own special genius as leaders. The following article in wikipedia gives good information about the origins of non-violence as a belief or political technique. Interestingly, they don't mention Jesus or the Quakers, who are also known to employ non-violent methods. Henry David Thoreau also advocated civil disobedience in the 1840s. Probably because we can be killed on the spot for trying to make a non-violent action, it has only rarely been espoused since the early Christians, when they were brutally pitted in the Roman coliseums against wild animals and equally ferocious humans, refusing to fight. See “Nonviolence,” Wikipedia below.

As you can tell, I'm fairly fascinated by non-violence, since it can be really effective in persuading people to ones viewpoints, but seems like a hopeless effort on the surface. It is perhaps most often seen in the grocery store as a two-year old lies down on the floor, kicking and screaming, because his mom refused to get him any candy. It too often makes the parent buy the candy rather than discipline the child. A friend of mine years ago said that when her son did that she just said to him, “Alright. I'm leaving,” and walked away. That was effective.


Under the search term pacifism, Wikipedia states: “Pacifism is opposition to war and violence. The word pacifism was coined by the French peace campaigner Émile Arnaud (1864–1921) and adopted by other peace activists at the tenth Universal Peace Congress in Glasgow in 1901.[1] A related term is ahimsa (to do no harm), which is a core philosophy in Buddhism, Jainism, and Hinduism. While modern connotations are recent, having been explicated since the 19th century, ancient references abound.

In Christianity, Jesus Christ's injunction to "love thy neighbour"[2] and asking for forgiveness for his crucifiers "for they know not what they do" have been interpreted as calling for pacifism. In modern times, interest was revived by Leo Tolstoy in his late works, particularly in The Kingdom of God Is Within You.”



Nonviolence
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Nonviolence (from Sanskrit ahimṣā, non-violence, "lack of desire to harm or kill") is the personal practice of being harmless to self and others under every condition. It comes from the belief that hurting people, animals or the environment is unnecessary to achieve an outcome and refers to a general philosophy of abstention from violence based on moral, religious or spiritual principles.[1]

For some, the philosophy of nonviolence is rooted in the simple belief that God is harmless. Mahavira (599 BCE–527 BCE), the twenty-fourth tirthankara of the Jain religion, was the torch-bearer of "ahimsa" and introduced the word to the world and applied the concept in his own life. He taught that to more strongly connect with God, one must likewise be harmless.

Nonviolence also has 'active' or 'activist' elements, in that believers accept the need for nonviolence as a means to achieve political and social change. Thus, for example, the Tolstoy and Gandhian nonviolence is a philosophy and strategy for social changethat rejects the use of violence, but at the same time sees nonviolent action (also called civil resistance) as an alternative to passive acceptance of oppression or armed struggle against it. In general, advocates of an activist philosophy of nonviolence use diverse methods in their campaigns for social change, including critical forms of education and persuasion, mass noncooperation, civil disobedience, nonviolent direct action, and social, political, cultural and economic forms of intervention.

In modern times, nonviolent methods of action have been a powerful tool for social protest and revolutionary social and political change.[2][3][4] There are many examples of their use. Fuller surveys may be found in the entries on civil resistance, nonviolent resistance and nonviolent revolution. Here certain movements particularly influenced by a philosophy of nonviolence should be mentioned, including Mahatma Gandhi leading a successful decades-long nonviolent struggle against British rule in India, Martin Luther King's and James Bevel's adoption of Gandhi's nonviolent methods in their campaigns to win civil rights for African Americans,[5][6] and César Chávez's campaigns of nonviolence in the 1960s to protest the treatment of farm workers in California.[7] The 1989 "Velvet Revolution" in Czechoslovakia that saw the overthrow of the Communist government[8] is considered one of the most important of the largely nonviolent Revolutions of 1989.[9] Most recently the nonviolent campaigns ofLeymah Gbowee and the women of Liberia were able to achieve peace after a 14-year civil war.[10] This story is captured in a 2008 documentary film Pray the Devil Back to Hell. In an essay, "To Abolish War," evolutionary biologist Judith Handadvocated the use of nonviolent direct action to dismantle the global war machine.[11]

