| Thursday, July 10, 2003 |  |
| Johnny Mercer Foundation's Website Accentuates the Positive | 0 comments |
 10 Jul 2003 @ 17:55Johnny Mercer Foundation's Website Accentuates the Positive The Johnny Mercer Foundation has launched a Web site that aims to introduce a whole new generation to the songs and tradition of Johnny Mercer and other greats such as Irving Berlin, Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter and Duke Ellington. The site highlights Mercer's prolific songwriting contributions and the nonprofit organization's dedication to preserving the nation's rich history of songs. By devoting a significant portion of its resources to charitable programs targeted at children, the organization reflects Mercer's love of kids and lifetime of generosity. In keeping with their mission, the Foundation recently launched the "Accentuate The Positive" educational program to introduce thousands of elementary school children to the Great American Songbook through LyricNOTES, a 32-page student activity guide. LyricNOTES enables teachers to take kids aged 8-12 on creative journey by explaining how a song is born, how music and lyrics are conceived and written, and how songs of any generation reflect our passions and ideals. The Web site offers a free sample of the guide and encourages teachers to request copies for their classrooms. Margaret Whiting, President of the Foundation's Board, notes that, "The new Web site enables us to reflect on Johnny's songwriting accomplishments and reach a vast audience that is interested in preserving the Great American Songbook. Introducing these songs to our children and grandchildren enables them to understand their heritage and claim these ageless songs as their own." The foundation's initiatives also include: An alliance with the famed Sundance Film institute to present a yearly seminar focused on the interpretation of American Popular songs and how they are reflected in the music, film, theater and television of today. Support for St. Louis Women, A Blues Ballet, a production based on the Johnny Mercer and Harold Arlen score. The production features the Dance Theater of Harlem and has its world premier July 8th, 2003 at Lincoln Center in New York City. Other Web site features consist of a retrospective of Johnny Mercer's career, information about the Foundation's other charitable activities and a donation interface. For those interested in researching all of Johnny Mercer's songs the site includes a comprehensive database with song titles, dates, publishing acknowledgements, copyright details, composer listings and production information. The Johnny Mercer Foundation is based in New York City and supports numerous charitable organizations through private donations and royalties from the vast catalog of Johnny Mercer songs such as Hooray For Hollywood, Moon River, Accentuate The Positive, Skylark, You Must Have Been A Beautiful Baby, Days Of Wine And Roses, Blues In The Night, Come Rain Or Come Shine, I Remember You and Jeepers Creepers. |
| HATING THE HOMELESS: Should it be a Crime?} | 2 comments |
 10 Jul 2003 @ 17:37HATING THE HOMELESS: Should it be a Crime? By Erin Middlewood | for Tolerance.org June 26, 2003 -- The crimes are brutal. Two men tied up a homeless man and poured battery acid on his genitals in Fayetteville, N.C. In Springfield, Ohio, a 47-year-old man sleeping on the porch of an abandoned house was set on fire; he later died from burns covering 80% of his body. A group of teenagers beat a 44-year-old woman to death in Kent, Wash. The list goes on in savage detail. The National Coalition for the Homeless documented 212 such attacks on homeless people, 123 resulting in death, over the past four years. The coalition believes the crimes are all the worse because they were motivated by bias against homeless people. That's why the coalition is mounting a campaign to treat crimes against the homeless as hate crimes. The group believes homeless people murdered and beaten were targeted because they live on the street, an already dangerous way of life. Under the coalition's proposal, crimes motivated by bias against people who are homeless would join the list of other hate crimes, including those motivated by race, religion or ethnicity. With the study "Hate, Violence and Death on Main Street USA," the group's director of community organizing, Michael Stoops, has been lobbying Congress to include the homeless among groups protected by hate-crimes laws. Hate crimes carry stiffer penalties and are tracked by the federal government. Not just a big-city problem The coalition's report shows attacks on homeless people happen around the country, not just in big cities like New York or Los Angeles. In fact, the report names Denver, Las Vegas and Rapid City, S.D., as the most dangerous cities for homeless people based on a compilation of news accounts. That's the pitfall of the study, Stoops said: Many attacks on homeless people go unreported and unpublicized. "There's more out there," Stoops said with grim certainty. The National Coalition for the Homeless is trying to convince Congress to order the General Accounting Office to undertake a study of its own. A GAO report would carry the credibility that might convince Congress to