tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91127461096982915222024-03-11T21:51:29.420-07:00Martha y Maria: Women's Lives, Women's RightsA Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08548864308299827710noreply@blogger.comBlogger1378125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-30882581875269272792024-02-18T02:10:00.000-08:002024-02-18T02:10:22.982-08:00Alexei Navalny, Jesus, Martin Luther King Jr., and on <p><span style="font-family: times;"><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWDxZf5eRHRqlxQ5WiUQb0lWMQUB5Dirm-AqCUSVw4HFi8pXW7V9eL08L-RzvFsDHdmhjKdbbb8H5D8AEOzuLod-LRl1uKeS4wIcbhyphenhyphenATYq0ACu6LWN4aJJQyKSjUKjk1DJ6dCsH2Ky41ulyBXluedbqI-yI6SuComVjL2f-K77ZFtjCTOae97tkzshY/s4032/IMG_7041.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhOWDxZf5eRHRqlxQ5WiUQb0lWMQUB5Dirm-AqCUSVw4HFi8pXW7V9eL08L-RzvFsDHdmhjKdbbb8H5D8AEOzuLod-LRl1uKeS4wIcbhyphenhyphenATYq0ACu6LWN4aJJQyKSjUKjk1DJ6dCsH2Ky41ulyBXluedbqI-yI6SuComVjL2f-K77ZFtjCTOae97tkzshY/w400-h300/IMG_7041.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Screen shot from MSNBC, Feb. 16, 2024</td></tr></tbody></table></b></span><b style="font-family: times;"><span style="color: #222222;">W</span><span style="color: #222222;">e begin the season of Lent with the execution of an innocent man, a man like Jesus, who gave his life for his people. Say his name: Alexei Navalny.</span></b></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Both spoke truth to power, and both were executed.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Like Martin Luther King Jr. </b></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>Like Mahatma Gandhi, Jamal Khashoggi, and so many others.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b>CNN re-aired <a href="https://thehill.com/blogs/in-the-know/4473894-alexei-navalny-documentary-reair-cnn/" target="_blank">a documentary about the 2020 poisoning</a> of Navalny by Vladimir Putin.</b></span></span></p><p><b>Here's<a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2024/2/16/hold-alexei-navalny-timeline-from-poisoning-to-prison" target="_blank"> a timeline</a> of Navalny's recent actions:</b></p><p><b>Aug. 20, 2020 - Nalvalny is poisoned on a flight within Russia.</b></p><p><b>Sept. - Nov. 2020 - Team of researchers discovers who participated in the plot-- and that the murder was clearly ordered by Putin.</b></p><p><b>Dec. 14, 2020 - Researchers disclose plot via many social media platforms.</b></p><p><b>Dec. 21, 2020 - Researchers play an audiotape of one of poisoning team disclosing the plan while secretly being recorded.</b></p><p><b>Jan. 17, 2021 - Navalny returns to Russia to continue to challenge Putin's stranglehold on Russia.</b></p><p><b>Feb. 16, 2024 - Navalny is murdered in a Siberian prison weeks before the next presidential election in <br />Russia.</b></p><p><b>Navalny gave his life to fight Putin's stranglehold on Russia.<span style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"> </span></b></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><u><b>See also:</b></u></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2024/02/17/europe/putin-navalny-existential-threat-analysis-intl/index.html" target="_blank">"Putin saw an existential threat in Navalny" </a>by Nathan Hodge.</b></span></span></p><p><span style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><b><a href="https://cnnpressroom.blogs.cnn.com/2022/05/15/inside-the-mind-of-vladimir-putin-fareed-zakaria-hosts-new-cnn-special/" target="_blank">"Inside the mind of Vladimir Putin"</a> documentary with host Fareed Zakariah.</b></span></span></p><div style="color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: times;"><br /></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><br /></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-82606669893147647962023-10-15T22:44:00.000-07:002023-10-15T23:11:55.856-07:00Love Israel, Support PeaceWe live in a different world since last Saturday, October 7.<div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLraApkYHFa55eJEB0sOrV6u6-xW-6OxlZpQwoaQWJ8cty4xy-E4hodxhFTEsnt7VHoZyyBmFzSeLciNh_LL8uUZClBj5s7ASeTwJ2XEWVRSa93OfWWwWqcRf5IyY10a9XJC8CVMC6r-sL18O0jAddVAY5e7U10r1T2kjr475Zhed4CU_IqfkIa4uoDg/s4032/IMG-1115.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLLraApkYHFa55eJEB0sOrV6u6-xW-6OxlZpQwoaQWJ8cty4xy-E4hodxhFTEsnt7VHoZyyBmFzSeLciNh_LL8uUZClBj5s7ASeTwJ2XEWVRSa93OfWWwWqcRf5IyY10a9XJC8CVMC6r-sL18O0jAddVAY5e7U10r1T2kjr475Zhed4CU_IqfkIa4uoDg/w300-h400/IMG-1115.jpg" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Guest essay by Nir Avishai Cohen, NYT</td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div>The world mourns--well, some distract themselves with football or the nearing World Series.</div><div><br /></div><div>The <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/13/opinion/israel-military-war.html?unlocked_article_code=CfeGGKH3MQ1ONaCk2V6T-m4mmcMO09BuHx3RHP7WODY6F39_DkFGd6I4-_q9R3Pwg2ZUCOnFitf0OvsiOZdvnJ1D0sSlFVfvAze-FoYGIFPLEPvhTajbX7-DVwPOEVm5d8jgxbzuXSALFubwt3MFJS7zOaiMYBTU9jUn3y8-9l_axFTBLUvswUCTxSr3bJ4kN79IljFGGFRU3lgotivq3YGFm0J1GxDKLWQviePniQRmscyIiKvnML3oABrQABrEnxa1OsKsEaXin6U_F7v7eQsKL-lKb9rvqcpj0X69p_yv44EDyf3G34-TIpSRH9WTw_EDblOzkQEqCVVR9Q&smid=url-share" target="_blank">best commentary I've seen</a> is by a major in the reserves for the Israeli Defense Forces, Nir Avishai Cohen in today's <i>New York Times</i>.</div><div><br /></div><div>But all of us have witnessed yet another instance of willingness to massacre civilians. This began on a large scale during World War 2 and climaxed with Hiroshima and Nagasaki.</div><div><br /></div><div>Then Putin began it again in Ukraine, and now Hamas has waged war on babies, young adults at a party, elderly people and others not bearing weapons.</div><div><br /></div><div>In 2018 Major Cohen wrote a book titled <i>Love Israel, Support Palestine</i>. </div><div><br /></div><div>"Israel did not do enough to make peace," he writes. </div><div><br /></div><div>True and tragic for all.</div><div><br /></div><div>"Israelis must realize that there is no greater security asset than peace," he concludes in this article. "The strongest army cannot protect the country the way peace does."<br /></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-31993229755144743742023-07-13T01:39:00.038-07:002023-07-13T02:21:59.294-07:00Katharine, talented sister of the Wright Brothers<p><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">What a fate--to be the talented sister of two famous brothers! </span></b></p><p><span style="color: #222222; font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b>Katharine Wright, sister of Orville and Wilbur, is in the news this week because her correspondence with other men of her era was being auctioned by Christie's, the renowned art appraiser and seller.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><b></b></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Katharine_Wright_(1898).jpg/220px-Katharine_Wright_(1898).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="260" data-original-width="220" height="320" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/ba/Katharine_Wright_(1898).jpg/220px-Katharine_Wright_(1898).jpg" width="271" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;">Katharine Wright Haskell<br /><i><span>photo from Wikipedia</span></i><br /></span></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: times; font-size: medium;"><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="color: #222222;">Thank you to book and manuscript specialist Heather Pisani for her review of the Katharine's letters and her sketch of the life of this influential woman. Thanks also to </span><span style="color: #222222;">my brother Jim, who sent me this link:</span></span></b></p><p><b style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><a href="https://www.christies.com/features/Katharine-Wright-Aviations-unsung-heroine-9222-1.aspx" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://www.christies.com/<wbr></wbr>features/Katharine-Wright-<wbr></wbr>Aviations-unsung-heroine-9222-<wbr></wbr>1.aspx</a></b></p><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Though Katharine was the youngest of her siblings, her brother Orville was quite dependent on her. She called him "Little Brother." When she finally married at age 51, Orville had a fit and never spoke to her again.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>She was essentially the manager of her brother's efforts, their financial affairs, their patent, and their acceptance as the first to achieve flight.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Virginia Woolf wrote about what might have been the outcome if Shakespeare had had a sister as talented in writing plays as he was.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>She might have scribbled some pages secretly, wrote Virginia, but she would have been "careful to hide them or set fire to them." The senior Shakespeares would have tried to force her into marriage with the son of a well-to-do family, but she would have run off to London instead to work in the theatre. </b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Only women could be actors in the 1580s, so she would have been laughed out of town, or perhaps seduced and found herself pregnant and desperate and "killed herself one winter's night."</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>"That, more or less, is how the story would run, I think, if a woman in Shakespeare's day had had Shakespeare's genius," writes Woolf in <i>A Room of One's Own</i>, chapter three.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Katharine Wright fared much better than that. In 1893 she enrolled at Oberlin College in Ohio, the first college in the US to enroll both women and men. After three years, however, she took time out to care for Orville when he was seriously ill.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>She became a Latin teacher after graduating but stopped that work to manage her brothers' affairs, traveling to France with them to demonstrate flight to European rulers.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Katharine also worked hard for women's suffrage and was successful in making Ohio the fifth state to ratify the 19th Amendment.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>After thirty years of service to her brothers and their legacy, she married a fellow Oberlin graduate--but Orville was furious at her for not continuing to pour all her energy into his health and career. He never spoke to her again. (Katharine had already lost her brother Wilbur to typhoid fever contracted in Europe, just as Virginia had lost her brother Thoby.) </b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Though Katharine's life turned out better than Woolf had predicted for Shakespeare's sister, the similarities are striking.</b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>What trials Katharine Wright faced! </b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; font-size: medium;"><b>Though largely responsible for her brothers' success and for the recognition they received, she was expected to place their needs ahead of her own and give up her own life for theirs.</b></span></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-59255652775734083852023-05-06T02:57:00.000-07:002023-05-06T02:57:17.153-07:00Shireen Abu Akleh - Palestinian-American journalist<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Shireen_Abu_Akleh.jpg/800px-Shireen_Abu_Akleh.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="800" data-original-width="571" height="355" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/Shireen_Abu_Akleh.jpg/800px-Shireen_Abu_Akleh.jpg" width="253" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Shireen Abu Akleh<br />photo by <i>Al Jezeera Media Network</i></td></tr></tbody></table><p>What's more important, the coronation of King Charles III or the one-year anniversary of the killing of Palestinian-American journalist <a href="https://www.google.com/search?gs_ssp=eJzj4tZP1zc0MkrLMkw3MWD0EizOyCxKTc1TSEwqVUjMzknNAACXkgoD&q=shireen+abu+akleh&rlz=1C1EJFC_enUS839US839&oq=shireen+abu+akleh&aqs=chrome.2.0i131i355i433i512j46i131i340i433i512l2j0i512l7.8891j0j15&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8" target="_blank">Shireen Abu Akleh</a>? </p><p>The pageantry of the coronation on May 7 is a fairy tale, a relic of the past. We all want to live in this fantasy world where princesses ride in coaches, kings are crowned, and the poor are happy.</p><p>But May 11, 2023, one year after Israeli soldiers shot Shireen, is a reminder of Palestinian suffering.</p><p>She was reporting on the military raid of Israeli soldiers on Jenin, a city in the occupied West Bank of the Jordan River, when she was shot--though clearly identified as press.</p><p>A US investigation of her death was opened late in 2022, but it has bogged down. After all, there's so much investigation of January 6, Donald Trump, and the classified documents still to be done.</p><p>A report will be given to some members of Congress soon, but the Biden administration has said it will make "technical edits" to the report before releasing it.</p><p>The Israeli newspaper<i> <a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-14/ty-article/.premium/u-s-informs-israel-it-will-open-investigation-into-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh/00000184-77b5-d8e3-a5bd-f7f707aa0000" target="_blank">HaAretz </a></i><a href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-14/ty-article/.premium/u-s-informs-israel-it-will-open-investigation-into-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh/00000184-77b5-d8e3-a5bd-f7f707aa0000" target="_blank">notes tension</a> in the US and Israel as the anniversary nears:</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Merriweather, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Sen. Chris Van Hollen has been perhaps the leading advocate in Congress on Abu Akleh’s behalf over the past 12 months. On Monday, he urged U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken not to edit </span><a class="sb sc sd se iy ks sf sg sh si sj sk rj fj jl jm" href="https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-11-14/ty-article/.premium/u-s-informs-israel-it-will-open-investigation-into-killing-of-shireen-abu-akleh/00000184-77b5-d8e3-a5bd-f7f707aa0000" style="background-color: white; background-repeat: no-repeat; border-bottom-color: rgba(var(--link-borderBottom),1); border-bottom-style: solid; border-bottom-width: 1px; box-sizing: inherit; font-family: Merriweather, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px; text-decoration-line: none; touch-action: manipulation; transition-duration: 0.25s; transition-property: all; transition-timing-function: cubic-bezier(0.55, 0, 0.1, 1);">a new report</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Merriweather, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 18px;"> on Abu Akleh’s death before sharing it with U.S. lawmakers.</span></p><p>No one in Israel has yet been held accountable for Shireen Abu Akleh's death, neither the soldiers nor the government that authorized the brutal raid. Biden does not want to lose support by taking a strong stand against Netanyahu's oppression of Palestinians.</p><p>If we spend an hour or two watching Charles receive his crown, we should devote an equal amount of energy to protesting Shireen's death and the ongoing persecution of Palestinians by the Israeli military.</p><p><u><b> </b></u></p><p>See also reports of ongoing raids, such as this one last March:</p><p><span style="font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; text-decoration-line: underline;">Israeli forces kill four Palestinians in latest Jenin raid</span></p><p><br /></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-32997998024294104482022-12-06T00:11:00.000-08:002022-12-06T00:11:31.676-08:00Men are still using the label "witch" to kill women<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAKZ4aQkvxs61hKkfSRJwDyZRtmbLnkDg_FBQnD8nh39O35xvenKsKxBIK9dQYjswymSKyQANjWXbC2p7eO8TZcDhcuh5eILYi47nnxYKGlFQuNmuzEFRwj3-K1Gaprj_9frshwU6R5HV9JVlZ7MQ9YjOJNJDLhhgXWPPH19ScEboGubh5jJCstih/s890/Women%20killed%20in%20Borno%20Nigeria.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="890" data-original-width="773" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimAKZ4aQkvxs61hKkfSRJwDyZRtmbLnkDg_FBQnD8nh39O35xvenKsKxBIK9dQYjswymSKyQANjWXbC2p7eO8TZcDhcuh5eILYi47nnxYKGlFQuNmuzEFRwj3-K1Gaprj_9frshwU6R5HV9JVlZ7MQ9YjOJNJDLhhgXWPPH19ScEboGubh5jJCstih/w348-h400/Women%20killed%20in%20Borno%20Nigeria.jpg" width="348" /></a></div><b>How is it possible that women are still being killed by men claiming they are witches?</b><p></p><p><b>Read <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-11429885/Jihadists-slaughter-26-women-Boko-Haram-commander-accused-WITCHES.html" target="_blank">this report</a><i> </i>in the <i>Daily Mail </i>on December 5.</b></p><p><b>A Boko Haram commander in northern Nigeria claimed that witches caused the deaths of his children.</b></p><p><b>Women were rounded up. On November 15, about 26 of them were murdered.</b></p><p><b>This kind of murder is common enough that a citizens' group in Nigeria has been founded: <a href="https://advocacyforallegedwitches.law.blog/" target="_blank">Advocacy for Alleged Witches (AfAW)</a>. The group called on Nigeria's president to do more to protect women.</b></p><p><b>On the website <a href="http://SaharaReporters.com">SaharaReporters.com</a>, AfAW explains that</b></p><p><span style="background-color: #01ffff; color: #333333; font-family: calluna, serif; font-size: 16.8px;"><b>accusations happen when people attribute misfortunes to occult or supernatural causes or when people are not satisfied with ordinary, natural, or commonsensical explanations of ailments and deaths.</b></span></p><p><b>These murders occurred just two weeks after our American holiday of Halloween, when we dress up ourselves or our children as witches; we display pumpkins and witches in our yards.</b></p><p><b>Perhaps it's time to stop making fun of a serious problem, both in the present and in history.</b></p><p><b>Until men around the world stop using superstition to kill women, jokes about witches should be just as off-limits on Halloween as nooses hanging from trees.</b></p><p><b>To make things worse, some people are using religion to promote ideas about demon possession and witchcraft. One such person in Nigeria is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Ukpabio" target="_blank">Helen Ukpabio</a>, "<span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">widely accused of causing large-scale harassment and violence against </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Witchcraft_accusations_against_children_in_Africa" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Witchcraft accusations against children in Africa">children accused of witchcraft</a><span style="color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 14px;">," according to a Wikipedia report.</span></span></b></p><p><b><a href="https://www.ted.com/speakers/leo_igwe" target="_blank">Dr. Leo Igwe</a> is a founder of AfAW. His book <i>Saving Child Witches: A Nigerian Perspective </i>was published in 2008.</b></p><p><b>He writes:</b></p><p><span style="background-color: #111111; color: white; font-family: "Source Serif Pro", "Baskerville Old Face", Garamond, "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 20px;">In particular, we need to check the activities of our so called pastors and other self styled men and women of God who use the Bible or Holy books to perpetrate and justify atrocious acts and human right abuses. These religious charlatans continue to act and preach in ways that reinforce the belief in witches and provoke acts of witch accusation, persecution and killing.</span></p><p><b>Thank you to Andre Berthou in Sevres, France, for calling my attention to this problem.</b></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-10634068657244738232022-11-14T14:00:00.000-08:002022-11-14T14:00:04.608-08:00Defeat Lauren Boebert!<p><b>My kids say I'm sexist, that I hate men--but they don't get it.