The term "nonviolence" is often linked with or used as a synonym for peace, and despite being frequently equated with passivity and pacifism, this is rejected by nonviolent advocates and activists.[12] Nonviolence refers specifically to the absence of violence and is always the choice to do no harm or the least harm, and passivity is the choice to do nothing. Sometimes nonviolence is passive, and other times it isn't. So If a house is burning down with mice or insects in it, the most harmless appropriate action is to put the fire out, not to sit by and passively let the fire burn. There is at times confusion and contradiction written about nonviolence, harmlessnessm and passivity. A confused person may advocate nonviolence in a specific context while advocating violence in other contexts. For example, someone who passionately opposes abortion or meat eating may concurrently advocate violence to kill an abortionist or attack a slaughterhouse, which makes that person a violent person.[13]
…

 Religious or ethically based nonviolence is sometimes referred to as principled, philosophical, or ethicalnonviolence, while nonviolence based on political analysis is often referred to astactical, strategic, or pragmatic nonviolent action. Commonly, both of these dimensions may be present within the thinking of particular movements or individuals.[15]

People have come to use nonviolent methods of struggle from a wide range of perspectives and traditions. A landless peasant in Brazil may nonviolently occupy a parcel of land for purely practical motivations. If they do not, the family will starve. A Buddhist monk in Thailand may "ordain" trees in a threatened forest, drawing on the teachings of Buddha to resist its destruction. A waterside worker in England may go on strike in socialist and union political traditions. All the above are using nonviolent methods but from different standpoints. Likewise, secular political movements have utilized nonviolent methods, either as a tactical tool or as a strategic program on purely pragmatic and strategic levels, relying on their political effectiveness rather than a claim to any religious, moral or ethical worthiness.







http://www.npr.org/2015/01/19/377685904/after-aurora-shooting-a-new-way-of-responding-to-mental-crises

After Aurora Shooting, A 'New Way Of Responding' To Mental Crises
Grace Hood
JANUARY 19, 2015

It's been two and a half years since the Aurora, Colo. theater shooting in which James Holmes allegedly killed 12 people at a screening of The Dark Knight Rises.

Jury selection for the 2012 incident is scheduled to start Tuesday. One of the reasons why it took so long to get to court was the battle over Holmes' psychiatric evaluations. After the shooting, Colorado legislators approved $20 million to change how people going through a mental health crisis can get help.

The structure of a mental health crisis varies dramatically from person to person. For Colorado resident Cindy Binger, everyday life events suddenly weren't computing.

"When you go through a crisis, you're confused," she says. "You can't distinguish right from wrong. Your thought patterns are off; they don't gather and complete."

More than a decade ago, Binger struggled to make sense of traumatic events that happened in her life. She grappled with deep questions about alcohol abuse. And simpler ones about where to get help.

"For me, it was trying to get people to understand what I was going through. To feel what I was going through. And that was hard," Binger says.

Finding the right resources becomes more difficult if your emergency happens at nine at night. Or on a Saturday. Or if you're a grad student living alone off campus.

That's where Colorado's 13 walk-in crisis centers come into the picture.

Larry Pottorff is executive director of North Range Behavioral Health — one of several agencies partnering with the state to provide new crisis services in the years since the Aurora shooting.

"The first priority is why are you here and how can we help?" he says. The entryway "will be available to people around the clock," he adds.

Pottorff is standing inside a softly lit waiting room in Greeley, Colo. The reception desk and waiting chairs — everything here is brand new. A receptionist does not ask someone in crisis to fill out forms. There are no insurance cards exchanged.

"I really think of it as a new way of responding to people in crisis. Historically, that's been done through emergency rooms," Pottorff says.