expand hate-crimes legislation to protect homeless people. Stoops hopes the independent federal investigators would interview surviving victims, police officers who responded to the crime, and those convicted of hurting homeless people. "People are not aware this is definitely a trend: Homeless people are subject to acts of violence," Stoops said. The National Coalition for the Homeless has encountered resistance on several fronts: Some dismiss all hate-crime laws as the handiwork of politically correct thought police; Some mistakenly believe that most crimes against the homeless are committed by other homeless people, dismissing potential hate-crime penalty enhancements as unnecessary; Some believe other groups — specifically people who are gay, lesbian, transgender and bisexual — should receive long-overdue federal protection before a newly targeted group does; And some believe the addition of any new groups for protected status weakens existing laws. Not so, counters Dexter Wimbish, national program director of the Center for Democratic Renewal in Atlanta, Ga. That group started out fighting the Klan but has expanded to battle the many incarnations of hatred. Wimbish said his organization now focuses on all violence motivated by hate. "A lot of the attacks are motivated solely by hatred of homeless people," Wimbish said. "Stiffer penalties do act as a deterrent." More > |
| White Supremacy: No One Is Innocent | 0 comments |
 10 Jul 2003 @ 17:31WHITE SUPREMACY: No One Is Innocent From Tolerance.org By Tim Wise July 8, 2003 -- My head was spinning, and at one point I thought I was going to be sick. This happens sometimes, mostly when discussing racism with someone whose Pollyanna view of America as a land of unbridled equal opportunity renders that person incapable of critical thought: I sat across from a young white man in an Oxford-cloth shirt; a student at a small, liberal arts college in one of the whitest states in America, in perhaps one of its whitest towns (both demographically and culturally). His words poured forth weightless, yet thick, like the putrid froth one sees downriver from a paper mill. "I believe in America. It's the best nation on Earth." Cliché number one: thoroughly meaningless, utterly subjective and irrelevant to the conversation we were having. After all, I suspect that such comments were quite plentiful (and depending upon the criteria being used for comparison purposes, even accurate) during the time of segregation or slavery. That a particular society might be a heap better than lots of others, perhaps even all of them in certain ways, says nothing about the extent of justice in the former, and amounts to the very kind of moral relativism usually condemned by hard-nosed conservatives. It's sort of like saying, when you broke a window as a kid playing ball, that "Billy broke two windows," as if your momma was going to care, and as if that had anything to do with your own misdeeds. "Yes, we used to have a problem with racism, but that's in the past and we need to move forward." Cliché number two: this time far from meaningless, objectively absurd and painfully relevant to the discussion at hand. We were, after all, discussing what obligations, if any, the United States has to rectify the legacy of institutionalized white supremacy. Perhaps reparations for its victims? Perhaps affirmative action? Perhaps both, or neither? To my preppy friend the answer was obvious. "We should do nothing," he explained, because — and I'm sure you can guess the rest — he "wasn't even alive when all that happened and shouldn't have to pay for what others did." Clichés within clichés within clichés, piled upon one another like driftwood, floating on the waters of white denial, in search of a home in the minds of those convinced that the past has no bearing on the present, that history ended sometime around 1964 with the passage of the Civil Rights Act, and that inertia is only a property of the physical, but not socioeconomic universe. So I did what I normally do in these situations: I offered facts, which was probably my first mistake. After all, this individual, like most with his peculiar form of historical amnesia and ideological blindness, doesn't care about facts. The vapid pronouncements of America's greatness, after all, are rooted purely in an emotionalism devoid of substance, to say nothing of footnotes, charts, graphs or statistical analyses. But silly me, I tried anyway, seeing as how this was a college campus where learning is supposed to be a fundamental part of the gig. Unbalanced assets I tried to explain that evidence of the past's lingering grip on the present-day is all around us. Thanks to overt racism in housing markets — which all agree ruled the day for the better part of the last century — white families were able to accumulate assets and wealth at a time when people of color were all but barred from doing so. Since wealth is typically not buried in a hole upon one's passing, but rather is passed down as a form of intergenerational entitlement, millions of young whites continue to benefit from the apartheid structures that came before them. Inheritance of parental assets and ongoing financial support from families have given the typical