</b></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ynpnfizvoYxPk4aEjlwb0TLx1dv-Vh4muReoLHjRzd7-d3UGdF6kpp4wLtPTxVFvAjC3QTOeJgjFnh98FfLW0xeO0RQKfu1dTd-x8jAuQAuEJv0_l7PwdhrT2lPUNQs_z6Mavofkr7bj1TRIL90HIrbmK3-bA8JeL6tOw3Psfu68B8QkpVz747j1/s4032/House%20seats%20predicted%20Nov%2014.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1ynpnfizvoYxPk4aEjlwb0TLx1dv-Vh4muReoLHjRzd7-d3UGdF6kpp4wLtPTxVFvAjC3QTOeJgjFnh98FfLW0xeO0RQKfu1dTd-x8jAuQAuEJv0_l7PwdhrT2lPUNQs_z6Mavofkr7bj1TRIL90HIrbmK3-bA8JeL6tOw3Psfu68B8QkpVz747j1/s320/House%20seats%20predicted%20Nov%2014.JPG" width="320" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Projections still favor GOP to take House</b></td></tr></tbody></table><b>I favor women until a woman proves herself against women, against democracy, against loving your neighbor. Or until a man turns out to be sympatico, a kindred spirit, as many men are.</b></p><p><b>My commitment to Jesus requires me to vote against a hater and liar, whatever the gender, so I oppose Lauren Boebert in the 2022 election. I support Adam Frisch.</b></p><p><b>This week is a nail biter, as last week was. The Colorado <a href="https://www.kktv.com/2022/11/14/house-district-3-race-still-too-close-call-with-boebert-lead-monday/" target="_blank">Secretary of State's Office reports</a> today that by Wednesday (or Friday at the latest), the 1,100 remaining votes--military and overseas--will be counted and reported.</b></p><p><b>Meanwhile <span style="color: #212529; font-family: "Segoe UI", Roboto, "Helvetica Neue", Arial, "Noto Sans", sans-serif, "Apple Color Emoji", "Segoe UI Emoji", "Segoe UI Symbol", "Noto Color Emoji"; font-size: 16px;"><span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Boebert has 50.17 percent of the vote, while Frisch has 49.83 percent</span>, </span>reports Gilbert Ortiz, Pueblo County Clerk and Recorder.</b></p><p><b>My daughter Marie in San Miguel County voted for Adam Frisch. She majored in Gender Studies in college and is an ardent feminist.</b></p><p><b>My mother's cousin Morrison Brown, a Democrat for all of his 89 years, explained to me that Colorado requires a recount if two candidates are separated by .5% or less. He lives in Cortez, where most of my family voted Democrat, and he refuses to give up hope.</b></p><p><b>"Colorado has a Blue Ribbon voting system," he continued. "Every registered voter gets a ballot by mail, and afterward you get a text that says your vote's been counted."</b></p><p><b>"What really burns my tail is that 3,000 voters didn't vote for either one. They couldn't stand to vote for Boebert, but they didn't want to vote blue. If they had voted in this race, Frisch wouldn't be 974 votes short."</b></p><p><b>Adam Frisch had the lead on election night, Nov. 8, and we all thought he would win.</b></p><p><b>"Now Jayson Boebert won't be able to ride around on his tractor shooting mailboxes without getting arrested!" shouted my daughter Roz, coming home from her election day's evening shift at Starbucks. She soothes the nerves of anxious Santa Monica voters with caffeine and sugar.</b></p><p><b>"Anyone who votes for Boebert isn't the brightest light in the room," commented Morrison. </b></p><p><b>Roz, Marie and I all agree with him. </b></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-17609090353490744032022-10-05T20:36:00.035-07:002023-02-17T22:30:07.775-08:00In Memoriam: Barbara Abercrombie (1939-2022)<p> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSIk_J6WpS011GNm0heXHdncKB7GApw6xZFkeEfBihtsUuL3mTGIR-cdh-xHU_GqWdqac3KIi3wkQSYG_RcDgyFDMFlTaPwSn1YrCub29mmeoJp1iWZbJ8AEEt3DYWBoYEGgyN_GxYEj1dZWp8sJVfpJg1jZE5Hb958RI7NX07juUvuJsoxdnA7EPb/s4032/IMG_0307.HEIC" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="448" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSIk_J6WpS011GNm0heXHdncKB7GApw6xZFkeEfBihtsUuL3mTGIR-cdh-xHU_GqWdqac3KIi3wkQSYG_RcDgyFDMFlTaPwSn1YrCub29mmeoJp1iWZbJ8AEEt3DYWBoYEGgyN_GxYEj1dZWp8sJVfpJg1jZE5Hb958RI7NX07juUvuJsoxdnA7EPb/w336-h448/IMG_0307.HEIC" width="336" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Barbara Abercrombie with Joe Morganstern<br />July 11, 2021</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Barbara Abercrombie was tiny, </b><div><b><br /></b><div><b>slim,
and </b><b>graceful, almost always</b></div><div><b> </b></div><div><b>dressed in black and </b><b>white, </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>which accented her
white fluff </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>of </b><b>stylishly </b><b>cut short hair and </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>black-framed </b><b>glasses.</b><div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>The most memorable thing about
Barbara was her million-dollar smile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>She liked happy, insisted that our memoirs not be polemic or despairing.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Even when writing about loss, she
balanced grieving with celebrating. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Born Barbara Louise Mattes on April 6, 1939, in Illinois, she attended
Briarcliff College just north of New York City and then did some acting on
Broadway and in television.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She married
a Naval officer and stockbroker, Gordon E. Abercrombie, in 1964 and had two daughters. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Barbara wrote five children's books published 1979-2002 after editing a collection of poems for
children in 1977.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> Her three novels include <i>Good Riddance</i> (Harper, 1979), about a woman whose husband flagrantly betrays her. </span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>I first met Barbara in
spring of 2000, when I took her famous course Courage and Craft I & II,
followed by The Art of the Personal Essay that fall.</b><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b>She was 61 then, kind and encouraging, living
in a wonderful home right on the beach in Santa Monica. </b><b>In 2007
she made that course accessible to anyone, publishing </b><b><i>Courage and Craft:
Writing Your Life into Story, </i>followed by <i>A Year of Writing Dangerously</i></b><i> </i><b>in 2012 and <i>Kicking in the Wall </i>in 2013.</b><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSdkW7dcOgSHWhFeE1ieQjbbsWtnm7eF_2TPzvW8doo0CSu8qsyWoR9hP1ahJwHMvc6oOovDzqkkbaXLVyKVuAoxockHdUf__77DI0WmnJG8_mF98ayv1Go_3pAHEyBZX45QvWhJl3W2f7efnwHFWaX9IrBdDQeB1y4U3OJ_Va06M-TVXsbTxzWMj/s4032/IMG_0303.HEIC" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEieSdkW7dcOgSHWhFeE1ieQjbbsWtnm7eF_2TPzvW8doo0CSu8qsyWoR9hP1ahJwHMvc6oOovDzqkkbaXLVyKVuAoxockHdUf__77DI0WmnJG8_mF98ayv1Go_3pAHEyBZX45QvWhJl3W2f7efnwHFWaX9IrBdDQeB1y4U3OJ_Va06M-TVXsbTxzWMj/w300-h400/IMG_0303.HEIC" width="300" /></a></b></div><b><br />Her warmth and generosity were </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>proverbial.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></b><b>She always invited </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>students
to her home </b><b>for the last </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>meeting of the class, and </b><b>later </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>she began her Lit
Salon, a </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>monthly gathering of writers </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>and readers </b><b>at which ten </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>people </b><b>each
read a five-minute </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>piece.</b></div><div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>I studied with other writers for </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>fifteen years and then began </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>taking Barbara’s advanced seminars in creative
nonfiction in 2016.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I noticed that the
students in her classes of twelve bonded with each other as well as with her;
we became adept at asking questions that would improve the writing and at
saying, “Maybe you could make this line into a scene.”<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>The next to last class she taught was an
experiment, a year-long course for advanced students writing memoirs.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We had all published essays of various sorts
or done work in screen writing, maybe written a book.<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>The usual ten-week classes offered
by UCLA Extension were a piecemeal approach to the kind of long-term work we
were doing.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Barbara designed
a curriculum and shepherded us each from haphazard chapters to a complete
manuscript worthy of submission to an agent.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>We were a neurotic bunch, anxious
about our projects and skeptical that they would ever see the light of
day.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Four of us had been taking Barbara’s
creative nonfiction classes for years; four had worked with other instructors
and were meeting her for the first time—or almost meeting her.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The course began in September, 2020, and Covid-19
transformed it into a Zoom. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Starting with us where we were, lost
in pages and pages of our stories, Barbara cheerfully planned out the three
quarters, which would end in June, 2021, with a real agent committed to reading
our first thirty pages.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It was a great year,
but when June came, none of us had completed a presentable first draft.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Barbara negotiated with the
Extension and offered us another three months of her guidance in the fall.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then in January, 2022, we each submitted our opening pages to an agent but continued working as a group. <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>In May when she told us that her new cough was lung cancer, it didn’t seem possible that we could lose her in only three months. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Barbara was irrepressible. She gleaned friendship from the end of a marriage and remarried at 58</b><b>.</b><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-weight: bold; mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><b> Though she lost her soulmate after 18 years, she lived to love again. </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>Beginning in 1997 she wrote her way out of breast cancer, adding to her own story the poems and quotations of others; the result was<i> Writing Out the Storm: Reading and Writing Your Way through Serious Illness or Injury </i>(2002). Then, in response to the death of her second husband, Robert V. Adams in 2015, she collected poems and paragraphs for her sixteenth book, <i>The Language of Loss: Poetry and Prose for Grieving and Celebrating the Love of Your Life </i>(2020). </b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>In her final days she was still a wordsmith, describing her dying as “a blessed slide into not feeling.” She died in the early hours of August 24, 2022.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><b>We were fortunate to have the opportunity to work with you, Barbara. Thank you.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 200%;"><br /></p></div></div></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-59057952664720727942022-07-26T03:08:00.064-07:002022-07-30T14:31:37.161-07:00GOP Senators who voted NO on gun control<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><b>A month after 19 kids and 2 teachers were killed in Uvalde, 13 US Senators voted against Senate Bill 2938, the plan to support the gun control bill just passed by the House of Representatives.<o:p></o:p></b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><b>The Senate had already removed from the bill a ban on assault-style rifles and a ban on high-capacity magazines, but 13 Senators still couldn't support what was left:</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><span><b>a background checks on buyers convicted of domestic violence</b></span></span></li><li><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="line-height: 107%;"><span><b>a background check on buyers convicted of crimes when they were under 18 yrs. old. </b></span></span></li></ul><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>The bill still passed in the Senate because 50 Democrats, 13 Republicans, and 2 Independents all voted for it. </b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>33 US Senators voted against it, and 2 did not vote at all.</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><span style="background-color: white;"><b>13 of those 33 anti-safety US Senators are running for re-election this coming November, 2022.</b></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span face=""Segoe UI", sans-serif" style="color: red;"><b>Remember the children and adults murdered in Buffalo, Uvalde, Highland Park, and the Indiana mall.</b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: transparent;"><b>Remember the names of the 13 US Senators who couldn't even vote for background checks on gun buyers --though the buyers could be potential killers. </b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">John Boozman - Arkanas<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Mike Crapo - Idaho<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Chuck
Grassley - Iowa<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">John Hoeven - North Dakota<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Ron Johnson - Wisconsin</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">John Kennedy - Louisiana<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">James Lankford - Oklahoma<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Mike Lee - Utah<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Jerry Moran - Kansas<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Rand Paul - Kentucky<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Marco Rubio - Florida<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">Tim Scott - South Carolina<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span face=""Segoe UI",sans-serif" style="border: 1pt solid black; color: black; font-size: 14pt; mso-bidi-language: HE; mso-border-alt: solid black .25pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;">John Thune - South Dakota.<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Notice that ALL of these 13 US Senators without compassion are male and Republican.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Notice that out of 24 women US Senators, only 4 voted against the gun control bill (Lummis, Blackburn, Hyde-Smith, and Fischer). Twenty women Senators voted for the bill.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>The Republican women Senators who had the courage to vote <i>for </i>these modest gun control laws are:</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Joni Ernst (Iowa), Shelley Moore-Capito (West Virginia), Lisa Murkowski (Alaska), and Susan Collins (Maine). Thank you!</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Out of 76 men in the US Senate, 29 voted against modest, commonsense gun control laws. </b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face="Arial, sans-serif"><b>Thus only 1 out of every 3 male US Senators wants laws to prevent shootings.</b></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Women US Senators are more likely to value human lives more highly than gun rights.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>Republican US Senators are less likely to prioritize human lives over gun rights.</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>The bottom line?</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b>We need more women in the US Senate. We need fewer Republican men. </b></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-48161161214444655612022-07-04T22:28:00.017-07:002022-07-06T03:29:38.540-07:00What I'm Celebrating on July 4, 2022<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /> <span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"> <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChKS55Litj2RYhxygyuIVV7EELOlFqy3o5gCNYtanWP7mm3wAU00n6ZjbqS7lO3-WN-d5zTcPaw1It3SFlZHDzpHOwvmLtSHfbJHHHFsPKNDIS_VUjbugffCCAjG5FB7FJlzcVbH6eIUS_I8yOVivcyRYsuuA1XJrueiAzWKw6k1ZVWsv2xpPA2V_/s3056/IMG_3515.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2640" data-original-width="3056" height="345" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgChKS55Litj2RYhxygyuIVV7EELOlFqy3o5gCNYtanWP7mm3wAU00n6ZjbqS7lO3-WN-d5zTcPaw1It3SFlZHDzpHOwvmLtSHfbJHHHFsPKNDIS_VUjbugffCCAjG5FB7FJlzcVbH6eIUS_I8yOVivcyRYsuuA1XJrueiAzWKw6k1ZVWsv2xpPA2V_/w400-h345/IMG_3515.JPG" width="400" /></a></div></span><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>In 2022, celebration of the Fourth of July was difficult.</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>7 people went to a town parade in Highland Park, Illinois, and were shot dead by a sniper with an assault rifle.</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b> 35 or so others were shot but survived. Hundreds of others escaped with psychological wounds only.</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>The rest of us tried to carry on, but how do you enjoy a barbecue or parade or fireworks while your cell phone and television are reporting on the manhunt in Illinois for a killer still on the loose?</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>Between updates on the parade massacre, we watched newly-released video of the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/ohio-police-officers-shot-fleeing-black-man-dozens-lawyer-says-rcna36468" target="_blank">murder of Jayland Walker</a>, a Black man being chased by police in Akron, Ohio, for having a broken taillight. </b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>To have a happy Fourth this year, you had to be deaf, dumb, and blind. </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphSQ4Ke-2dZR4F-jPPVdJbDvlOqFsknoSjl4qL0kO7jeQd1qd3Ho0L5q417KnI6vaeZsNyeVrSLcTSYt0uqSz30tumkOmzvaq1VTHTwZujZIXxklaS-D78SxUEDeUFw58MUjMs62d4Xc5KlR2PJgFxjJw3n-x1TlaP5FRnWYggmMJOCbBmym5jgXc/s1440/B73DAFB9-C297-45E0-A918-42FAD0777635.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="1228" data-original-width="1440" height="273" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgphSQ4Ke-2dZR4F-jPPVdJbDvlOqFsknoSjl4qL0kO7jeQd1qd3Ho0L5q417KnI6vaeZsNyeVrSLcTSYt0uqSz30tumkOmzvaq1VTHTwZujZIXxklaS-D78SxUEDeUFw58MUjMs62d4Xc5KlR2PJgFxjJw3n-x1TlaP5FRnWYggmMJOCbBmym5jgXc/s320/B73DAFB9-C297-45E0-A918-42FAD0777635.jpg" width="320" /></b></a></div><b><span style="color: #222222;"><br /></span><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;">Also you had to avoid thinking about the Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v. Wade. </span></b><p></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>You had to block out the latest revelations that ex-president Trump had wrestled with his Secret Service officers in an SUV, demanding to go to the Capitol building and take part in the overthrow of the government.</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>It wasn't your average lazy, beer-drinking day of illegal fireworks and patriotic platitudes.</b></span></p><p><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-size: small;"><b>But "Still I Rise," as Maya Angelou would say.</b></span></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>On this desperate July 4th, I'm celebrating that <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">Trump is no longer president</span>. His plot to gain a second term by selling us a bunch of lies failed.</b></p><p><b>I'm celebrating that the House Select Committee to Investigate the January 6 Attack has been doing its work for a year now, and the <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">DOJ may even indict Trump</span> for a few of his many crimes. That's worth cheering about.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxyM84V92o715JhS5WPcdkV12EZD27sYzadfj_cGf8A6UAOv-vGxYHU8rIWUPuXOJawFVzHOsZL07EAFS7I-xzGtjYDsy_HOdmhmRNbMW-HddXWeIqZaHHYxYlG4C7h2r-JEn71vCOU5V2_KMb6t3AwF_3YUeO4_QyZ4qQC-QhCSulnIEK3D5r2HV/s4032/IMG_3513.