The new system includes walk-in centers, a statewide hotline and mobile units that can be dispatched in the event of crisis. All of this was set up through legislation sponsored by State Sen. Irene Aguilar. She says the Aurora Theater and Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings highlighted a need for mental health support.

"One of the issues that both of these events brought up was that we frequently have people in our community who are struggling with mental health issues and can't get the care that they need," Aguilar says.

She says future success depends on creating a continuum of care — from crisis response to stabilization to safe return into the community.

"This was not just a 'Let's settle the fire,' but 'Let's get rid of whatever else is going on under there, so that this doesn't happen again,' " Aguilar says.

In a new respite care program, where crisis patients can stay for up to 14 days, there's a close hand-off between walk-in crisis centers and community services.

Binger, who struggled with her own crisis a decade ago, reviews doctor appointment times with a client. As a peer specialist in the respite center, she's now offering support.

"It took me a long, hard process — a journey, I should say — to get where I'm at. And if the respite would have been there for me, it would have made it easier," Binger says.

There's no guarantee that Colorado's new system will prevent the next theater shooting. Mental health experts simply hope the changes will narrow cracks in the system, making it harder for the next person in crisis to slip through.




“Jury selection for the 2012 incident is scheduled to start Tuesday. One of the reasons why it took so long to get to court was the battle over Holmes' psychiatric evaluations. After the shooting, Colorado legislators approved $20 million to change how people going through a mental health crisis can get help.... Finding the right resources becomes more difficult if your emergency happens at nine at night. Or on a Saturday. Or if you're a grad student living alone off campus. That's where Colorado's 13 walk-in crisis centers come into the picture. Larry Pottorff is executive director of North Range Behavioral Health — one of several agencies partnering with the state to provide new crisis services in the years since the Aurora shooting.... The new system includes walk-in centers, a statewide hotline and mobile units that can be dispatched in the event of crisis. All of this was set up through legislation sponsored by State Sen. Irene Aguilar. She says the Aurora Theater and Sandy Hook Elementary School shootings highlighted a need for mental health support.... She says future success depends on creating a continuum of care — from crisis response to stabilization to safe return into the community. "This was not just a 'Let's settle the fire,' but 'Let's get rid of whatever else is going on under there, so that this doesn't happen again,' " Aguilar says. In a new respite care program, where crisis patients can stay for up to 14 days, there's a close hand-off between walk-in crisis centers and community services.... "It took me a long, hard process — a journey, I should say — to get where I'm at. And if the respite would have been there for me, it would have made it easier," Binger says. There's no guarantee that Colorado's new system will prevent the next theater shooting. Mental health experts simply hope the changes will narrow cracks in the system, making it harder for the next person in crisis to slip through.”

“... a continuum of care — from crisis response to stabilization to safe return into the community....” Our emergency rooms and crisis call centers have to be alert to the fact that a patient is out of control and be willing and able, at any time of the day or night, to step in and get him temporarily committed to a hospital. Then he will need long term therapy and medications which will have to be tried for awhile and possibly changed to a better one. This takes patience on the part of family members and the patient himself. The patient has to resist the urge to stop taking a medication because it makes him feel sleepy or light-headed and “he just doesn't like that.” The Sandy Hook killer had fairly recently gone off the medication prescribed for him because he didn't like the way it felt. If their meds aren't well suited to them they must go back to the doctor and get another prescription rather than stopping it on their own.

I am glad to see that Sen. Aguilar has pushed through a bill that makes the mental health care there more comprehensive and available by a telephone call, and if necessary mandatory. The patient may not be sufficiently controlled and aware to handle the situation himself. A fairly high number of people will have a mental break of some kind during his life. Depression is common and many people walk around with untreated bipolar disorder half their life. The old stigma over these things is truly primitive in my viewpoint in today's world. Mental illness is not hopeless or a scandal. A good system of care facilities will help us get past that barrier.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/19/378371753/prosecutor-who-accused-argentine-president-is-found-dead

Prosecutor Who Accused Argentine President Of Cover-Up Is Found Dead
Bill Chappell
JANUARY 19, 2015

One day before he was to testify about an alleged cover-up after a deadly terrorist bombing at a Jewish center in Argentina, a federal prosecutor was found dead of a gunshot wound in his Buenos Aires apartment.