young white couple a net worth almost $20,000 above that of similar blacks. Today, the typical white family has wealth and net worth nearly 11 times that of the typical black family, and eight times greater than the typical Latino family, according to the Census Bureau. Within each income strata, this wealth gap persists; so among the poorest fifth of income earners, white households have, on average, 421 times the wealth of the poorest black households, because even the poorest 20% of whites have median wealth of roughly $24,000 (mostly home equity), while the poorest blacks have virtually no wealth to speak of at all — about $57 on average. In upper-income brackets, the white-over-black wealth gap is more than 3-to-1. Even whites below the poverty line are more likely to own their own home than blacks with three times more income, thanks to assets passed down from previously preferenced white parents. In the absence of past and present discrimination in housing markets alone, black families would have, on average, about $50,000 more in housing equity than is currently the case, and over the years, the black community as a whole would have received roughly half-a-trillion dollars more in housing assets than it actually has accumulated. Despite all the blustery claims about progress, the fact remains that, in 1865, blacks owned 0.5% of all the wealth in the United States, and, by 1990, still owned only 1% of it. That represents a doubling to be sure, in the eyes of optimists, but hardly in line with the amount of wealth created by black labor over the years in this country. No response; just a blank stare from my corn-fed Iowa friend, and more platitudes. "There's nothing we can do about that," he explained. "At some point we just have to move on." Who 'we' are Of course, who he meant by "we" was a question I was dying to ask, since "we" were not being asked to move on, so much as "they" were — meaning folks without the melanin deficiency that both he and I share. He, after all, had already moved on. To him, facts were mere inconveniences, certainly not worthy of provoking a fundamental re-examination of one's civil religion. Which is actually quite funny, because earlier in our conversation this same young man had condescendingly criticized a black woman who had tried to school him about the reality of racism. She had done so, to hear him tell it, in a way that was purely emotional, devoid of calm, cool, and "objective" rationality or facts. "Just her opinions and rhetoric," he dismissively explained, apparently unable to fathom why a black woman might get a bit excited when talking about her experiences with racism or the enslavement of her ancestors; strangely perplexed as to why he, but not she, would be able to engage such a topic in a dispassionate and clinical tone; apparently not cognizant of just how emotionally unhealthy and even irrational it is to remain calm while one discusses murder and cultural genocide. My head spinning again, I reflected on how few facts and how little rationality — as opposed to opinion, emotion and rhetoric — had accompanied his cheerleading for America that day. I hadn't heard a single fact come from his mouth, but rather a string of pre-fabricated platitudes handed down to him by parents perhaps, or preachers, or Boy Scout leaders, or some radio talk-show host without a research department. And yet he felt the need to critique others for their resort to emotion. It was at this point that I began to think of pots and kettles, but then again, no one would ever be likely to call him black. A new version of 'white flight' In any event, speaking of moving on, it soon became time for me to do so. But before ending our conversation I felt that I should leave him with something to think about. Since facts didn't seem to matter, I decided to try a different tactic. Because he had proclaimed himself free of any racist beliefs (all the more reason why he shouldn't be made to "pay" for the racist beliefs or actions of others), I asked him to ponder the meaning of something that had happened to me just one day before. I didn't want his feedback; I just wanted him to think about it. I explained that on my way to the conference at this young man's campus, I boarded a flight from Nashville to St. Louis, on the way to my ultimate destination. As I crossed the plane's threshold, I noticed something I had never noticed before: two black men in the cockpit, the pilot and co-captain. Indeed it was a sight that most will not see when they fly, if for no other reason but that African Americans make up a mere statistical handful of pilots in the commercial fleet. But there they were, and there I was: an antiracist activist who has made my living combating racism for more than a decade, a person who was raised from birth to challenge all forms of bigotry, bias and inequality. There I was, finding myself — despite my training and commitment to the abolition of racism in thought and action — having to literally fight back the first thing that popped into my mind. And what, I asked, did he think that was? I didn't wait for his answer, but rather stated it simply. It was this: Oh my God, can these guys really fly this plane? Now don't get me wrong. My head was