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgXxyM84V92o715JhS5WPcdkV12EZD27sYzadfj_cGf8A6UAOv-vGxYHU8rIWUPuXOJawFVzHOsZL07EAFS7I-xzGtjYDsy_HOdmhmRNbMW-HddXWeIqZaHHYxYlG4C7h2r-JEn71vCOU5V2_KMb6t3AwF_3YUeO4_QyZ4qQC-QhCSulnIEK3D5r2HV/w320-h240/IMG_3513.JPG" width="320" /></b></a></div><p></p><p><b>I'm rejoicing that <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">we still have a democracy</span> of sorts. It's not a <a href="https://act.represent.us/sign/democracy-republic" target="_blank">direct democracy</a> (where the popular vote determines the president), but at least our representatives on Jan. 6, 2021, didn't quite dare to overthrow the election results and ram another four years of Donald down our throats. </b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><br /></b></div><b><br /><br /></b><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheoyCF0g2kC2f80aQouPOtMG_VtDvoTsewbh8EsFfKDgpeXqXrz66JXJ7U5n9csHr3TYxPidaB3V9MUYQXJ3W2KB03q3McRSnucK3uIUpBMjX65jOkNMuF1YY0KoUutFsk49ywVABQYyBCOXvRvIQImf1u60BPJjw8VzlMI8EK8sEMDDhS6iX9Xv7o/s3008/IMG_3596.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="3008" data-original-width="3003" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEheoyCF0g2kC2f80aQouPOtMG_VtDvoTsewbh8EsFfKDgpeXqXrz66JXJ7U5n9csHr3TYxPidaB3V9MUYQXJ3W2KB03q3McRSnucK3uIUpBMjX65jOkNMuF1YY0KoUutFsk49ywVABQYyBCOXvRvIQImf1u60BPJjw8VzlMI8EK8sEMDDhS6iX9Xv7o/s320/IMG_3596.JPG" width="319" /></b></a></div><b><br />We're <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">only four years away from celebrating that the Constitution has lasted 250 years.</span> The Civil War 1861-1865 was not successful in splitting this country into two halves, and the first attempted coup in our history failed in 2021.</b><p></p><p><b>The flimsy scheme of replacing a king, lords, and "commoners" with a president, congress, and judiciary has held up, more or less. That's worth celebrating, even when the Supreme Court is packed with three Trump appointees and seems bent on overturning all decisions since <a href="https://www.history.com/topics/black-history/brown-v-board-of-education-of-topeka" target="_blank">Brown v. Board of Education</a>, which ended racial segregation in public schools. </b></p><p><b>Within the guidelines of the Constitution, it's perfectly legal to add several justices to the Supreme Court. All we need is a Congress and president who will make that happen.</b></p><p><b>On this July 4th, I'm celebrating that <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">most of us still have the right to vote</span> and have our votes counted fairly. We don't live in a nation like China or Russia, where elections are a total sham.</b></p><p><b><br />It's true that corporations and wealthy men in the USA try to buy our votes with huge financial donations, unleashing television ads that manipulate our fears and our desires. </b></p><p><b>It's true that Republicans control most of our state legislatures and are trying to keep poor people, minorities, and working people from voting. They restrict mail-in voting, limit polling locations, and fight early voting opportunities. They hope that long lines in bad weather will reduce the number of voters. In Georgia they made it illegal to <a href="https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/mar/29/josh-holmes/facts-about-georgias-ban-food-water-giveaways-vote/" target="_blank">give water bottles</a> to people waiting hours to cast their votes. They use gerrymandering to create districts where Dem voters are outnumbered by GOP voters.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZfDv4XXo4T5NY-UYx8XVWrLWXloFkE540ZUwg6EfRJIaR-4QVkc_YJuh92yx6106Wov_3Iwpv3bl3jaPztGJnlCmkLoVlmXFCCbFpKaoh2Z3Q7bNSSak-6RHyqFEGKakLcAykjMWss3wYo_X5J0_JI8Hs3FIso0SNlrXaOETHmEQgSGX5Oyl2WBg/s1440/69E7A387-C4D8-43FE-BE95-CE50BEFB7A87.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="1232" data-original-width="1440" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEinZfDv4XXo4T5NY-UYx8XVWrLWXloFkE540ZUwg6EfRJIaR-4QVkc_YJuh92yx6106Wov_3Iwpv3bl3jaPztGJnlCmkLoVlmXFCCbFpKaoh2Z3Q7bNSSak-6RHyqFEGKakLcAykjMWss3wYo_X5J0_JI8Hs3FIso0SNlrXaOETHmEQgSGX5Oyl2WBg/s320/69E7A387-C4D8-43FE-BE95-CE50BEFB7A87.jpg" width="320" /></b></a></div><p></p><p><b>But as of mid-2022, <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">votes still count</span>. </b></p><p><b>1) We each need to vote... all of us.</b></p><p><b>2) We also need to defend the voting rights of others as we approach November 8, 2022.</b></p><p><b>3) We need to work for local, state, and national candidates who reflect our values.</b></p><p><b>4) We need to vote out Republicans who are still claiming that Trump won the 2020 election. </b></p><p><b>5) We need to throw out US Senators who won't vote to ban assault rifles--who value guns more than children's lives. We need to elect Senators who will eliminate the filibuster and pass legislation to restore our right to make our own decision about an unplanned pregnancy.</b></p><p><b>Many Black people consider July 4th to be a holiday for White folks only. Their African ancestors were captured, transported, and held in slavery while White Americans celebrated the day their forefathers had declared independence from Great Britain and started fighting for freedom. For nearly one hundred years, Independence Day was a hypocritical mess. </b></p><p><b>In some ways, July 4 still is a day that highlights unequal levels of rights and freedoms based on race. Kyle J. Howard issued a six-part tweet today pointing out that this year, the historical split-vision still exists. Most whites are celebrating freedom while Blacks are enraged over the police shooting of Jayland Walker in Akron, Ohio, after a mere traffic stop. Jayland was denied the most basic of freedoms--life and liberty--after being chased for a broken tail light. </b></p><p><b>For the record, I'm not celebrating America's independence from George III today. </b></p><p><b>I'm rejoicing that King Donald is no longer our boss, and he may go to jail. I'm grateful that we still have a democracy and that votes here still count.</b></p><p><b>So I bought some decorations and began making cupcakes... John and I are having a party here with friends.</b></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-54519058662543059492022-06-11T21:00:00.001-07:002022-06-12T02:14:04.663-07:00March for Our Lives, Los Angeles 2022<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRoYbf5QUZDUZyCdXRpOp-jx-f0XVNIyN_vgybjGJlhDVHuqC-ZA7_Uti52VwiiWboCmZH_fvb8Ac8s68Kp_pnGPKcyrxNv9hehX12ONS7LR3jN9DY0JJzO_igSxQZ3QQ8c4shDeu-8DHs_IY7OeyvxreFzlywxjSsoFZ67AMw8PyZ-jBrzwIDlNW/s1440/9690F1E6-2CB5-488B-89F4-7E66293A9CBE.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEipRoYbf5QUZDUZyCdXRpOp-jx-f0XVNIyN_vgybjGJlhDVHuqC-ZA7_Uti52VwiiWboCmZH_fvb8Ac8s68Kp_pnGPKcyrxNv9hehX12ONS7LR3jN9DY0JJzO_igSxQZ3QQ8c4shDeu-8DHs_IY7OeyvxreFzlywxjSsoFZ67AMw8PyZ-jBrzwIDlNW/s320/9690F1E6-2CB5-488B-89F4-7E66293A9CBE.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>LA's</b> </span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: red; font-size: medium;"><b>March for Our Lives </b></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>today filled 10-15 blocks. </b></span></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Speakers before the march included survivors of mass shootings and people who had lost a parent or friend to </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">gun violence.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Like the march in 2018, today's marches around the nation were </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">student-led, and many of those doing the planning and speaking were high school students.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="color: #050505; font-family: Segoe UI Historic, Segoe UI, Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif;">Four years ago, one month after the mass shooting at Marjorie Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, </span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">students led the first March for Our Lives.</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>After the Buffalo NY and Uvalde TX massacres, students organized another #MarchforOurLives. </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Play a slide show of sights and signs from today's march in Los Angeles by clicking on this link:</b></span></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-decoration-line: underline;">https://photos.app.goo.gl/</span><wbr style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"></wbr><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-decoration-line: underline;">LpWe57oweVpzKqBx5</span></b></p><p><b></b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_Bd6uW36rCHz23mn_emi9bFlGwyaEgWNbdQ6aLTif6E_RNNdfgHB8Q1QImVWoG9VRHNrefUGPGCSlATYUdesYYjjtXlx8PjZ3h48H0z8dLKdFoA-4Jac8hggtz2I0xQeMAEPHC11oPrEM_9UzaLyz_WrXvZzQ6jhk6zTZSU-SyszluXVVxe1A0YW/s4032/IMG_0497.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI_Bd6uW36rCHz23mn_emi9bFlGwyaEgWNbdQ6aLTif6E_RNNdfgHB8Q1QImVWoG9VRHNrefUGPGCSlATYUdesYYjjtXlx8PjZ3h48H0z8dLKdFoA-4Jac8hggtz2I0xQeMAEPHC11oPrEM_9UzaLyz_WrXvZzQ6jhk6zTZSU-SyszluXVVxe1A0YW/s320/IMG_0497.JPG" width="240" /></a></b></div><b><br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small; text-decoration-line: underline;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Here are some of my favorite slogans on placards carried by today's marchers:</b></span></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">~~</span><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We are not anti-gun, we are pro-life. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">~~</span><span style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">GOP senators</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> kill children</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">~~</span><span style="background-color: #fcff01; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">GOP = Guns Over People, so don't vote GOP.</span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>And of course, the central slogan from four years ago: </b></span></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">~~</span><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Protect Kids, Not Guns!</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Kids' right to life--to staying alive--is more important than anybody's so-called right to own guns. </b></span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPz6PTnC0qHXKe7ynU_rYfNJxcOePhqHzhL5XlIA0LEKUDJY65gL7me4t8ICjpDsDIRY3pOvh-Ooynl3WLMupsAuLfk84u_Lr0FVZ8w-1Za9vDVNQHT-T4G631NZ0Bxj2RHi1xRO1Yc1qt257bDgBiaNZdWWgvBWgVRuWFjUiu2MDWU8If_34sT6PU/s1440/FEAAE345-7F32-4576-A0FE-7E1F7B3EB2BB.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1439" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPz6PTnC0qHXKe7ynU_rYfNJxcOePhqHzhL5XlIA0LEKUDJY65gL7me4t8ICjpDsDIRY3pOvh-Ooynl3WLMupsAuLfk84u_Lr0FVZ8w-1Za9vDVNQHT-T4G631NZ0Bxj2RHi1xRO1Yc1qt257bDgBiaNZdWWgvBWgVRuWFjUiu2MDWU8If_34sT6PU/s320/FEAAE345-7F32-4576-A0FE-7E1F7B3EB2BB.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The men of 1783 never envisioned rifles that could shoot so fast with so much force and speed that a bullet could decapitate or pulverize a human being. </b></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Ban assault rifles--no citizen has any right to carry this horrific weapon. Only soldiers in the US Armed Forces. <br /></b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>When the marchers go home, the streets of Los Angeles will still cry out against guns. </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>The benches at many bus stops carry messages about the number of persons killed daily in the US by guns.</b></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__jR78VMvJFBluNspezfu93C4_Gqnuimyo-zCz1oUB_y5YPVidvZKm3927mdbRtyiNcixbgfgt8fHxpAIgWKgF6L1Nc57OMKc-hVJUG4EEq65Wi9spCpJBXpZ3EwufjEURUg3aGntWaMSM8vHUh3MAKOymTTx9MBflulCW4QCtdC4aF_0KnIoBv3O/s1440/3B051D77-F356-4584-A85A-03C3EDDEB8E4.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1440" data-original-width="1440" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh__jR78VMvJFBluNspezfu93C4_Gqnuimyo-zCz1oUB_y5YPVidvZKm3927mdbRtyiNcixbgfgt8fHxpAIgWKgF6L1Nc57OMKc-hVJUG4EEq65Wi9spCpJBXpZ3EwufjEURUg3aGntWaMSM8vHUh3MAKOymTTx9MBflulCW4QCtdC4aF_0KnIoBv3O/s320/3B051D77-F356-4584-A85A-03C3EDDEB8E4.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b><br /></b><p></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-71026082637460979012022-05-27T23:14:00.005-07:002022-05-27T23:19:14.168-07:00How the French see US after Uvalde<p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjyLg9icL5vZTfiAsl14kqu4AdZbKdekNWWKN7G5ynbwqj09RoNDOiXEhOdKapPoqFgXm6bDtm_8VBGqPIEjkxjoE8o8QOAIv9_vuQSOK5upxfZ_wKaIYxm0W0-uEpVLT8SLXXTewIGBF-RZoFbtU50ct_lyqfCrXups8NbUwb_pGHDrKJHvcE96kJ/s640/IMG_2994.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjyLg9icL5vZTfiAsl14kqu4AdZbKdekNWWKN7G5ynbwqj09RoNDOiXEhOdKapPoqFgXm6bDtm_8VBGqPIEjkxjoE8o8QOAIv9_vuQSOK5upxfZ_wKaIYxm0W0-uEpVLT8SLXXTewIGBF-RZoFbtU50ct_lyqfCrXups8NbUwb_pGHDrKJHvcE96kJ/w400-h300/IMG_2994.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><b>My friend Andre Berthou in France sent me this political cartoon. </b><p></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>It changes a "Masks required" sign near a school to "Helmets required." The kid is wearing a helmet and a backpack. </b></span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I'm not sure what's sticking out of the backpack--a slide rule? I hope it's not a gun. </b></span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Andre reminds me that from 110 to 119 people die every day from <a href="https://www.teamenough.org/gun-violence-statistics" target="_blank">guns in the US. </a></b></span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>"It's enormous... So many painful deaths," he writes. "We are very sad looking at pictures of children who have died." </b></span></p><p><span face=""Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>This is the USA that people around the world are seeing. They can't believe we don't have basic gun laws.</b></span></p><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>He adds, "Countries with 'free' guns aren't democracies. Look at the Taliban." </b></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>I googled "guns in Afghanistan" and learned that the nation has a problem with too many guns in everyone's hands. A gun culture--no surprise. The US supplied Afghanistan with a huge number of assault rifles, mortars, and grenades. </b><b> </b></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b><br /></b></div><div dir="auto" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: "Segoe UI Historic", "Segoe UI", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 15px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>In an effort to cut back on the number of guns, </b><b style="background-color: transparent;">the Taliban government is now <a href="https://aoav.org.uk/2021/inheritance-of-loss-the-weapons-left-behind-for-the-taliban-in-afghanistan/" target="_blank">making gun owners pay for permits.</a></b></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-74631507594259427542022-05-26T23:40:00.000-07:002022-05-26T23:40:04.187-07:00Ashamed to be an American<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQf8oRfxNt053OSd4hjSxlG_O_wgB1MwOwPUp2RFAM2KKHLomSGMDMgJJTFB89jCJ4hgbbgjMElQZVOHGyQnhJiy7pD7QQpoO4TcOXh0ah3nkRUDcj8H3daI6RX1dNqdg8jT_CJgz4z-nB0wen7i8hvjU0Xq7xZxld1D8uINwBmBqoVFQcQro__Jp/s4032/IMG_9438.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjFQf8oRfxNt053OSd4hjSxlG_O_wgB1MwOwPUp2RFAM2KKHLomSGMDMgJJTFB89jCJ4hgbbgjMElQZVOHGyQnhJiy7pD7QQpoO4TcOXh0ah3nkRUDcj8H3daI6RX1dNqdg8jT_CJgz4z-nB0wen7i8hvjU0Xq7xZxld1D8uINwBmBqoVFQcQro__Jp/s320/IMG_9438.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mallory McMorrow, Michigan Senate member</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> <b><span style="font-size: medium;">I feel so ashamed of my country.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">We allow assault weapons, guns, and rifles to continue to ravage schools, churches, grocery stores, music performances, and bars--anywhere people are gathered.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">We have a long history of racism, worshipping guns, empowering the wealthy, oppressing workers, and not caring about the poor. We don't have health care access for everyone.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">We are not a democracy. The majority voted against Trump in 2016, but the minority's choice was empowered by the Electoral College. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The majority want assault weapons banned. The <a href="https://www.politico.com/newsletters/playbook/2022/05/26/new-poll-shows-huge-support-for-gun-restrictions-00035349" target="_blank">majority want background checks </a>and other commonsense gun control laws. But Republicans in the US Senate are blocking all these needed laws. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f1vaaCyhnSiLb0BtI3xCG-V69sPeKpZSnKUHSt-Wi07Cb1dMSIVkx8NgQeRe_32BQ0SX2P_qfu_wU4BJ4HrOpSxx9GCNk32uq3llSJc7YtkBqXlb2T9ik42ObCCK-fXtHgUbKmFAIy0qv9bRq5r24IBsq-MD3TKURP-kY475fqt6Q9OkoQawWBpP/s4032/IMG_9434.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi6f1vaaCyhnSiLb0BtI3xCG-V69sPeKpZSnKUHSt-Wi07Cb1dMSIVkx8NgQeRe_32BQ0SX2P_qfu_wU4BJ4HrOpSxx9GCNk32uq3llSJc7YtkBqXlb2T9ik42ObCCK-fXtHgUbKmFAIy0qv9bRq5r24IBsq-MD3TKURP-kY475fqt6Q9OkoQawWBpP/w300-h400/IMG_9434.JPG" width="300" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spreadsheet compiled by <i>Daily Kos</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The 50 Republican senators represent <a href="https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1WHafTgVhydEC646WwMgeLQ9n9GVacjACmyWa8pqZlYA/edit#gid=19982685" target="_blank">only 43% of Americans</a>. The 50 Democratic senators represent 56% of Americans. Yet the Republicans can veto gun laws because of how the Senate was designed.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">North and South Dakota have only 1.6 million people, yet those people get four senators. California has 40 million people, but they have just two senators to speak for them. The US is not a democracy. The Senate and all elections are rigged in favor of rural minorities.</span></b></p><p><br /></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Here's how Sabrina Siddiqui summarized the problem in <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/democrats-republicans-senate-majority-minority-rule" target="_blank"><i>The Guardian </i>in 2018</a>:</span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><b>What that means is that California, which has a population of just under 40 million, holds the same representation in the Senate as Wyoming, which at roughly 579,000 is the least populous state in the country.</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><b>“That’s a radically undemocratic principle, and it gives rise to what we see,” said David Golove, a professor at the New York University School of Law, “which is that the minority populations are going to have a disproportionate impact in the United States. That tends to mean conservatives have a disproportionate influence over the Senate.”</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #fcff01; color: #121212; font-family: GuardianTextEgyptian, "Guardian Text Egyptian Web", Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-variant-ligatures: common-ligatures;"><b>"The Senate is inherently anti-majoritarian,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law at the University of California. </b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Australia banned <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/12/6/365" target="_blank">assault weapons</a> in 1996 after the massacre of 35 people in Port Arthur, Tasmania. There have been almost no mass shootings since then, according to international arms control advocate Rebecca Peters <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YM7MoRWoT0I" target="_blank">speaking on Democracy Now</a>. Thank you to my friend Almut in Hennef, Germany, near Bonn, for this information.