Alberto Nisman's body was found Sunday. Officials say they also found a gun, but no note that might indicate his death was a suicide, according to local daily Clarin. An autopsy is being performed today, the newspaper adds.

Update at 5 p.m. ET: No Sign Of Outside Involvement In Nisman's Death
The prosecutor investigating Nisman's death says he died from a single shot to the head from a .22 caliber handgun found at the scene and that there's no evidence that anyone other than the prosecutor was involved in his death.

But investigators are still regarding the death as suspicious. They're trying to find out who owns the gun (Nisman didn't, they say) and are awaiting results from more forensic tests, Clarin reports.

Citing orders from Argentina's president, the country's intelligence agency says it "will declassify data relating to intelligence personnel implicated in the wiretaps related to the 1994 AMIA bombing investigation," according to theBuenos Aires Herald.

Our original post continues:
Nisman's death comes days after he accused President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner of being complicit in a cover-up of a deadly attack that has been a source of controversy since it occurred 20 years ago.

NPR's Lourdes Garcia-Navarro reports:
"It was the worst terror attack in Argentine history — 85 people were killed, and more than 200 injured, when the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association was bombed in 1994.

"Alberto Nisman was the lead investigator on the case. No one has been convicted for the attack, but prosecutors have accused Iran and Hezbollah over the bombing.

"Nisman was supposed to testify Monday, presenting recordings from phone taps in a closed-door hearing. This past week, he accused Fernandez and other senior Argentine officials of agreeing not to punish at least two former Iranians in the case in order to further Argentina's 'commercial, political and geopolitical interests.'

"In particular, he alleged that Argentina was trying to cement a deal swapping wheat for oil in the energy-starved country."

Nisman died four days after he "filed a criminal complaint against President Cristina Kirchner, her foreign minister and others," The Wall Street Journal reported last week, noting that the prosecutor had also sought to freeze some $23 million in assets.

Nisman had been investigating the AMIA bombing for the past 10 years, after being appointed by Kirchner's late husband, former president Nestor Kirchner.

As the AFP reports, "Elisa Carrio, leader of the Civic Coalition, an opposition party, bluntly called Nisman's death 'an assassination,' saying she did not accept that it was a suicide."




“Alberto Nisman's body was found Sunday. Officials say they also found a gun, but no note that might indicate his death was a suicide, according to local daily Clarin. An autopsy is being performed today, the newspaper adds. Update at 5 p.m. ET: No Sign Of Outside Involvement In Nisman's Death. The prosecutor investigating Nisman's death says he died from a single shot to the head from a .22 caliber handgun found at the scene and that there's no evidence that anyone other than the prosecutor was involved in his death. But investigators are still regarding the death as suspicious. They're trying to find out who owns the gun (Nisman didn't, they say) and are awaiting results from more forensic tests, Clarin reports.... "Nisman was supposed to testify Monday, presenting recordings from phone taps in a closed-door hearing. This past week, he accused Fernandez and other senior Argentine officials of agreeing not to punish at least two former Iranians in the case in order to further Argentina's 'commercial, political and geopolitical interests.'... Nisman died four days after he "filed a criminal complaint against President Cristina Kirchner, her foreign minister and others," The Wall Street Journal reported last week, noting that the prosecutor had also sought to freeze some $23 million in assets. Nisman had been investigating the AMIA bombing for the past 10 years, after being appointed by Kirchner's late husband, former president Nestor Kirchner. As the AFP reports, "Elisa Carrio, leader of the Civic Coalition, an opposition party, bluntly called Nisman's death 'an assassination,' saying she did not accept that it was a suicide."

Nisman's charges against the President are potentially very threatening to her, and freezing $23 million in assets ain't chicken feed either. Besides, the gun didn't belong to Nisman, implying that someone else brought it onto the premises. I would go along with Carrio that this could definitely be an assassination, though people don't necessarily leave a note when they commit suicide. We will probably hear more about this in the news.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/19/378385693/origin-unknown-study-details-blast-of-radio-waves-from-outside-our-galaxy

Origin Unknown: Study Says Blast Of Radio Waves Came From Outside Our Galaxy
Bill Chappell
JANUARY 19, 2015

On a graph, they look like detonations. Scientists call them "fast radio bursts," or FRBs: mysterious and strong pulses of radio waves that seemingly emanate far from the Milky Way.

The bursts are rare; they normally last for only about 1 millisecond. In a first, researchers in Australia say they've observed one in real time.

NPR's Joe Palca reports:

"The giant Parkes radio telescope in southeastern Australia detected the burst on May 14 last year. Within hours of the discovery, 12 different telescopes both on Earth and in space were pointed in the direction of the burst, but none recorded any unusual activity.

"Most of the events that astronomers know about that could cause a burst of radio waves, such as an exploding star, would continue to give off light or X-rays or gamma rays for some time.

"Finding nothing only deepens the mystery about what's behind the bursts. Details of the finding appear in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society."

The first of these cosmic outbursts was detected fairly recently, in 2007. Last year, a radio telescope in Puerto Ricodetected the same brief and powerful waves the Parkes facility had earlier reported.

Calling fast radio bursts "tantalizing mysteries of the radio sky," the more than 30 researchers who took part in the study say they found last May's FRB "during a campaign to re-observe known FRB fields."

But while the scientists note that the recent FRB was detected close to a previously discovered phenomenon, they concluded that the two are "distinct objects."

"This is a major breakthrough," Duncan Lorimer of West Virginia University tells New Scientist. Lorimer was part of the team that uncovered the 2007 signal. He also argued that it came from far beyond our galaxy.

Astronomers have disagreed about where FRBs come from, with ideas ranging from black hole activity to solar flares.

EarthSky reports, "The astronomers involved with this study, though, say the burst originated up to 5.5 billion light-years from Earth. If that is indeed the case, then the sources of these bursts must be extremely powerful."

Led by Emily Petroff of Australia's Swinburne University of Technology, scientists from the U.S., India, Germany and elsewhere collected data on the FRB's polarized radiation that they believe is intrinsic to the phenomenon.

In the conclusion to their report, the scientists note, "The true progenitors of FRBs remain unknown."

As NPR's Joe Palca noted last year, the study of FRBs has itself been somewhat polarizing, in one instance resulting in "a theoretical paper suggesting the bursts could be generated by intelligent beings intentionally beaming a radio signal directly at Earth."

We'll note that "real time" is an especially relative term when observing events that took place billions of light-years from Earth. Noting that detail, one of the study's co-authors adds that the radiation's delay as it travels through space is the same as other phenomena that might help to explain it (as the Motherboard blog's Becky Ferreirareports).




“On a graph, they look like detonations. Scientists call them "fast radio bursts," or FRBs: mysterious and strong pulses of radio waves that seemingly emanate far from the Milky Way. The bursts are rare; they normally last for only about 1 millisecond. In a first, researchers in Australia say they've observed one in real time.... Within hours of the discovery, 12 different telescopes both on Earth and in space were pointed in the direction of the burst, but none recorded any unusual activity. "Most of the events that astronomers know about that could cause a burst of radio waves, such as an exploding star, would continue to give off light or X-rays or gamma rays for some time.... The first of these cosmic outbursts was detected fairly recently, in 2007. Last year, a radio telescope in Puerto Ricodetected the same brief and powerful waves the Parkes facility had earlier reported. Calling fast radio bursts "tantalizing mysteries of the radio sky," the more than 30 researchers who took part in the study say they found last May's FRB "during a campaign to re-observe known FRB fields."... "This is a major breakthrough," Duncan Lorimer of West Virginia University tells New Scientist. Lorimer was part of the team that uncovered the 2007 signal. He also argued that it came from far beyond our galaxy. Astronomers have disagreed about where FRBs come from, with ideas ranging from black hole activity to solar flares. EarthSky reports, "The astronomers involved with this study, though, say the burst originated up to 5.5 billion light-years from Earth. If that is indeed the case, then the sources of these bursts must be extremely powerful."... collected data on the FRB's polarized radiation that they believe is intrinsic to the phenomenon. In the conclusion to their report, the scientists note, "The true progenitors of FRBs remain unknown."... the study of FRBs has itself been somewhat polarizing, in one instance resulting in "a theoretical paper suggesting the bursts could be generated by intelligent beings intentionally beaming a radio signal directly at Earth."