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I'm ashamed as I message her online, ashamed before my friends Catherine and Andre Berthou in Sevres, France, and Katharina Gursoy in Berlin. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">I fear what my third-generation cousins in Denmark think about the US. We elected a horrible president in 2016 and we are impotent as our Senate blocks gun control.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">New Zealand banned assault weapons after a shooter murdered 51 people in 2019. There have been <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/93beya/new-zealand-gun-reform-mass-shootings" target="_blank">no mass shootings</a> since then. <a href="https://www.ibanet.org/article/3e4700a8-8a7b-4766-b7cc-f59474f4a894" target="_blank"><i>Vice</i> reports:</a></span></b></p><p><b style="background-color: #fcff01;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="font-family: sans-serif;">After the </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christchurch_mosque_shootings" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Christchurch mosque shootings">Christchurch mosque shootings</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"> in 2019, legislation to restrict </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Semi-automatic_firearm" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Semi-automatic firearm">semi-automatic firearms</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"> and </span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magazine_(firearms)" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: none; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; font-family: sans-serif; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Magazine (firearms)">magazines</a><span style="font-family: sans-serif;"> with a capacity of more than 10 rounds, and provide an amnesty and buyback of such weapons was introduced and passed by the New Zealand parliament 119 to 1.</span></span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJZPA7YnmzF9NdSnwwq5lU6QESbuRmR-OyGh8EztyXCb7RGlHdF4jXELioEsrudnhMHkcy1W6bYVdSP24d6UbL_bLs694RRimJB2A-34CO8HYngsSphsBaMaU-kcij4qmjb2Zq7TYubd9lrnxKMyiAglVRJ1LGhyRx-2k3_ZR6_xO8Cj2-Iks9WSF/s2410/IMG_9433.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2000" data-original-width="2410" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjOJZPA7YnmzF9NdSnwwq5lU6QESbuRmR-OyGh8EztyXCb7RGlHdF4jXELioEsrudnhMHkcy1W6bYVdSP24d6UbL_bLs694RRimJB2A-34CO8HYngsSphsBaMaU-kcij4qmjb2Zq7TYubd9lrnxKMyiAglVRJ1LGhyRx-2k3_ZR6_xO8Cj2-Iks9WSF/s320/IMG_9433.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Steve Kerr of NBA speaks out on Uvalde</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Both Republicans and Democrats are throwing up their hands and <a href="https://www.msnbc.com/opinion/msnbc-opinion/after-texas-school-shooting-expect-congress-respond-inaction-n1295694" target="_blank">saying nothing can be done</a> right away. Republican senators fear losing their jobs. Dems fear losing the House in the November 2022 election; if they still control the House and maybe the Senate, they will try to pass gun control laws in 2023.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: #01ffff; font-size: medium;">BUT STILL, WE CAN WORK TO MAKE SURE THE GOP IS DEFEATED ON NOVEMBER 8, 2022. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: #01ffff; font-size: medium;">WE CAN ALSO MARCH AND PROTEST AND TURN TO NONVIOLENT DISOBEDIENCE. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The last big March for Our Lives drew 1.6 million people <a href="https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/3/26/17160646/march-for-our-lives-crowd-size-count" target="_blank">on March 26, 2018</a>. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="background-color: #01ffff;">WE WILL MARCH AGAIN ON JUNE 11, 2022. </span> <a href="https://marchforourlives.com/" target="_blank">March and/or donate</a>. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Remember the great majority supporting common sense gun control as demonstrated in the <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/23/2013769/-How-minority-rule-plagues-Senate-Republicans-last-won-more-support-than-Democrats-two-decades-ago" target="_blank">Politico/Morning Consult poll </a>conducted after Uvalde:</span></b></p><p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-ryhYTzcu0_r8B1TE_SA-jmJJJUMRK4na2VndnZwFnQB-QZNtE15-g2i7t5Z556H4TrfhwyoW4jfAup32qm3rSVjMbmuHPIQXJ0E-4wuQ-Zf0Es7YmtAWuRArYbL9WzAEjXw4Ifh6qDOREwk3XZpN9GYuSKCG1VRTQZJxZ8EviixLoVpEkJ8vtvG/s4032/IMG_9445.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiC-ryhYTzcu0_r8B1TE_SA-jmJJJUMRK4na2VndnZwFnQB-QZNtE15-g2i7t5Z556H4TrfhwyoW4jfAup32qm3rSVjMbmuHPIQXJ0E-4wuQ-Zf0Es7YmtAWuRArYbL9WzAEjXw4Ifh6qDOREwk3XZpN9GYuSKCG1VRTQZJxZ8EviixLoVpEkJ8vtvG/s320/IMG_9445.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rep. Abigail Spanberger (VA)<br />with Lawrence O'Donnell<br />on The Last Word, MSNBC<br />March 26, 2022<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></b></p><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 375.203px 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2em;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Requiring background checks on all gun sales:</span> Eighty-eight percent strongly or somewhat support; 8% strongly or somewhat oppose.<i style="box-sizing: border-box;"> </i><span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Net approval: +80</i></span></b></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 375.203px 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2em;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Banning assault-style weapons: </span>Sixty-seven percent strongly or somewhat support; 25% strongly or somewhat oppose. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Net approval: +42</i></span></b></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; font-family: Georgia, Times, serif; font-size: 1.125em; line-height: 1.5em; list-style-image: initial; list-style-position: initial; margin: 0px 375.203px 1em 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 2em;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box;"><b><span style="box-sizing: border-box;">Preventing sales of all firearms to people reported as dangerous to law enforcement by a mental health provider:</span> Eighty-four percent strongly or somewhat support; 9% strongly or somewhat oppose. <span style="box-sizing: border-box;"><i style="box-sizing: border-box;">Net approval: +75</i></span></b></li></ul><p><u style="font-size: large;"><b>See also:</b></u></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Democrats got millions more votes--so how did Republicans win the Senate?" <i><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/nov/08/democrats-republicans-senate-majority-minority-rule" target="_blank">The Guardian</a></i>, 2018.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"How minority rule plagues the Senate: Republicans last won more support than Democrats two decades ago," <a href="https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2021/2/23/2013769/-How-minority-rule-plagues-Senate-Republicans-last-won-more-support-than-Democrats-two-decades-ago" target="_blank">Daily Kos</a>, 2021.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Why Republicans won't budge on guns," <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/26/us/republicans-gun-control.html" target="_blank"><i>New York Times</i></a>, May 26, 2022.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"After Uvalde, Democrats need to stop posturing and start acting," <a href="https://www.wbur.org/cognoscenti/2022/05/25/uvalde-texas-mass-shooting-eileen-mcnamara" target="_blank">WBUR Boston</a>. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Australia's 1996 gun law reforms," <a href="https://injuryprevention.bmj.com/content/12/6/365" target="_blank">Injury Prevention, BMJ.com</a>.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Gun control: New Zealand shows the way," <a href="https://www.ibanet.org/article/3e4700a8-8a7b-4766-b7cc-f59474f4a894" target="_blank">International Bar Association</a>, 2019.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>"Gun law in New Zealand," <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gun_law_in_New_Zealand#Categories_of_firearms_after_2019_changes" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>March for Our Lives, June 11, 2022, <a href="http://marchforourlives.com">marchforourlives.com</a>.</b></span></p><p><br /></p><p><span data-sheets-userformat="{"2":31741,"3":{"1":0},"5":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"6":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"7":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"8":{"1":[{"1":2,"2":0,"5":{"1":2,"2":0}},{"1":0,"2":0,"3":3},{"1":1,"2":0,"4":1}]},"9":1,"10":1,"11":4,"12":0,"14":{"1":2,"2":0},"15":"Open Sans","16":16,"17":1}" data-sheets-value="{"1":2,"2":"Senate Popular Vote and Share of Population Represented"}" style="font-family: "Open Sans", Arial; font-size: 16pt; font-weight: bold; text-align: center;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-50217299877782034012022-05-23T06:01:00.004-07:002022-05-23T06:01:41.576-07:00Rosemary Radford Ruether (1936-2022)<div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: large;"><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyTJFW5up9Z5RvKvGv7N8Mhe5YniKMAmLxQTyk16NE_C3_R1RCuAfFE7NGYMadOGpDPRBamq-adr1HziRBNxnHzEaivp25zYq3PV8zBSZjjukeL7yb1oRx_FD88rtTjo0unbsPtolGBAUeW3Lm_IjcBff-iefpX1VNfI-LgPtCVzfLrpLbIr_O4vW/s176/Rosemary%20after%20stroke.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="140" data-original-width="176" height="318" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhAyTJFW5up9Z5RvKvGv7N8Mhe5YniKMAmLxQTyk16NE_C3_R1RCuAfFE7NGYMadOGpDPRBamq-adr1HziRBNxnHzEaivp25zYq3PV8zBSZjjukeL7yb1oRx_FD88rtTjo0unbsPtolGBAUeW3Lm_IjcBff-iefpX1VNfI-LgPtCVzfLrpLbIr_O4vW/w400-h318/Rosemary%20after%20stroke.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Rosemary Radford Ruether in 2016<br />with Elizabeth Moore (on right)</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Rosemary Radford Ruether, one of the first and foremost Catholic feminists, died on May 21 in Pomona, California, east of Los Angeles. </b></span></div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><b><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div>On Sunday I received the notice below from a friend in Claremont, CA, who sent it to all members of our <a href="https://www.women-churchconvergence.org/" target="_blank">Women-Church Convergence</a> group. We met for worship monthly for twenty years on the campus of Pilgrim Place, a retirement community, but were unable to gather during the Covid-19 lockdown. </b></span><div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary attended and shared in our liturgies after she retired and moved to Pilgrim Place. Her book <i>Women-Church: Theology and Practice of Feminist Liturgical Communities</i> (1986) started the Women-Church movement. </b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: medium;"><b>The announcement below (slightly edited) was spoken by Mary Fry to retired Christians gathered for Sunday dinner at Pilgrim Place on May 22. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Today it is my honor to announce the death of Rosemary Ruether. She died yesterday afternoon surrounded by her family. As a member of the Spiritual Care Team at the Health Services Center of Pilgrim Place, I shared in ministering to her during these last years. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary and her husband Herman moved to Pilgrim Place in 2002 after building their own home on Eighth Street. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>She was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, on November 2, 1936, going to grade school and high school both in Washington, D. C., and in La Jolla, California. She earned her B.A. at Scripps College. She went on to get her M.A. and Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate School and at the Claremont School of Theology, studying classics and early Church history. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary taught at Immaculate Heart College from 1963 to 1965 and then moved on to Howard University School of Theology from 1965 to 1976. She was the Georgia Harkness Professor of Applied Theology at Garrett Evangelical Theological Seminary and a member of the graduate faculty of Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois, from 1976 to 2002. From 2002 to 2005 she held the post of Carpenter Professor of Feminist Theology at the Graduate Theological Union in Berkeley, California.</b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary Ruether was the author or editor of thirty-six books in the areas of theology, feminism, ecology, and social justice. Two of those she wrote are Gia and God: An Ecofeminist Theology of Earth Healing (1992) and Christianity and the Making of the Modern Family (2002). She also held twelve honorary doctorates, the most recent from Edinburgh University and from Uppsala University in Sweden. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary lectured at many universities and Church conferences throughout the United States and worldwide. Many residents here at Pilgrim Place remember taking her classes here in Claremont or at other colleges. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Herman Ruether still resides in the Health Services Center here. They have three children Becky, David, and Mimi as well as two grandchildren. Herman and Rosemary together wrote The Wrath of Jonah: The Crisis of Religious Nationalism in the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict (1989). </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Rosemary was an advocate of women's ordination in the Roman Catholic Church, affirming women's capacity to serve as priests. She participated in liturgies in which women were ordained despite official sanction. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Although she lost both speech and mobility after her stroke in 2016, her warmth and cheerful outlook continued. On a personal note, I will remember that Rosemary always had a wonderful smile and a twinkle in her eyes that warmed my heart every time I saw her and made me feel that she was glad I was there. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>Let us now have a moment of silence to remember a wonderful lady, Rosemary Radford Ruether. </b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>--In memory of Rosemary, offered by Mary Fry on Sunday, May 22, 2022
</b></span></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-67963664217378318212022-05-18T23:28:00.027-07:002022-05-19T00:17:22.995-07:00Violence Prevention with Jasmine and Angelina<p><b></b></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxBf1ISSwCMF74aBUe89g884hGN_4qKBM5aZrVTRDUn--YZV6zhK2EgGspj27cwsJ2Idia9g7831Bu1OPZbUtNLFp5FqkwjM9VgAakwXkZbewQ3i7-oOb-z6GnLV2j1L7r1c5CkZkyMUj2wtj9PGyuCeZWJOXCGmcrUl4ZqOFgiCuNiYPnF1Z6QCpx/s4032/IMG_9080.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxBf1ISSwCMF74aBUe89g884hGN_4qKBM5aZrVTRDUn--YZV6zhK2EgGspj27cwsJ2Idia9g7831Bu1OPZbUtNLFp5FqkwjM9VgAakwXkZbewQ3i7-oOb-z6GnLV2j1L7r1c5CkZkyMUj2wtj9PGyuCeZWJOXCGmcrUl4ZqOFgiCuNiYPnF1Z6QCpx/s320/IMG_9080.JPG" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Angelina Rivas, Class of 2022</span></td></tr></tbody></table><b><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></b><p></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Violence makes headlines. </span><span style="font-family: verdana;">Violence prevention doesn't usually reach the front page or the television screen. </span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Let's take a moment to turn away from the horror of an 18-year-old murdering ten innocent people in a supermarket because he was a hate-filled racist.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Instead, let's remember the 3.7 million students who are graduating from high school this year in the USA. They are hard-working and ambitious. Most of them sat in classrooms and played sports with students of many races and nationalities.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Many of them marched in bands or participated in clubs made up of Black, Asian, Latinx, White, and Indigenous students. They worked together to do community service. About 60% of these graduates have earned college admittance and plan to start another 4-5 years of academic work this coming fall.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Today I want to honor two hard-working students who are not only graduating from high school but working to prevent violence.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Jasmine Lopez and Angelina Rivas were among the 200 or more seniors honored last night in a Scholarship and Honors Program for outstanding students graduating from Santa Monica High School. </b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">They were also chosen for this year's </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">Kathy McTaggart Scholarship for Violence Prevention. </span></b></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>Jasmine commuted into Santa Monica from a neighborhood that used to be plagued with drugs, gangs, and violence. </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>"The only thing that made me feel safer were the bars on all our windows," she wrote in her application essay.</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>But then her family started a local Neighborhood Watch, got the Next Door app, and began hosting a monthly meeting in their house. They targeted a corner shop that appeared to be selling drugs.</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b></b></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVuNIexUbqRrBejvFAzp-VRZWHIh3hShDAZrUDJfnSYwBoUhv1F6kgntwcoXd5BSlpG4Ljt75qV3Wx0M5onk94-3nBmfoH3xkr8y66vhqUwtj_ZB34v8yGQNRfjARggDqceu4cLnRkuq0_v8kLTLvq03msMjK25SV35LNK8E3PDU8Kqgt6zY9_J1O/s4032/IMG_9078.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkVuNIexUbqRrBejvFAzp-VRZWHIh3hShDAZrUDJfnSYwBoUhv1F6kgntwcoXd5BSlpG4Ljt75qV3Wx0M5onk94-3nBmfoH3xkr8y66vhqUwtj_ZB34v8yGQNRfjARggDqceu4cLnRkuq0_v8kLTLvq03msMjK25SV35LNK8E3PDU8Kqgt6zY9_J1O/s320/IMG_9078.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Anne Linstatter with Jasmine Lopez</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>"We called the police so much and put that corner shop on their radar," Jasmine recalls. "Sure enough, it was a human trafficking shop that laundered money as well as a warehouse for illegal drugs." </b></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>After a SWAT raid, the owner was arrested, the shop was sold, and the neighborhood became calm and safe.</b></span></p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>At Santa Monica High School, Jasmine became active in student government, cheerleading, and the Latinx Leaders Club (president during her senior year).</b></span><p></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>When she was presented with an award for leadership in student government, another student leader described her as "not afraid to speak her opinion." </b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>She plans to attend Mount St. Mary's University in west Los Angeles, majoring in business. </b></span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Angelina Rivas is the other winner of this year's scholarship for violence prevention. She lives in the Pico neighborhood of Santa Monica. Both she and Jasmine held part-time jobs during three of their four years of high school. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Angelina received the McTaggart scholarship because of her work to combat domestic abuse and teen dating violence. She has been a peer leader for Margaret's Place, an intervention program to provide mental health services for students who have been impacted by violence in their home, school, or community. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>She helped coordinate campus organizations on teen violence, sexual assault awareness, and mental health awareness, making flyers, announcements, and wristbands.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Angelina will be attending Stanford University, and she wants to work for the Human Rights Council of the UN. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Have you found ways to counteract the violence we hear about so often in the news?</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Perhaps you are focusing on gun control or better understanding among people of various races, but don't forget the graduates bravely moving on to build the future.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>One small way to help them is to contribute to the Katherine McTaggart Scholarship for Violence Prevention at Santa Monica High School. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"><b>Kathy<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2e1gqQD8L_RLY7eiGX8pq7tZuvlg4zint-PAxyeCmytbLBbFNBDaBwEVMqFGhMvDCwGF4Mz9oEZkbuHSdhqYKp8-JTp2BX7SZesoYut4rzSHoXrlM5WDIEfs9a2_vIq_riga2-myQyTKp9CXIt7yzCZgb9hfGFt3yyvrV93GTPZz1pw0ZMnAHeKFD/s4032/IMG_9087.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj2e1gqQD8L_RLY7eiGX8pq7tZuvlg4zint-PAxyeCmytbLBbFNBDaBwEVMqFGhMvDCwGF4Mz9oEZkbuHSdhqYKp8-JTp2BX7SZesoYut4rzSHoXrlM5WDIEfs9a2_vIq_riga2-myQyTKp9CXIt7yzCZgb9hfGFt3yyvrV93GTPZz1pw0ZMnAHeKFD/s320/IMG_9087.JPG" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Antonio Shelton, Principal of SMHS, <br />with college counselor Julie Honda<br />and Samohi Alumni donor<br />Evelyn Lauchenauer</td></tr></tbody></table></b></span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><b style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">was a licensed therapist who worked with at-risk teens and their families for 16 years as a school-community partnership coordinator in the Santa Monica-Malibu School District. She died in 2012. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Send your check to:</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Santa Monica Education Foundation </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>c/o Samohi Scholarships</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>1645 - 16th Street </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Santa Monica CA 90404. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Make it payable to Samohi Scholarship Fund, specifying McTaggart Violence Prevention for 2023 seniors.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Thank you for joining with Jasmine and Angelina to promote awareness of mental health and nonviolent solutions to problems.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>For more photos, see <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://photos.app.goo.gl/w4aGMjQNg7dSvshJ6&source=gmail&ust=1652982719456000&usg=AOvVaw0I9zlww4lX2pf3XQ5sVDvN" href="https://photos.app.goo.gl/w4aGMjQNg7dSvshJ6" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">https://photos.app.<wbr></wbr>goo.gl/w4aGMjQNg7dSvshJ6</a></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><br /></b></div><div><br /></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-3686761519307298332022-03-26T00:30:00.042-07:002022-03-26T00:30:00.189-07:00Missing you, Namhee<div><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjANO0kaWi2jHOUXeYDK-K2NC5AKmQAetdjVbByohWm493p9Qv9b1UZ8jolixstc8DYWPchMgEJeP59Us7FW4nXHLRFQwxfxUKvYqgXiD3q1nZU2VQE-XwGwPXF-qeGoU5WOP1AHJtR97Dn3XSJmtu53zzaveRMgAeD9hVYkzQ49BprJlzZhhT7J1KA=s311" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="311" data-original-width="250" height="311" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjANO0kaWi2jHOUXeYDK-K2NC5AKmQAetdjVbByohWm493p9Qv9b1UZ8jolixstc8DYWPchMgEJeP59Us7FW4nXHLRFQwxfxUKvYqgXiD3q1nZU2VQE-XwGwPXF-qeGoU5WOP1AHJtR97Dn3XSJmtu53zzaveRMgAeD9hVYkzQ49BprJlzZhhT7J1KA" width="250" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Dr. Namhee Han, organist</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b><br /></b></div><b>The spirit of Namhee Han lingers in the sanctuary of Westwood Presbyterian Church two years after this talented organist took her last breath. </b><p></p><p><b>As we return to live worship and hear organ music echo against the stone walls, many of us think of her.</b></p><p><b>She died on March 27, 2020, from sudden complications in a two-year battle with cancer.</b></p><p><b>Watch her play Bach's Third Intermezzo on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rNpsWyUNxz0" target="_blank">this Youtube post</a> from June 2010 at St. Cyril of Jerusalem Church in Encino.</b></p><p><b>Find a tribute and links to more of her music on <a href="https://www.facebook.com/1450875421908730/posts/memorial-tribute-to-dr-namhee-han-1970-2020dr-namhee-han-49-years-old-died-march/2712781389051454/" target="_blank">this Facebook Post</a> by Stan's Music Parlor.</b></p><p><b>A native of Seoul, South Korea, she performed nationally and internationally. Katherine Crosier, an organist in Hawaii, wrote <a href="http://insanity.blogs.lchwelcome.org/2020/07/21/death-of-a-rising-star/" target="_blank">this blog post</a>, which includes Namhee's obituary in <i>The American Organist</i>, July 2020.</b></p><p><b>Here is <a href="http://www.palosverdes.com/ClassicalCrossroads/NamheeHan.htm" target="_blank">Namhee Han: A Remembrance</a> written by Xavier Quintana, her fiance, on December 20, 2020, and published on the <a href="http://www.palosverdes.com/classicalcrossroads/" target="_blank">website</a> of Classical Crossroads, Inc., whose mission is to make live classical music available to the public on a free or low-cost basis in southern California. <br /></b></p><p><b>We're thinking of you, Namhee, and we miss you.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-24287856388813729792022-03-25T23:40:00.011-07:002022-03-25T23:51:06.404-07:00From Constance Baker Motley to KBJ<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7X9W4LMSEdOWvZBYVZeI20zrbSfuY4mLOosf2uX9LJZD1c8BzN5q9yJ_eYHBbzIsUpm8yT3ArQoStAFM6Ac_wFORaEhfHWcKd9VwO2aq_soCjWyexPvNabOhaekuNVYMFuu52BEfXYgj9n1O5uJ1I99JRAdUyuh3S0F-NP_oTw0DPwVok1YL_USEY/s1280/KBJ%20photo%20with%20Sen%20Booker.jpg" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="720" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi7X9W4LMSEdOWvZBYVZeI20zrbSfuY4mLOosf2uX9LJZD1c8BzN5q9yJ_eYHBbzIsUpm8yT3ArQoStAFM6Ac_wFORaEhfHWcKd9VwO2aq_soCjWyexPvNabOhaekuNVYMFuu52BEfXYgj9n1O5uJ1I99JRAdUyuh3S0F-NP_oTw0DPwVok1YL_USEY/w360-h640/KBJ%20photo%20with%20Sen%20Booker.jpg" width="360" /></a></div><br /><b>I<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">t's been a stressful week watching the disrespectful confirmation hearings of Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson--not to mention continued slaughter in Ukraine.</span></span></b><p></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">But let's talk for a moment</span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"> about Judge Jackson's heroine and role model,</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Baker_Motley&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw1LS5qBMaVbZrhBT4NaFlRR" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Constance_Baker_Motley" style="background-color: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">Constance Baker Motley</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">. </span></b></p><p><b><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">Judge Jackson</span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"> </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/ketanji-brown-jackson-public-defender-constance-baker-motley.html&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw3LGtaqKZP7XMOuHkOe0sA2" href="https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2022/03/ketanji-brown-jackson-public-defender-constance-baker-motley.html" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">cited this prominent Black female judge</a><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">during her acceptance speech after President Biden nominated her to be the next justice added to the Supreme Court.</span></b></p><p><b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: verdana;">"</span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); color: #333333; font-family: verdana;">She was the first African American woman to argue a case before the Supreme Court, and the first to serve as a federal judge," according to </span><span style="font-family: verdana;"><a href="https://www.uscourts.gov/news/2020/02/20/constance-baker-motley-judiciarys-unsung-rights-hero" target="_blank"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); color: #333333;">t</span>his article on uscourts.gov<span style="color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: white;">.</span></span></a> </span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Judge Motley would have been an excellent nominee to the Supreme Court, but the nation wasn't there yet. She wrote much of the 1954 decision Brown v. Board of Education.</b></span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Terry Gross featured an interview with Constance Baker Motley's biographer Tomiko Brown-Nagin on NPR's </span><a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/2022/02/16/1081108548/often-overlooked-civil-rights-advocate-constance-baker-motley-gets-her-due&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw2MHSOmTJd1OcnZmeakMlxv" href="https://www.npr.org/2022/02/16/1081108548/often-overlooked-civil-rights-advocate-constance-baker-motley-gets-her-due" style="color: #1155cc; font-family: verdana;" target="_blank">Fresh Air, Feb. 16</a>.<span style="font-family: verdana;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"> </span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: rgba(255, 255, 255, 0.6); color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b>Brown-Nagin mentions that Motley knew civil rights activist Medgar Evers and mourned deeply when he was murdered.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b>Here's an <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/25/supreme-court-justice-black-woman-constance-baker-motley-ketanji-brown-jackson-00011636&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw14zGCP5HxhP3NNlj8mnPwQ" href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/02/25/supreme-court-justice-black-woman-constance-baker-motley-ketanji-brown-jackson-00011636" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">article about her on Politico</a>. And <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.naacpldf.org/naacp-publications/ldf-blog/cbm-100/&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw2ufmKE1OLMetJnYk8Di3pd" href="https://www.naacpldf.org/naacp-publications/ldf-blog/cbm-100/" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">an NAACP article</a>. </b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxUkIDkTx7HgKf_tfOSqH7FSxFvkzdeayross2WX4ounYTJXlZZWrEIbEJG6War4GCF9PXdKYam7Fq7Rlxrz0HOwWcebRg2xwdW4a5Uhu_BZE_uXbpljEvfsx6hN5VJxqVVSKvmvhXDgti3cBmQNeYXVe_5Z0i4Rjx5TmQBsO_yWMlWYa574cAlHMf/s2532/IMG_6537.PNG" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"></a></div><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b>I also heard <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2022/02/03/248994291/the-life-of-a-civil-rights-queen&source=gmail&ust=1648352346760000&usg=AOvVaw2R_K6eberkYlZCtbmaoffP" href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2022/02/03/248994291/the-life-of-a-civil-rights-queen" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">this report on NPR's Code Switch</a>, which mentions that Judge Motley avoided the term "feminist" in the 1970s and '80s, but she argued cases that were very important for women's equality.</b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><span face="Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif" style="background-color: #cfe2f3; font-size: small;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px;">"Despite the Ludtke v Kuhn case, and other efforts to provide equal consideration for women in the workplace, Motley rejected the label feminist—even though some famous feminists, like Shirley Chisolm and Bella Abzug—were friends and colleagues"</span></span><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">, the report says.</span></span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222;"><b><em style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 17px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Civil Rights Queen: Constance Baker Motley and the Struggle for Equality</em><span style="background-color: transparent;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"> is the title of Brown-Nagin's biography, which came out in January, 2022. Judge Motley also wrote her own autobiography. <br /></span></span></b></div><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><b style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2532" data-original-width="1170" height="625" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxUkIDkTx7HgKf_tfOSqH7FSxFvkzdeayross2WX4ounYTJXlZZWrEIbEJG6War4GCF9PXdKYam7Fq7Rlxrz0HOwWcebRg2xwdW4a5Uhu_BZE_uXbpljEvfsx6hN5VJxqVVSKvmvhXDgti3cBmQNeYXVe_5Z0i4Rjx5TmQBsO_yWMlWYa574cAlHMf/w359-h625/IMG_6537.PNG" width="359" /></b>Here's a historical note to ponder: there were no confirmation hearings for the first 127 years of the Supreme Court. White men were just nominated and debated a little in the Senate; then the vote took place on whether to confirm them.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>In 1916 when a Jewish man was nominated, the Senate decided to hold a hearing to thoroughly vet this alarming new kind of nominee. See the history explained in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/racist-history-of-senate-scotus-confirmation-hearings-ketanji-brown-jackson-2022-3" target="_blank">the Insider</a>.</b></span></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-75855775615882672622022-03-19T05:00:00.006-07:002022-03-19T05:00:00.214-07:00John Knox vs. "the Monstrous Regiment of Women"<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcxKyVFDyZKejnt9TAjLQQ11z9s5T3Wkr5WugSug3WLxSEc0cRQ-qpDpPaSf8piUxOPRZgHqpVcspjSgl-de1lJn_T5DXdW-RjL6nlfTGbhkWIUAO_Yy5tLYE9z6tSmeqAmLSI_Mf4yDylm2tFE7HWyLI2AK1ez-L3in9XYMQmjvH4mPx-j_lAPI96" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="711" data-original-width="400" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcxKyVFDyZKejnt9TAjLQQ11z9s5T3Wkr5WugSug3WLxSEc0cRQ-qpDpPaSf8piUxOPRZgHqpVcspjSgl-de1lJn_T5DXdW-RjL6nlfTGbhkWIUAO_Yy5tLYE9z6tSmeqAmLSI_Mf4yDylm2tFE7HWyLI2AK1ez-L3in9XYMQmjvH4mPx-j_lAPI96=w362-h640" width="362" /></a><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yikes! I never really looked at this title page of John Knox's pamphlet before.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I'd glanced at it but not given it a second thought. Yeah, misogyny. What else is new? </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Today, however, I read that title page carefully, and the Bible verse cited there jumped out at me--the same verse being used today to keep women from being ordained as pastors in some churches.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">1 Timothy 2:12 "But I suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man."</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I read further in <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/9112746109698291522/7585577561588267262" target="_blank">Wikipedia's summary</a> of <i>The First Blast of the Trumpet against the Monstrous Regimen of Women.</i></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">John Knox first published it in the summer of 1558, a few months before</span><span style="font-family: verdana;"> young Elizabeth became queen of England. Bad timing, Rev. Knox.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Furthermore, he did so anonymously and in Geneva, without first showing it to John Calvin.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Here's how a Wikipedia author summarizes the result: </span></p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">In England, the pamphlet was officially condemned by royal proclamation. The impact of the document was complicated later that year when </span><a class="mw-redirect" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elizabeth_I_of_England" style="background: none rgb(255, 255, 255); color: #0645ad; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px; text-decoration-line: none;" title="Elizabeth I of England">Elizabeth Tudor</a><span style="background-color: white; color: #202122; font-family: sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> became Queen of England. Although Knox had not targeted Elizabeth, he had deeply offended her, and she never forgave him.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Of course she never forgave him. Nor would I have.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Many scholars since then, however, have made excuses:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">Knox was just expressing what many believed in those days.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">He liked his mother-in-law.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: verdana;">He respected the views and piety of many women.</span></li></ul><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">And so forth.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">No one besides John Knox, however, went on a huge campaign against queens, basing his work on 1 Timothy 2:12.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I was sitting in the membership class last Sunday when the pastor (a woman!) mentioned that John Knox, a founder of the Presbyterian church, went to Switzerland and learned Reform theology from John Calvin there.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Somehow I never knew that these two holy men of the Protestant reformation had met.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">A few days later I found myself searching John Knox on the internet. That's how I came across his interaction with Mary Queen of Scots and Elizabeth I.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Frankly, he sounds like leaders of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Biblical_Manhood_and_Womanhood" target="_blank">Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood</a>, founded in 1987 to oppose biblical feminists. In the spectrum of opinion about women being queens, Knox was the man most against female rule. Monstrous. Unnatural.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">Now I'm asking, "Why am I about to affirm membership in the Presbyterian church, founded by John Knox?"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">I don't know. Maybe I won't.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">The Presbyterian Church (USA) has been ordaining women since 1956, but it still honors good ol' John Knox.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;">That's like southern states still having statues of Confederate generals. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /></span></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcxKyVFDyZKejnt9TAjLQQ11z9s5T3Wkr5WugSug3WLxSEc0cRQ-qpDpPaSf8piUxOPRZgHqpVcspjSgl-de1lJn_T5DXdW-RjL6nlfTGbhkWIUAO_Yy5tLYE9z6tSmeqAmLSI_Mf4yDylm2tFE7HWyLI2AK1ez-L3in9XYMQmjvH4mPx-j_lAPI96" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgcxKyVFDyZKejnt9TAjLQQ11z9s5T3Wkr5WugSug3WLxSEc0cRQ-qpDpPaSf8piUxOPRZgHqpVcspjSgl-de1lJn_T5DXdW-RjL6nlfTGbhkWIUAO_Yy5tLYE9z6tSmeqAmLSI_Mf4yDylm2tFE7HWyLI2AK1ez-L3in9XYMQmjvH4mPx-j_lAPI96" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a></div><p></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-45475427255938683532022-03-17T17:50:00.006-07:002022-03-17T18:12:11.200-07:00The anti-female churches among us<p><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"></span></span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUOL3h2xGTMHDIpznJxvZ0qeQWsTHIhAXEFkXbLGvDcGzJDeSVQz81Ac4m2Rkk3kD4HJ_WQ0cAlCVjq0s1IxpAsIhkuynYghSwjZKYgbp9TsjJPy0DC7kRru64P4a_TuQ9DzIw07tBkjaidyanxPe80LCtXbD0_T5mPFIVbDO6Oi48CWRJM09VJG0h=s2952" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2952" data-original-width="2605" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjUOL3h2xGTMHDIpznJxvZ0qeQWsTHIhAXEFkXbLGvDcGzJDeSVQz81Ac4m2Rkk3kD4HJ_WQ0cAlCVjq0s1IxpAsIhkuynYghSwjZKYgbp9TsjJPy0DC7kRru64P4a_TuQ9DzIw07tBkjaidyanxPe80LCtXbD0_T5mPFIVbDO6Oi48CWRJM09VJG0h=w282-h320" width="282" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">Yelp reviews on this church</span></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br /><b>On the surface, Pacific Crossroads Church is a friendly, Bible-believing church that meets on Sunday mornings in the big auditorium at Santa Monica High School. What's not to like?</b></span></span><p></p><p><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>But if you check <a href="https://pacificcrossroads.org/about-us/" target="_blank">its website</a>, you find that it's part of the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). </b></span></span></p><p><b><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><span style="font-family: verdana;">When you scroll down to look at the Pacific Crossroads leaders, you may notice that t</span></span><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px;">here are no women pastors or elders there--maybe even no deacons. </span></b></p><p><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>If you check out the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Presbyterian_Church_in_America#Confessions" target="_blank">PCA on Wikpedia</a>, you find a complicated history on attitudes toward women. For many years PCA interpreted the Bible to forbid women in leadership (never mind the many women mentioned as leaders, including Junia "prominent among the apostles" - Romans 17:6). </b></span></p><p><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-family: verdana; font-size: 14px;"><b>But in 2016, the PCA voted to reconsider, and more recently they voted to allow women to be ordained; they also allowed any member churches who disagreed to continue refusing to ordain as a matter of conscience. Then the PCA voted to rescind the "conscience clauses," so some churches that objected to women pastors left the denomination.</b></span></p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b>Pacific Crossroads looks like a church that continues to refuse having women in leadership though it retains ties to the PCA, which has so recently changed. </b></span></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b>Maybe Pacific Crossroads just hasn't gotten around to electing a woman as elder or hiring a woman pastor. Or maybe it's holding out against these changes.</b></span></span><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">Whatever the case, you need to know these things when you decide to join this friendly group of Bible-believing Christians.</span><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">There so many of these community churches founded as outreach from anti-female denominations (like the Southern Baptists) that never include "Presbyterian" or "Baptist" in the local name of the church. </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">They cover up their denominational ties and history until newcomers are well involved. That's secrecy, lack of transparency. On the other hand, they do preach the Gospel and help many people. </span><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">The cost of having a policy of male rule is great. Women lose self-esteem and are held back from the call of the Holy Spirit. But also the whole church can be hurt.</span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b>For example, one man at Pacific Crossroads (Rankin Wilbourne) became the pastor in 2006 and gained too much power; he abused many people (spiritually and emotionally) and was finally forced to resign by the PCA in Feb. 2020. </b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">Wilbourne was forbidden from ever being a PCA pastor again, but he went to the Midwest and then Florida, becoming a pastor at other churches. On appeal, <a href="https://www.katherinespearing.com/blog-3/2020/11/5/what-happened-to-rankin-wilbourne" target="_blank">his deposing by the PCA may have been rescinded</a> on some procedural error. The details of his abuse of the 30-40 people who testified are sealed by the PCA--can't be released.</span><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><br style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;" /><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;">Would a church with more male/female equality have tolerated coercive abuse by a male pastor for so long? Maybe--but I don't think so. </span></b></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b><br /></b></span></span></div><div><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #2d2e2f; font-size: 14px;"><b>For comparison, look at the Catholic church and how it has done in keeping nuns and other compassionate women out of the leadership.</b></span></span></div></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com1Santa Monica, CA, USA34.0194543 -118.49119127.5006709973085712 -153.64744119999997 60.538237602691424 -83.334941200000031tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-10394067057807642122022-03-14T19:05:00.006-07:002022-03-15T02:53:17.232-07:00Stanford's role in Katie's suicide<p> </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijRRYgnMexESHzVZdQr6EYRjdWGylXEauRwoeA9Dd-H8Fu9QNVJRUuPe3N09WQHl9KPSuFtk4-PHssmUjNlcUd3c7UbQkmTup9ROxvQJse9bc-8iS9-ioyJFjvJtDCUXpyH69jlp1QHxAmeXNNFqBTQIwG65gteDFI6TO0qAUnUxZKjePH3DTl0sHc=s2839" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2676" data-original-width="2839" height="302" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEijRRYgnMexESHzVZdQr6EYRjdWGylXEauRwoeA9Dd-H8Fu9QNVJRUuPe3N09WQHl9KPSuFtk4-PHssmUjNlcUd3c7UbQkmTup9ROxvQJse9bc-8iS9-ioyJFjvJtDCUXpyH69jlp1QHxAmeXNNFqBTQIwG65gteDFI6TO0qAUnUxZKjePH3DTl0sHc=s320" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Katie Meyer in photo by Lindsay Radnedge, <br />SU Athletics (<i>LA Times</i>)</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stanford soccer player Katie Meyer was a defender in soccer and in life.</b></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>In soccer, she defended the goal, and in some kind of altercation off the playing field in the past year, she defended a teammate. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>She got in trouble for it. Maybe she told her parents initially, but she could not tell them about a development in her case on March 1, just three months before she was to graduate.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Did Stanford threaten not to let her walk on graduation day? Or not to let her graduate?</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Her mother spoke about the surprising tragedy in an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2022/03/04/us/katie-meyer-stanford-soccer-death-cause/index.html#:~:text=(CNN)%20Stanford%20University%20star%20soccer,Tuesday%2C%20according%20to%20the%20university." target="_blank">interview on CNN</a>:</b></span></p><p><span face="CNN, "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, Utkal, sans-serif" style="background-color: #d9d2e9; color: #262626; font-size: 18px;"><b>"...the only thing we can come up with that triggered something," she said, was some form of disciplinary action at school. Katie recently had defended a teammate on campus over an incident and she was facing repercussions because of it, her parents said, pointing to that as the possible turning point for their daughter.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>One issue is the pressure placed on student athletes as discussed by CNN in <a href="https://abc7chicago.com/katie-meyer-death-stanford-university-soccer/11647705/" target="_blank">this report</a> on March 13.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>But the greater issue is how Stanford handled the process of "disciplinary action." Someone in the administration sent Katie an email hours before she took her own life. </b></span></p><p><b><span style="font-family: verdana;">Katie's mother Gina Meyer added a few more details in the Today Show interview, as <a href="https://www.today.com/news/sports/katie-meyer-death-parents-interview-rcna18694" target="_blank">reported on Today.com</a>: </span><span style="background-color: #f8f8f8; color: #555555; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px;">"We have not seen that email yet," Gina said. </span><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; color: #555555; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px;">"She had been getting letters for a couple months. This letter was kind of the final letter that there was going to be a trial or some kind of something. This is the only thing that we can come up with that triggered something." </span></b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Once a child turns 18, schools and therapists do not let parents know anything about their lives: their grades, their health, their mental health, their legal crises. They are considered adults, no matter how fragile they may be emotionally. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Katie's parents wish they had had a chance to intervene between the Stanford administration and Katie, the report by Today.com continues:</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #d9d2e9; color: #555555; font-family: PublicoText, Georgia, "Publico Text", "Times New Roman", Times, Baskerville; font-size: 18px;"><b>The Meyer family hopes to start a conversation about opening up communication between parents and college administrators. Parents often aren't alerted about what's happening with their children because most university students are over 18 and considered adults, but the Meyers feel they missed a chance to potentially save their daughter if they only knew about what she was going through.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>I've been in the position of her parents, worried about a student but unable to know anything or intervene. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>My daughters somehow survived the terrible twenties; my heart aches for Katie and her parents and her two sisters. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>All college students face pressures, but Katie is the fourth Stanford student to take her own life in 2021 and 2022, <a href="https://padailypost.com/2022/03/05/undergrad-found-dead-at-stanford/" target="_blank">according to the Palo Alto <i>Daily Post</i></a>:</b></span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: #d9d2e9; font-size: 16px;"><b>Meyer, a senior majoring in International Relations, is at least the third Stanford student to die by suicide in the last 13 months. Medical student Rose Wong, 25, died in her dorm on Feb. 2, 2021. Undergraduate Jacob Meisel, 23, was killed by a train in Palo Alto on Aug. 2. And law student Dylan Simmons, 27, was found dead in his dorm on Jan. 20. The cause of Simmons’ death hasn’t been released.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>I blame Stanford University for Katie's death. Difficult news should not come by email. Someone could have invited Katie to her office, explained what decision the university had come to, and offered ways to mitigate the consequences.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>In the past several months, the administration should have brought Katie's parents into the problem or at least provided emotional and legal counseling to her. Apparently they did neither.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>All universities and other institutions protect their status and hush up issues. I remember when I was teaching at Whittier College near Los Angeles in October, 1987, and a 5.9 earthquake occurred nearby. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>"No problem--classes will continue tomorrow" the administration announced though there were three deaths, five related deaths, and 200 injuries in LA County. There was a 5.2 aftershock three days later.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Stanford's instinct after Katie's death is to protect its reputation and its administration. Parents, alumni, and the public need to demand changes in the way disciplinary issues are handled. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>As an alumna myself, I know Stanford is a jock school. Athletics is a very big deal at this college and a big source of income, but we must protect student athletes who get into some kind of trouble.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Did Katie push or punch another student in her defense of her teammate? Stanford should have reported the incident to the police, who would have recorded the incident and been required to offer legal counsel. Her parents would have known. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;">Whatever the initial event, Stanford tried to handle the problem through its own administrative channels, resulting in a months-long period of building pressure and secrecy. </b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;">That was wrong, and Stanford must change. We must call the university to account.</b></span></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b style="background-color: #fcff01;">If there is a misdemeanor or crime of some sort, let the local police and judicial system handle it--not </b></span><b style="background-color: #fcff01; font-family: verdana;">the university's Office of Student Affairs.</b></p><p><b style="background-color: #fcff01; font-family: verdana;">Keeping the whole thing inside the college deprives the student of resources available to persons charged with a crime. It isolates the student from legal and psychological support, and it tempts the college to engage in coverup.</b></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><b>Below are further comments made on the website of the Palo Alto <i>Daily Post</i>:</b></span></p><p><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><b>"The university owes it to Katie to be truthful, even if it hurts their image." - RG, March 2.</b></span></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Stanford has this student discipline system that includes kangaroo courts in which the accused has the burden of proof. No wonder she was upset. Anyone who is falsely accused and can’t fight the accusations is depressed. Hopefully the administration will put an end to this sham court, but I won’t hold my breath." - Class of 19, March 5.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Many elite universities have a sham student conduct process and there is little in the way of fairness to the student. It is difficult to truly grasp until you live through it. The pressure on a student is indescribable. It is definitely a “guilty until proven innocent” approach where a student is barraged with constant letters — repeatedly accused of even the smallest of infractions and threatened with probation, suspension and ultimately expulsion. There is little in the way of due process and the student conduct process typically ignores many of the basic rules of law that we expect from our legal system. All of a sudden, a student feels like an outcast. Those that are innocent feel so cornered that they capitulate and admit to the charges. What many students don’t realize is that if they intend to pursue graduate, law, medical school is that they will forever have to disclose this transgression on all sorts of future applications. You can’t even bring an outside attorney to these hearings. If you find yourself or your child in a similar situation, seek competent legal advice immediately. You can’t afford not to. It is amazing that this occurs at institutions of “higher learning” in this country with particularly those with supposedly top tier law schools. I sadly speak from direct experience. I can understand how this event may have caused a deep sense of despair for Katie. My heart breaks for her family. For every Dean out there involved in the student conduct process, it’s time to revamp and change they way that students are treated and parents or designated guardians should very much be part of the process. Surely, just like you can authorize medical release of records the same should hold true for educational records." - S. Gonzales, March 6.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Thank you for enlightening us with your post…" - REM/TA, March 7.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I wonder whether Katie was considering a career in the CIA or FBI after her graduation in a few months? (It was stated that she was interested in international relations, specifically security). The pending disciplinary action “could” definitely “ruin” those future plans for her. This is so very sad. I wish she would have told her parents of Stanford’s pending disciplinary actions and showed them the emails. They could have sought legal counsel for her and supported her through this situation. Hoping the family gets to the bottom of what happened. </span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I’m so very sorry for your loss, Meyer Family." - Anonymous, March 8.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I can’t agree more. These elite schools’ disciplinary systems (especially, Stanford and Princeton) usually have a committee of 5 members: 3 are students while 2 are professors. The students in the committee are just sophomores or juniors with few experiences and can’t go against professors in the committee. So the decision of the committee of 5 is often led by one professor with a loud voice and strong opinion. The committee is supposed to make a decision based on “clear and persuasive” evidence, but its definition is any set of evidence that the committee “FEELS” clear and persuasive. If the committee feels a blurry image of an animal is a cat, then the image becomes clear and persuasive evidence that it is a cat while it is, in fact, a dog. A student can appeal to the judicial committee. The problem is that the judicial committee members are also professors who will, of course, be on the professor’s side. Even more serious is that the membership rotates every 2 or 3 years. Thus the members of the judicial committee are not EVEN familiar with the school’s written “rights, rule, and responsibilities” and don’t carry any responsibilities for their decisions. Even if their decision is found to be wrong, just like Katie’s case, nobody in the committees will be fired, and nobody will be responsible. Students cannot bring an outside lawyer, and thus there is literally no way to fight against an unfair decision and unreasonable process when falsely accused. The system would be so much better if there is an office of student integrity and if only the employees in the office — who are familiar with the written rules, will interpret rules as written, and will be responsible/fired when found wrong — handle cases. This is the system used in many state schools." - CoDNeeds Change, March 7.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">And Stanford hides behind confidentiality which hides what could have been a biased process finding Katie guilty. The school is the judge and jury in the process accountable to no party unless Katie’s parents hire a lawyer and find a way to take Stanford into a court of law. But before that Stanford will try to do a deal with Katie’s lawyers that will keep their process confidential with maybe her parents knowing but keeping their investigation and the likely reason for Katie’s death unknown to the community. No transparency or accountability for her death. Probably a Title 9 investigation." - John, March 7.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">If the settlement is kept confidential, Stanford will never feel any community pressure to change its ways. I hope this isn’t swept under the rug like so many other problems at Stanford!" - Peter K., March 7.</span></b></p><p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">I’m hoping Katie shared her pending disciplinary action from Stanford with some of her friends, fellow students, professors, coaches and teammates.</span></b></p><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">They might be able to shed some light on her state of mind?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Also, the teammate “she stuck up for” in the altercation would probably have much information.