These studies have been going on longer ago than 2007. It seems to me that radio waves from as far away as 5.5 billion light years are untraceable and maybe we should give up on these phenomena. They probably are, in fact, from a normal solar event of some kind. At the same time, I basically believe that the life that exists on this earth emerged spontaneously from the chemical mix in the water around “black smokers,” and has probably developed on other planets with a similar situation – warm enough for ice to melt, multiple millions of years for the chemical reaction to occur and for a resulting one-celled life form to replicate and mutate.

Most of those similar planets are not in our solar system, so they won't be able to come and visit us, just as we won't be able to get to them. It is not that improbable, however, that some of them may have attained a technology capable of producing radio waves. The development of intelligence is as basic a part of our human evolution as standing on two feet is, and intelligence is needed by any life form in order to find food and interact sexually. Therefore, I think intelligence is inevitable over these billion or so years.

I love thinking about it, but I don't worry about ET coming to see us, and perhaps to kill or enslave us. Out of the same kind of curiosity that we have about them, they may try to signal us, however. I think we should aim our most powerful radio output directly at the source of those two different sets of signals if we can, and beam them a coded message that will get their attention – SOS, perhaps.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/ed/2015/01/19/377503937/classroom-reflections-on-americas-race-relations

Classroom Reflections On America's Race Relations
Jennifer Guerra
January 19, 2015

In Peter Maginot's sixth-grade class, the teacher is white, but all of his students are black. They're young and they're honestly concerned that what happened to Trayvon Martin, Michael Brown and Eric Garner could happen to them.

"Who can tell me the facts that we know about Mike Brown?" Maginot asks the class at Shabazz Public School Academy, an afro-centric school in Lansing, Mich.

One student speaks up, "Mike Brown, he was shot and killed by a white man." Another adds, "He didn't have any weapons, and he was walking down the street." A third student raises his hand and says, "He was a teenager."

The students — all no more than 10 or 11 years old — know about what happened in Ferguson. They talk about it at home with their parents; they talk about it on the playground with their friends. Their teacher, Mr. Maginot, thinks it's also important for them to talk about it at school with him.

While schools often use this holiday week to talk about civil rights and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., this year, in classrooms like Maginot's, it has been different. Discussions about race in America began in the fall and have continued as teachers and students have tried to draw lessons from the events like those in Ferguson, Mo.

When school began, Maginot wasn't planning to talk about any of this. It was supposed to be a class about leadership.

"It's really heavy stuff, and it can be really hopeless at times," Maginot says, "but I think it's important that they at least have exposure to [these conversations] and have the opportunity to kind of talk about their issues."

He also wants them to know the many sides of these complex issues — for example, that the officer who shot Michael Brown says he was attacked.

And he wants them to talk about solutions. Turning back to the classroom, he says: "We have talked about racial profiling. We've explained it all the way through. But who thinks they have a solution?"

As the students wrestle with that question, there's one young boy at the back of the room wrestling with his own thoughts.

Zyon Adams, 11, is turned around in his seat, facing backwards. He's staring at a bulletin board that he and his classmates made.