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Did the person whom Katie had the altercation with, have friends in high places at Stanford?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Does this person’s family donate a lot of money to Stanford?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Was this disciplinary action a personal vendetta to ruin Katie’s future?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Was Katie being threatened?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Was Katie told what was going to happen to her?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Was she afraid of what might happen?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">These are questions that should be explored.</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Also, even though Katie would not be allowed an attorney at the Stanford University hearing, legal counsel could advise her on “how best” to answer questions and perhaps help her to compose a letter to read to the court. Or, better yet, help her send a letter prior to the school court. hearing. Perhaps advise her on writing an apology letter?</span><br style="background-color: white; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;" /><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">A young woman with so much to offer the world. So so sad! RIP dear Katie." - Anonymous, March 8. </span></b><div><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Stanford should show more responsibility.</span></b></div><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Frankly, sometimes I have the feeling that being at this university is like being in a cult. If someone does not behave, not complying with their regulations, the person is out, in a very cold way (eg </span><a href="https://padailypost.com/2019/12/06/dad-takes-his-own-life-after-meeting-with-stanford-boss-family-fears-it-will-lose-home/" rel="nofollow ugc" style="background-color: white; border: 0px; color: #4881f2; font-family: "Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; font-stretch: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-variant-numeric: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">https://padailypost.com/2019/12/06/dad-takes-his-own-life-after-meeting-with-stanford-boss-family-fears-it-will-lose-home/</a><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">). This university should change its philosophy as everyone is a human being including the board of trustess. I doubt they are all perfect. In general, some universities have somehow lost their real purpose, to help the world with a big heart…" - How many more students suicides, March 5.</span></b><div><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><b><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">"</span><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">Hope you guys stay on this story. Stanford has some explaining to do. The few comments above describing university disciplinary boards – Bolshevik style show trials – are spot on." - Alvin, March 8.</span></b></div><div><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div><span face=""Open Sans", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;"><br /></span></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-72697776448233646802022-03-05T20:58:00.000-08:002022-03-05T20:58:21.510-08:00Losing People<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsBrpaiWIP71MWatPtIFIQayR0rV0HH_GfXlMOtSVV_SU3L_sLFxe0RWecie_sW8W_NNSj9UiX7BR5Kk32gJAswfj35-ZNdk3n31OzSNBXbforx85U2dLWy5DjF19L8QDtC6TnnJH1Vbjjb9j7UbU-BfmmI87g5rIu-dxEaCD6cR5v_0gK9kku-AKR=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="480" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgsBrpaiWIP71MWatPtIFIQayR0rV0HH_GfXlMOtSVV_SU3L_sLFxe0RWecie_sW8W_NNSj9UiX7BR5Kk32gJAswfj35-ZNdk3n31OzSNBXbforx85U2dLWy5DjF19L8QDtC6TnnJH1Vbjjb9j7UbU-BfmmI87g5rIu-dxEaCD6cR5v_0gK9kku-AKR=w640-h480" width="640" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">People marching for Ukraine, Feb 27, Santa Monica CA</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>Once in a while, people lose family members. A war comes or an earthquake or a famine, and people flee, losing track of where their parents or children or uncles and aunts and grandparents are.</p><p>This happened to Boris Furman's family during the Holocaust. People were torn from each other and separated by geography, some separated by death without other family members knowing.</p><p>On Dec. 31, 2021, <i>This American Life</i> featured Boris's story as told to Dana Chivvis (<a href="https://www.thisamericanlife.org/757/the-ghost-in-the-machine" target="_blank">Act 3 of Episode 757</a> "This Must Be the Place."</p><p>In Hebrew, <i>tikkun </i>means repair. In Judaism <i>tikkun </i>is an important concept meaning the redemption of a tragic situation or even the repair of the world-- <i>tikkun ha Olam</i>.</p><p>Boris's family needed repair for being pulled apart during the Holocaust. His mother lost her entire family as she fled to the US, where she met and married Boris's father, also a survivor with no family.</p><p><span style="background-color: white; color: #191919; font-family: maiola, serif; font-size: 20px;">"When I grew up, I didn't have any extended family," says Boris. "I didn't have any. My kids have a gazillion cousins and aunts and uncles. I had one."</span></p><p>Years later as he married and his children grew up and left home, he began tracking where each person was every day and even calculating a "family average location." </p><p>As he talks to Dana, she observes that his obsessive recording of each person's location and calculating an average location is actually kind of "a math prayer."</p><p>It's a way of saying, "We exist--we know where we are." </p><p>"It's not to record <i>where</i> they are but <i>that </i>they are," she concludes.</p><p>Right now in Ukraine, people are fleeing, fighting, and losing touch with family members. Sometimes there is no cell signal. Phones are lost, or there's no electricity to charge them. </p><p>People are dying: young Russian soldiers, Ukrainian citizens, visitors, students from other countries studying at Ukrainian universities.</p><p>May each family find <i>tikkun</i>... may our world in March 2022 be repaired.</p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-85052134430835079042022-01-30T00:23:00.002-08:002022-01-30T00:23:58.777-08:00"Undeniable: The Truth to Remember"<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghAMUGSPzNwHiVZAYAz3AcurPd9v_CRzHf7u-rHfYd3sEjV539b6V4v6gLDyLyeWNHojXcV5A5FwPy5qhaOiVQItxSNBrFg1JkZJLGt8e7iYO_0NNlgW4xoGbCDx9L4h5OE8vzzCGArxpzGcUryyQa3qSzWOp0xaFmT_ZakMwtGyCnxwGMJh5t88wn=s3309" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2840" data-original-width="3309" height="344" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEghAMUGSPzNwHiVZAYAz3AcurPd9v_CRzHf7u-rHfYd3sEjV539b6V4v6gLDyLyeWNHojXcV5A5FwPy5qhaOiVQItxSNBrFg1JkZJLGt8e7iYO_0NNlgW4xoGbCDx9L4h5OE8vzzCGArxpzGcUryyQa3qSzWOp0xaFmT_ZakMwtGyCnxwGMJh5t88wn=w400-h344" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ruth Krell Steinfeld, age 7, with her sister<br />orphaned on Oct. 9, 1942, when their parents <br />were killed at Auschwitz</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b> "I couldn't understand why my mother would give me away," says Ruth Krell Steinfeld, born in 1933, "I promised to be good if I could stay with her."</b></p><p><b>She was 7 years old when her mother put her and her sister on a bus and told them they were going to a new home.</b></p><p><b>This is just one of the heart-wrenching moments described in the CBS special <i>Undeniable: The Truth to Remember</i> that aired tonight. </b></p><p><b>She grew up to realize her mother's incredible courage and strength to send them away from the French concentration camp Gurs. An undercover organization, <span style="background-color: #f7eddc; color: #555555; font-family: Lato, sans-serif; font-size: 15px;"><a href="https://childrenofchabannes.org/about-the-ose" target="_blank">Oeuvre de Secours Aux Enfants</a>,</span> found homes for the children, and later their parents were shipped to Auschwitz, Poland, by train and killed.</b></p><p><b>You can watch the hour of interviews with five Holocaust survivors and their families <a href="https://www.paramountplus.com/shows/cbs-news-specials/" target="_blank">on Paramount Plus</a> - S2022 EO. </b></p><p><b>The other survivors interviewed are</b></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Arthur & Rose Gelbart. He was 10 years old in 1939 when Nazis shot his brother.</b></li><li><b>Lily Ebert, 97 years old, now a star on Tick Tock.</b></li><li><b>Pieter G. Kohnstam, whose babysitter was Anne Frank when he was six years old. He and his parents walked from Amsterdam to Barcelona to escape the Nazi police.</b></li></ul><p></p><p><b>"Don't be indifferent," Pieter implores his listeners. His grandson Gavi Gelbart recently had Pieter's Nazi ID number, 177191, tattooed on his arm to honor his grandfather's experience and suffering.</b></p><p><b>Another special for International Holocaust Remembrance Day, Jan. 27, was <i>The Hate We Can't Forget: A Holocaust Remembrance Special</i>. Julianna Margulies hosted both prime-time specials. </b></p><p><b>I found these interviews very hard to watch.</b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p>the </p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-82248553902593501042021-12-23T23:00:00.009-08:002021-12-24T01:41:45.631-08:00Holy night, Covid night...<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhn4Qzb6-nV8tXPEygsxsevqezRDk67JWG3t5hnXAp9Sr2z0DsNM436fzIHKS2zYrNG4a8V0L72Iirf3FWo5PZPt9lAGVk-MTyyiOYp_IgZkS_E7kGE-qSn4xBQn3LOSYsbd00Q-wqAYEwiT72HkeL2EQKlfMBgo_M1utX03pzf6oNQN0CWGq1DyBeK=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhn4Qzb6-nV8tXPEygsxsevqezRDk67JWG3t5hnXAp9Sr2z0DsNM436fzIHKS2zYrNG4a8V0L72Iirf3FWo5PZPt9lAGVk-MTyyiOYp_IgZkS_E7kGE-qSn4xBQn3LOSYsbd00Q-wqAYEwiT72HkeL2EQKlfMBgo_M1utX03pzf6oNQN0CWGq1DyBeK=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The Christmas we want...</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>"All hell dun broke loose," begins an email from a friend tonight, December 23.</b></span></p><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Her whole family was gathering from various western US cities to share five days in Palm Springs and then spend Christmas through New Year's Day in Seattle. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>But her son came down with Covid-19 on Monday. After becoming sick but testing negative, he tested positive today. That means he will be spending Christmas isolated in Palm Springs while the others fly back to Seattle.</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Meanwhile, her granddaughter's partner became sick with a high fever. He tested negative too but will get a second test tomorrow. That means her granddaughter is exposed and has to isolate from everyone in the family or at least wear a mask. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>My friend's other granddaughter flew to Seattle from Hawaii to spend Christmas with the family. Her mother will fly home to Seattle from Palm Springs as scheduled, but her father will stay there until he feels well enough to fly home.<br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Meanwhile, that granddaughter heard from her roommates at the University of Hawaii that two of them have tested positive. That means she needs to quarantine from her mother. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>This Omicron variant is spreading like wildfire, everywhere from New York to Hawaii.</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>How do you do togetherness at Christmas when 2-3 family members are sick and several of the others are on quarantine?</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>How do you have Christmas dinner together? And open presents? Dare we go out to church in person on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning?</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>We too have had a crazy week here in Santa Monica<span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"> with two family members arriving from New York City and bringing the Omicron variant with them. They're in a hotel but one of the two (my niece) tested positive on Wednesday. She was sharing a bed with her mother, so they both have it, no doubt. So far neither is very sick, but others may get Covid from them and become </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: arial, sans-serif;">sicker.</span></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: arial, sans-serif;"><b><br /></b></span></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>Meanwhile, my daughter who lives 15 minutes away will probably not come here for Christmas because she spent 5-6 hours on Sunday with friends who got sick on Tuesday. See my <a data-saferedirecturl="https://www.google.com/url?hl=en&q=https://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2021/12/test-your-guests.html&source=gmail&ust=1640419513081000&usg=AOvVaw2w4TOi3eZ-afpxu1Buhyxh" href="https://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2021/12/test-your-guests.html" style="color: #1155cc; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">blog post on this</a> Wednesday night, Dec. 22. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>This Omicron variant just sneaked up on all of us. We did not take it seriously and cancel our travel plans. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>I refused to go to dinner last night with my ex-sister-in-law but did spend 2 hours with her and my niece today in their hotel lobby; I stayed masked except for eating a breakfast sandwich from Starbucks and drinking a peppermint mocha. Six feet distanced. Was that too close for this new variant? Will I get Covid again?</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>It's all about travel. If we stayed home, this virus wouldn't spread like a wind-driven fire. We got too confident that the epidemic was waning. Instead of shutting down like a year ago, some of us made plans to travel, to visit family, to go out to restaurants and shows.</b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b>We must do all we can to keep this virus from spreading, to keep ourselves out of the hospital, and to keep others from being exposed. Otherwise, we become incubators that help it to mutate further and evade our drugs. </b></div><div style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><b><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNC6zYovyEI02D2XaAzB3BrCBlUHeFeKnJqBUDQRSrWkm9T04Ps-va13u_L6IkOnfS6rjDDiVj4_cNLhhcBhGcUlQEpxmxsoXzaR0DsZlcax5UdCifEfeoASFIuZvgk7nXhzDNQQFQVvBciIIKrWLlgDnJnH_3EsbS3AumpBWCMmXHLjcfq19NcKR3=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjNC6zYovyEI02D2XaAzB3BrCBlUHeFeKnJqBUDQRSrWkm9T04Ps-va13u_L6IkOnfS6rjDDiVj4_cNLhhcBhGcUlQEpxmxsoXzaR0DsZlcax5UdCifEfeoASFIuZvgk7nXhzDNQQFQVvBciIIKrWLlgDnJnH_3EsbS3AumpBWCMmXHLjcfq19NcKR3=s320" width="320" /></a></div><br /></b></div><div style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: small;"><p style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Taking vaccines and wearing masks are acts of <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">kindness </span>to those who are fragile (have auto-immune illness, are taking immuno suppressants, or are cancer survivors, etc.). </b></p><p style="font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 13.2px;"><b>Doing all we can do is a <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">simple courtesy</span> to the doctors, nurses, and aides who are caring for those who are sick and dying.</b></p><div><b>For many of us, this Christmas will be <i>Silent night, Covid night....</i></b></div><div><i><b><br /></b></i></div><div><b>But still, God comes to us in human form to cheer and redeem us. </b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div><b>Without all the busyness and distractions of merriment, maybe we will have time to reflect on our place in the Cosmos, to feel the presence of a God who wants to connect with us.</b></div></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-12348347520347047132021-12-22T22:00:00.049-08:002021-12-23T03:54:13.184-08:00Test your guests!<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-5RHgt9yWHojQtAuaEzFrw3NZ15lXCvVSLnDC1XkVIiL4dHFuzLluLdOqENlx_nXanmn4P5xUhIOHlmYbd-lqR_h6y5z1bB03jhdHg_CyZSUkjaoYuvMVtY3QwOqDi_7aRqiFWdxH0MJY6bn59wwgPbT6dOSfs9vP_LLfBcAA4aLpVCBfHQiGF7oP=s3184" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3184" data-original-width="2490" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-5RHgt9yWHojQtAuaEzFrw3NZ15lXCvVSLnDC1XkVIiL4dHFuzLluLdOqENlx_nXanmn4P5xUhIOHlmYbd-lqR_h6y5z1bB03jhdHg_CyZSUkjaoYuvMVtY3QwOqDi_7aRqiFWdxH0MJY6bn59wwgPbT6dOSfs9vP_LLfBcAA4aLpVCBfHQiGF7oP=s320" width="250" /></a></div><br /><b>Do you have out-of-town guests arriving?</b><p></p><p><b>Or are you planning to have dinner with friends or relatives who have flown in from somewhere?</b></p><p><b>Buy a couple boxes of BinaxNOW rapid Covid-19 tests now before your guests drive up or arrive at the airport. Each box costs about $25 and contains two test kits.</b></p><p><b>Test yourself and ask your guests to do so also.</b></p><p><b>Finding the BinaxNOW could be easier said than done. The shelves could be empty. But keep trying. Walgreens and CVS are your best bet. </b></p><p><b>"All the Walgreens around here are sold out," a clerk told me at the intersection of Lincoln and Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica.</b></p><p><b>"When will you get a delivery?" I asked.</b></p><p><b>"Maybe today or tomorrow, I don't know. Could be anytime," she replied.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi403QuWPBOA9dNN7-CRsUOTHOTqG918uAhoGIeNC7ZBAqobXZxkf76vKkjwCzjicvGO-MegmmavLTyNVodGoYY1wWgt2HqXWhybVVdTpUSg4gM0yBmB3pe2oP7tLrfFzWQcx2D_fVttCmMHBWH1gAwznj5LeFKfuUsghXDXeAHn3nPTDbGYeZUh5oG=s4032" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEi403QuWPBOA9dNN7-CRsUOTHOTqG918uAhoGIeNC7ZBAqobXZxkf76vKkjwCzjicvGO-MegmmavLTyNVodGoYY1wWgt2HqXWhybVVdTpUSg4gM0yBmB3pe2oP7tLrfFzWQcx2D_fVttCmMHBWH1gAwznj5LeFKfuUsghXDXeAHn3nPTDbGYeZUh5oG=s320" width="320" /></a></div><b><br />I drove 15 minutes to the next closest Walgreens, and voila! They had many boxes, all behind the photo shop counter, and twenty people were clustered around as a clerk patiently handed out two per person.</b><p></p><p><b>We stood in line to buy them and emerged triumphant. <span style="color: red;"><i>'Tis the season to be jolly!</i></span></b></p><p><b>I called my niece and her mother, who had arrived the night before from New York City, and offered to deliver a box of BinaxNOW to their hotel. </b></p><p><b>They didn't mind testing before our big dinner date in the evening with other family members. It takes just 15 minutes to get a result.</b></p><p><b>When I drove up to Casa del Mar Hotel on Ocean Way, they were both outside waiting for me so that I could just hand them the box and not need to go inside the hotel or into their room. </b></p><p><b>We chatted for a few minutes on the sidewalk, all three of us wearing masks. I stood about six feet from them as I explained <a href="https://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2021/11/my-mistakes-how-i-caught-covid-19.html" target="_blank">how I had caught Covid on Nov. 4 </a>from an out-of-town visitor (see previous blog post). <br /></b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"></div><b>My niece said she came down with Covid last March after a ski trip to Colorado. She had two vaccines</b> <b>and a recent booster too.</b><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjE6yS2E3X74cqM6bh1zsOdM-eKqTuKKL5f7Egz2eYc8cvj90M_FY_VUkx_qSWWdeQXkrOaXowjFUu5602z-mVU71zTdTBDbbPyDNEF1Rd_pAWKRuak691CZgzdOTrWZwxBrh4Z7XR_bDcFpKQB3eJVPVZvXRDvjYLeQliVSoL8pre2cvLrOcCaXc6=s3295" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="2584" data-original-width="3295" height="251" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjjE6yS2E3X74cqM6bh1zsOdM-eKqTuKKL5f7Egz2eYc8cvj90M_FY_VUkx_qSWWdeQXkrOaXowjFUu5602z-mVU71zTdTBDbbPyDNEF1Rd_pAWKRuak691CZgzdOTrWZwxBrh4Z7XR_bDcFpKQB3eJVPVZvXRDvjYLeQliVSoL8pre2cvLrOcCaXc6=s320" width="320" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><b>How vaccine effectiveness drops after 5-6 months</b></i></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p><b>"I've had my vaccines and a booster too, but it was last August," said her mother.</b></p><p><b>"Well, they say that after five months you need another booster," I said. "I was 7 months after my last vaccine and a day after my booster when I caught Covid. But the vaccines protected me from having a serious case."</b></p><p><b>Then we bumped elbows and said, "See you tonight." They had plans to visit LACMA this afternoon with another family member.</b></p><p><br /></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinsSryvIbRPE2SKEJv0z9v6zde7eId3uR828zwwAiMBYMAOPHh-26sWVMq0YalRpyP3VWTrRabHElhizFAj6GABzpDZRj_WMfsncr5bqhCUKhhjJd8qAPdG73KKmQC21VK8KAtr0rMLVvWBKsDRLw94mn8n1edhXBqdtER8JDFoyWElJMYQhPbTIeY=s3514" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2202" data-original-width="3514" height="201" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEinsSryvIbRPE2SKEJv0z9v6zde7eId3uR828zwwAiMBYMAOPHh-26sWVMq0YalRpyP3VWTrRabHElhizFAj6GABzpDZRj_WMfsncr5bqhCUKhhjJd8qAPdG73KKmQC21VK8KAtr0rMLVvWBKsDRLw94mn8n1edhXBqdtER8JDFoyWElJMYQhPbTIeY=s320" width="320" /></a></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><b>On the way home, I passed that first Walgreens and decided to stop in. Maybe they'd had a delivery.</b><p></p><p><b>There was a FedEx truck parked outside the store as I drove up. The delivery man was building a stack of 21 boxes on one dolly cart. As I watched, half of them fell to the ground.</b></p><p><b><br /></b></p><p><b>"Probably the rapid tests, special delivery!" I said to myself.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhH0i_und4nr_SjLjRAR9mykQzfm-hS4ZTm9p-Oq1qeSX-uu4Gp7JQJiY6Q-nnPklOzLVKDcIlZp5sUbRSR8RdEl1psECRubttqeP96JNcLmrfBYBoNQomU7deME-VESV4K6paG7e4RrXqAXQaieryHkls-PZjNxmG6R9weujWuiCVJfKv6Q7C8lXc7=s2329" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="2329" data-original-width="1826" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhH0i_und4nr_SjLjRAR9mykQzfm-hS4ZTm9p-Oq1qeSX-uu4Gp7JQJiY6Q-nnPklOzLVKDcIlZp5sUbRSR8RdEl1psECRubttqeP96JNcLmrfBYBoNQomU7deME-VESV4K6paG7e4RrXqAXQaieryHkls-PZjNxmG6R9weujWuiCVJfKv6Q7C8lXc7=s320" width="251" /></b></a></div><b>Right. Inside I found cartons of BinaxNOW stacked all around the UPS counter with several people walking up to get two boxes.</b><p></p><p><b>"Wait! Just give me a chance to open the cartons," said a clerk. </b></p><p><b>I bought two more boxes--<span style="color: red;"><i>deck the halls! Fa-la-la-la-la...</i></span></b></p><p><b>When I telegraphed the news--I have 3 boxes!--I immediately got requests for them. </b></p><p><b>One was reserved for my husband, who tested negative this afternoon, as I had done the night before with the last test kit in the house. We had gone to the Pantages Theater the previous weekend to see <i>Hamilton </i>and could have been exposed then. We wanted to check before going out to dinner with family.</b></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkEHNo2eEzNhY26qpbRjCvpbPv7R4DcFBEjPf3AebnvlAg53v_YfZo2gaZbSXFL-VqAvJ3PHl2LDyaAPxlbSHAca6zD3XBxNQFtrD51ad18PPY1YAExL7j5KZmKqU-APHDSKj6EPtl8MUz_YIDSj_0b9O2fvASUX3z-eJXTd_UFRGxyU_pxFxW1_Az=s3029" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="2442" data-original-width="3029" height="258" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjkEHNo2eEzNhY26qpbRjCvpbPv7R4DcFBEjPf3AebnvlAg53v_YfZo2gaZbSXFL-VqAvJ3PHl2LDyaAPxlbSHAca6zD3XBxNQFtrD51ad18PPY1YAExL7j5KZmKqU-APHDSKj6EPtl8MUz_YIDSj_0b9O2fvASUX3z-eJXTd_UFRGxyU_pxFxW1_Az=s320" width="320" /></b></a></div><b>I drove another box to my daughter and took the third to a friend of hers who suspected that she and her husband had come down with Covid-19. They each had a fever, aching, and tiredness--but so far hadn't lost their sense of taste or smell. (I didn't experience that loss when I had Covid a month ago.)</b><p></p><p><b>As I was driving to Culver City to deliver these rapid tests, I got a call from my niece. She had tested positive--though she had absolutely no symptoms. She felt fine, just as she had when making plans to travel and when they had left New York. </b></p><p><b>Her mother tested negative, but clearly she had been exposed to the virus by her non-symptomatic daughter. </b></p><p><b>They immediately cancelled their plans to spend a week in Palm Springs after visiting Los Angeles. Next they separated into two hotel rooms and began looking into how soon they could fly home. Is it better to wait until they both test negative? Or fly home before either of them might become symptomatic?</b></p><p><b>My niece planned to stay in her hotel room until flying home. <span style="color: red;"><i>Silent night, Covid night... </i></span></b></p><p><b>Her mother said dinner plans were cancelled, but negotiations ensued with my husband and his sister, who were still willing to go to the restaurant. After all, family members had flown across the country for this visit.</b></p><p></p><b>I stayed home. Last Sunday my daughter had visited her friends (now sick and probably with Covid), so she didn't go to the dinner. People who have been exposed shouldn't go out and endanger others.</b><div><p><b>My other daughter, who works at Starbucks, didn't go either. She's scheduled to work on Christmas Eve and Christmas; if she gets exposed, she can't go to work. It wouldn't be right to ask someone else to do those holiday shifts.</b></p><p><b>Much drama, and we didn't even get to the subjects of religion or politics.</b></p><p><b>Anyway, be a good Girl Scout or Boy Scout, and be prepared.</b></p><p><b>Buy a couple boxes of rapid tests now. If you test positive, then you get to stand in line 3-4 hours for a polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test, as my daughter's friend did today. </b></p><p><b>After someone in a lab uses a microscope to look at the genetic material in the droplets from her nose, and someone else sends her an email, she will get the results--tomorrow, if the system works well.</b></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-9uHgjHaGiH0mCAwVydZ9S0eTtJ2auo77uWRyDitVjr3xkv95mqR2E1JQBVZtVPf_vuugMs_B1thS4_PrLiNNPqs1i4zpiYV-Zb_VC1GhOss3XSUxjdJFR_AnoqREx0guLj29yuAHT39Tr_MepXGdI_pyklOK_uBjODB-nKRR33JHlB-BEjoDpl8a=s2997" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="2997" data-original-width="2484" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg-9uHgjHaGiH0mCAwVydZ9S0eTtJ2auo77uWRyDitVjr3xkv95mqR2E1JQBVZtVPf_vuugMs_B1thS4_PrLiNNPqs1i4zpiYV-Zb_VC1GhOss3XSUxjdJFR_AnoqREx0guLj29yuAHT39Tr_MepXGdI_pyklOK_uBjODB-nKRR33JHlB-BEjoDpl8a=s320" width="265" /></b></a></div><p></p><p><b>If you get a positive result, you get to start work on quarantining, finding <a href="https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/586937-only-one-antibody-treatment-works-against" target="_blank">a monoclonal antibody that works on the Omicron variant</a>, contacting people you may have exposed, and interviewing with your local health department in their effort to trace contacts and stop the spread. (The GlaxoSmithKline monoclonal infusion is currently the only one that works on Omicron.)</b></p><p><b>See details of how complicated all that can be--even if you have a mild case--by checking my posts on <a href="https://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2021/11/how-to-get-test-for-covid.html" target="_blank">November 13</a> and <a href="https://marthaymaria.blogspot.com/2021/11/my-infusion-of-monoclonal-antibodies.html" target="_blank">November 15</a>.</b></p><p><b>If you've had your vaccines and booster, you will probably not have a serious case of Covid-19 because you still have maybe 20-30% of your antibodies, which will help your body to fight the virus. If you have an auto-immune illness or are a cancer survivor, you could need hospitalization.</b></p><p></p><p><b>The most important thing we can all do in the next two months is keep ourselves out of the hospital and not expose anyone else. Our health care workers are already exhausted and stressed out. We owe them a debt of gratitude.</b></p><p><b>Taking vaccines and wearing masks are acts of <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">kindness </span>to those who are fragile.</b></p><p><b>Doing all we can do is a <span style="background-color: #01ffff;">simple courtesy</span> to the doctors, nurses, and aides who are caring for those who are sick and dying.</b></p><p><b>Doing our part also helps the FedEx delivery people, the drug store employees, the nation, and the world. Just think about this guy trying to load 21 cartons of rapid tests on one little dolly cart so he can rush on to deliver more to the pharmacy across town. <span style="color: red;"><i>He's making a list, checking it twice...</i></span></b></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvObaEYYG77fvwDM_exUMYFL2sizaYJFuPibM6ODySgc3aTltrd-9shzOPoSBdbHpT1eOYPvWxzD3qJqxbKtT-sEnSt2xqozQ1x3jFDv67Y-OeldcnREsoCpHVKqxyKJFgo7-M1kSV0ek28whb81VrRYarVhLffmKhKvJDI72LbnOjyECZKNaIjQue=s2034" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2034" data-original-width="1979" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjvObaEYYG77fvwDM_exUMYFL2sizaYJFuPibM6ODySgc3aTltrd-9shzOPoSBdbHpT1eOYPvWxzD3qJqxbKtT-sEnSt2xqozQ1x3jFDv67Y-OeldcnREsoCpHVKqxyKJFgo7-M1kSV0ek28whb81VrRYarVhLffmKhKvJDI72LbnOjyECZKNaIjQue=s320" width="311" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Santa and his sleigh in Covid times</i></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><br /><br /><p><br /></p><p></p></div>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-78087900818726964772021-12-04T03:10:00.000-08:002021-12-04T03:10:17.676-08:00The Smiley Guy vs. Abortion Rights<p><b><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSe6vlyJ8Q3dTmDih9TBQV4-CCTM62_jsEj3VG-BJ0pM0Y16zv7Ou860lkaS7XsBbzZopWj1a8eEmR3aGVFQl87VzmrETszKW0tOPt4CGj1i8mk6kiBx0vN1FeizvaDb6zRhtHv479HQ/s275/220px-Official_roberts_CJ%255B1%255D.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="220" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkSe6vlyJ8Q3dTmDih9TBQV4-CCTM62_jsEj3VG-BJ0pM0Y16zv7Ou860lkaS7XsBbzZopWj1a8eEmR3aGVFQl87VzmrETszKW0tOPt4CGj1i8mk6kiBx0vN1FeizvaDb6zRhtHv479HQ/s0/220px-Official_roberts_CJ%255B1%255D.jpg" width="220" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Beware of nice guys.</td></tr></tbody></table><br />Chief Justice John Roberts bugs me.</b></p><p><b>Out of all the judges, he's the most smiley. He wants to be Mr. Nice Guy.</b></p><p><b>But really, he's taking away our right to end a pregnancy, to determine how many of us will live the next 8 months of our lives, how we will define ourselves for sixty years. </b></p><p><b>What's between us and God, he thinks should be up to him. </b></p><p><b>Justice Roberts, can't you be just plain mean like Samuel Alito? Or Clarence Thomas? </b></p><p><b>Or just a raving hypocrite like Brett Kavanaugh? </b></p><p><b>That way the country could see through you more easily.</b></p><p><b>It was astounding to hear you question the lawyers. <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsYUij6wB10" target="_blank">Listen to it on YouTube.</a></b></p><p><b>"Why is 15 weeks not enough time?" you asked. </b></p><p><b>The sheer masculine innocence of that question!</b></p><p><b>As if hesitating to end a pregnancy were like vaccine hesitancy. Just get over it, my dears. Make up your minds. You've got 15 weeks.</b></p><p><b>13 weeks, actually, since the day you had sex. </b></p><p><b>11 weeks from the day your bleeding should have happened. </b></p><p><b>7 weeks from the time your period was a month late but you didn't feel pregnant. </b></p><p><b>3 weeks from the day your period was two months late and you realized that ohmygod you might really be preggers! But it couldn't be true. </b></p><p><b>Justice Roberts, bless his heart, now gives you three weeks to go through denial, anger, bargaining, depression and come to a screeching halt at acceptance that you are actually pregnant.</b></p><p><b>No, just two weeks to go through those five stages because you still need a week figure out whether to let the pregnancy continue or to end it. </b></p><p><b>If you decide you just can't possibly bring a human being into this world and have the strength and sanity and money to take care of him or her, and you certainly couldn't give a baby away to who-knows-what kind of parents, now you have no weeks left to find a Planned Parenthood Clinic.</b></p><p><b>You may have no money to drive to a clinic 4-5 hours from your home. Maybe you have no car.</b></p><p><b>Maybe you need child care for your kids while you spend a day or two getting the job done. Or maybe you can't take time off from work. </b></p><p><b>But don't worry about this, dear, because you've already used up your 15 weeks. Your life is now in the hands of that smiley guy Roberts and that liar Kavanaugh. And Alioto and Thomas and Gorsuch. And of course Amy Coney Barrett, who thinks that handing a baby over to strangers should be easy as pie. </b></p><p><b>The government of Mississippi has decided 15 weeks should be enough for you, and the justices will probably agree with them.</b></p><p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1pxG3xsHqhn1GIeTLO6D0JNpt8hyuoyHEWeOyCoEAeHmSs-bqy4pTIK06T93jQoQv30cB6L5QrqmzDYv2W12NPPowiA3zYX1bF55vjoJBGmFhsrniuOdsA5YI_Zt2II-5n7AqAKo_mJ4/s4032/IMG_9540.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj1pxG3xsHqhn1GIeTLO6D0JNpt8hyuoyHEWeOyCoEAeHmSs-bqy4pTIK06T93jQoQv30cB6L5QrqmzDYv2W12NPPowiA3zYX1bF55vjoJBGmFhsrniuOdsA5YI_Zt2II-5n7AqAKo_mJ4/s320/IMG_9540.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Justice Sonia Sotomayor fights for justice<br />as Senator Elizabeth Warren looks grimly on.</td></tr></tbody></table><b>Of course, the US government gives years to American citizens who have vaccination hesitancy, who just can't quite bring themselves to face that needle. </b></p><p><b>For abortion hesitancy, however, there's no tolerance. 15 weeks, sweetie. Get over it. <br /></b></p><p><br /></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9112746109698291522.post-50609487591800985282021-11-22T14:50:00.000-08:002021-11-22T14:50:16.904-08:00Thanksgiving and the turkeys<p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-o5ZHQz2oh_atuuiS5aiJOwGvNKCuzGr3FUEctr_V6Kp1OXZN1_MX6-Exqb7Xs7XiMW65_XnhQ6d7iYsEOsg-EDTGj8AB2wQ55N4c9FGlX2p_0HpAPPtLQC2htq-NfN7jgjLObckbew/s2048/IMG_1100.HEIC" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiP-o5ZHQz2oh_atuuiS5aiJOwGvNKCuzGr3FUEctr_V6Kp1OXZN1_MX6-Exqb7Xs7XiMW65_XnhQ6d7iYsEOsg-EDTGj8AB2wQ55N4c9FGlX2p_0HpAPPtLQC2htq-NfN7jgjLObckbew/s320/IMG_1100.HEIC" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Thanksgiving 2019</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><b>Thanks to Covid-19 pandemic, Thanksgiving will be easier again this year. Fewer family gatherings.</b></p><p><b>But for those of you who <i>do</i> attempt to gather together to ask God's blessing, good luck.</b></p><p><b>My brother in Colorado is rather ferociously expressing his fear of inflation if the Build Back Better Act succeeds in getting through the Senate. But no danger of him showing up in Santa Monica for Thanksgiving.</b></p><p><b>My sister replied to him today with a meme from <a href="https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Film/TheNakedGun" target="_blank"><i>The Naked Gun</i>, a film-spin-off</a> of the 1988 television series <i>Police Squad!</i></b></p><p><b>In the meme, police lieutenant Frank Drebin (played by Leslie Nielsen) shouts "Please disperse! Nothing to see here. Please!" in front of a destroyed building as bombs explode and voices shout.</b></p><p><b>I have no idea how this meme relates to <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/build-back-better/" target="_blank">Biden's Build Back Better plan</a>, except that the building in it will need to be rebuilt. </b></p><p><b>Does she mean nothing to see in Build Back Better? Nothing to see in claims that inflation will result from spending for pre-K, child care, elder care, and extending the Child Tax Credit? Nothing to see in efforts to combat climate change? Nothing to see in expanding affordable health care?</b></p><p><b>Nothing to see in claims that inflation will <i>not</i> occur? </b></p><p><b>I didn't hear objections from my family about Republican spending for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Of course, those wars didn't cause any inflation. And Trump's tax cuts for the wealthy sure didn't cause inflation in anything but the stock market.</b></p><p><b>Little sis thought she could reply to bro without me seeing it, but her email went to all three of us. She made the following comments:</b></p><p><span style="background-color: #01ffff;"><b>They want us to sit quietly and say nothing. And continue to vote for them while American Pravda tells us we're all good. (And the ruling class pelosis and aocs take the money and run.)</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #01ffff;"><b>Speaking of SF there are now coordinated mass break-ins at high end malls--3 this weekend! We're all going to be on Amazon (the new J.C. Penney's mail order catalog).</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #01ffff;"><b>Good luck getting through to Anne. If I say what you said, she bites my head off.</b></span></p><p><span style="background-color: #01ffff;"><b>Confidential.</b></span></p><p><b>Fortunately, her family in San Diego won't be gathering together with us either. That hasn't been safe for years. </b></p><p><b>I pray that someday the political tensions in this nation will ease enough for us all to meet face to face and agree to disagree. Family values, right? I do love my sister and brothers. </b></p><p><b>Now to do an internet search to find out what she means by "American Pravda." And why she thinks Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a bartender by trade, is ruling class. And why <a href="https://www.citizen.org/news/the-super-rich-people-backing-the-trump-agenda/" target="_blank">Trump and his friends</a> Rupert Murdoch, Sheldon Adelson, Joe Ricketts of TDAmeritrade, etc. are not ruling class and have not been taking the money and running.</b></p><p><b>Oh my God, <i>American Pravda: My Fight for Truth in the Era of Fake News </i> is a book by James O'Keefe, whom Wikipedia describes as <span style="background-color: #f4cccc; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">an American right-wing to far-right political activist and provocateur. He produces secretly recorded undercover audio and video encounters in academic, governmental, and social service organizations, purporting to show abusive or illegal behavior by representatives of those organizations.</span></b></p><p><b>Amazon says: <span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The "</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #5f6368; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"><i>American Pravda" </i></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #4d5156; font-family: Roboto, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">title is a play on the name of <i>Pravda</i> (meaning truth in Russian), a long-term Communist Party publication in the Soviet Union,</span></b></p><p><b>I didn't know my sister supports right-wing Republicans. I was hoping she was a Bush/Cheney moderate these days. I don't know whether she means the words "American Pravda" to refer to American newspapers like the <i>New York Times</i> and <i>Washington Post</i>--or to the Biden administration. Or maybe Democrats in general. </b></p><p><b>I see that <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_O'Keefe" target="_blank">O'Keefe is a 37-year-old </a>who twelve years ago made false claims against ACORN and caused its bankruptcy. He had to pay $100,000 in a settlement with one of the workers he misquoted. Apparently, he's a darling of Breitbart. Clearly he's making money off the fake news flames fanned by Trump.</b></p><p><b>Well, folks, happy Thanksgiving. If you share a big dinner with family, keep your mouth shut. Except for helpings of turkey and stuffing. </b></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Anne Linstatterhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10046824008467382113noreply@blogger.com0