There are photos stapled up on the board — of Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner and Michael Brown. The letters "R.I.P." are written in black marker over each picture.

"It's like messed up, because it's just really black people getting killed a lot," Zyon says. "And really, you don't usually see a lot of white people in those types of problems."

When asked how that makes him feel, Zyon says, "Scared and upset. Because it might happen to me one day. I could be one of the people on the posters saying 'RIP' with my picture right under it."

It's heavy stuff these kids are grappling with. They've got solutions, though. They've got sixth-grade solutions. They want to hang up posters, go on field trips to schools with white kids and talk about the issues with them, get their take on what's been happening.

For his part, Zyon Adams is thinking more long-term. Before this class, he wanted to be a paleontologist. Now, he thinks he wants to be a lawyer, so he can represent young black men who get in trouble. Because, he says, then he could help people and explain their case by telling the truth every time.

"Justice," Zyon says, "that'd be nice."




“The students — all no more than 10 or 11 years old — know about what happened in Ferguson. They talk about it at home with their parents; they talk about it on the playground with their friends. Their teacher, Mr. Maginot, thinks it's also important for them to talk about it at school with him. While schools often use this holiday week to talk about civil rights and the legacy of Martin Luther King Jr., this year, in classrooms like Maginot's, it has been different. Discussions about race in America began in the fall and have continued as teachers and students have tried to draw lessons from the events like those in Ferguson, Mo.... "It's like messed up, because it's just really black people getting killed a lot," Zyon says. "And really, you don't usually see a lot of white people in those types of problems." When asked how that makes him feel, Zyon says, "Scared and upset. Because it might happen to me one day. I could be one of the people on the posters saying 'RIP' with my picture right under it."... He also wants them to know the many sides of these complex issues — for example, that the officer who shot Michael Brown says he was attacked.”

Having this discussion young and in school is very helpful, I feel sure. Partly, the kids need to reconcile their fears and anger, but also they need to see the problem that police face. I think the teacher needs to tell them that they shouldn't try to struggle against a police officer because it's so dangerous, and the police officer does have the right to use force if he feels he has to. Submit without giving an argument, as difficult as that may be.

Racial profiling, I think, is harder to excuse even though it occurs in the subconscious and is therefore harder for us to control in ourselves. We all have a certain level of distrust of an unfamiliar or “different” person – “the other” – and that is an instinct. Police officers need to approach people they encounter with a more peaceful, less threatening demeanor and behavior that they often do, and then even if they have a personal “reaction” to black skin they will be less likely to wound or kill anyone. That alone would make for better police department statistics, and better community relations.

Several news articles describing deadly police encounters since Ferguson have stated that the officer said he “felt afraid.” I think it should be possible for the teacher in such a classroom to include in the discussion the fact that officers feel fear during these encounters, and equally possible that the young people could learn to empathize with them and not act in a macho, threatening manner. The two young men in Ferguson walking out in the street rather than on the sidewalk could have been construed by an onlooker as “macho” and perhaps intentional provocation, like when the young men loosen their belts to allow their pants to drop down low. A frank discussion on respect in the classroom would be useful.

They also need to be taught to talk to white people and deal with us more openly and with a little trust. I try to be pleasant always with black people where I live here, and I find that most of them respond in kind. There have been three instances when a black person behaved to me in a hostile manner, which I did not deserve. Twice I let it pass, but another time it was beyond the pale and I reported the person to the management here. I had no more problems. That's something both races need to practice until we learn it – to create a fair-minded and honest relationship across the color lines.

There is such a backlog of hostility between the races at this point that it fuels these police brutality events from both sides. As a society, we need to stop downgrading any race or religious group, because that is the root cause of these hostile interactions. While the teachers are giving a discussion like this one they should include how we each, as an individual, can reduce our own ill will against any other group and see to it that we don't disrespect them. “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Police officers should consider it a part of their job to do likewise to minorities and the poor. It's possible to effect an arrest without being abusive.