telling me — almost as quickly as the above thought pierced my consciousness — that these two men were probably among the best pilots in the fleet, since it has long been understood blacks usually have to work twice as hard to get half as far as whites, especially in a profession where their presence is so rare. I also remembered that within the two months prior to this flight half a dozen white pilots had been hauled off of airplanes, either because they were drunk or decided they felt like flying naked for a while. So if anything, I should have been relieved at the sight of anyone but a white pilot. Yet all of this knowledge failed to immunize me from the thoughts implanted in my mind by a culture that tells us in so many ways that people of color are not as smart, not as capable, not as competent. The fact that I was able to fight those emotions and to get a grip on my subconscious, wrestling it to the ground in this instance, is not the point. The point is that it was there, and now I was shaking, not because I was afraid of the pilots, but because I was afraid of me and what I was capable of thinking — and acting upon perhaps in a moment of weakness. And I want that young man to be afraid of this, too. Because if it's in me, it's in him and everyone else he knows and will ever know, until this society is fundamentally altered. Not guilt, but anger Fearing he might misunderstand, I made it clear I felt no guilt for the thought that had popped into my mind. I was not, by telling this story, trying to beat myself up or engage in some masochistic form of self-flagellation. Rather, I was enraged by what had happened — enraged the subtle, and sometimes not-so-subtle messages of my nation's leaders, media, textbooks, pop culture and best-selling authors, among others, had penetrated even the best of intentions and efforts at inoculation. It is not, after all, cause for guilt but rather anger to realize one is not completely in control of one's own emotions, and that we can be so easily manipulated by a system designed to do just that. This is how racism survives. It is for this reason I know the legacy of the past is still very much with us. It is for this reason my head spins whenever I hear someone try to deny what each of his or her senses tells them is true. It is for this reason I can confidently say no one is innocent. The flight of course, was flawless. I only wish I could say the same about the writer in 12D. Tim Wise is an antiracist activist, essayist and father. He can be reached at, and footnotes |
| A Black Week for Sea Turtles | 1 comment |
 10 Jul 2003 @ 14:53A Black Week for Sea Turtles By Pilar Franco The culinary traditions of Holy Week in predominantly Catholic Mexico are a threat to the survival of this millennia-old species. MEXICO CITY - Consumption of sea turtle meat and eggs reaches alarming levels during the Catholic Church calendar's Lenten season observed by the faithful in Mexico, who are adherents to questionable culinary traditions, say environmentalists. The number of turtles killed each year to supply the black market in Mexico and the United States reaches 35,000, poet Homero Aridjis, president of the environmental International Group of 100, told Tierramérica. Sea turtles are categorized in two families: Cheloniidae and Dermochelyidae, and six genus: Olive Ridley (Lepidochelys olivacea), black (Chelonia agassizi), hawksbill (Eretmochelys imbricata), leatherback (Dermochelys coriacea), green (Chelonia mydas) and loggerhead (Caretta caretta). Until 1960, sea turtle exploitation in Mexico, one of the world's richest countries in terms of biodiversity, was limited to the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean areas. But the rise in demand for the turtle's meat and eggs, and the production of luxury items made from its leather, shell and oil, contributed to pushing the species into the endangered category. The over-exploitation, especially of reproductive adults, the collection of eggs in nesting areas, the loss or degradation of critical habitat, and certain fishing practices are other major threats to the sea turtle's survival. For the second consecutive year, the Group of 100 and the U.S.-based Sea Turtle Conservation Network of the Californias carried out a campaign that included an appeal to Pope John Paul II to urge the Catholic faithful, in Mexico and elsewhere, not to eat turtle meat during Holy Week. Consumption of turtle meat reaches its peak during Lent, which is why "we appeal to the ecological conscience of the Vatican, because the Church hierarchy could contribute a great deal towards disseminating the notion of respect for animal life," said Aridjis. "If the Vatican would officially clarify to the Catholics who observe the period of abstinence (from consumption of beef, pork, poultry or lamb) that turtle is not fish, it would help protect an endangered species, one of extraordinary biological value," the poet-environmentalist explained. The campaign included announcements and public events in Mexico and in the U.S. states of Texas and California, where the communities of Mexican origin have taken their traditions -- including turtle meat, through smuggling, says Aridjis. The United States banned sea turtle hunting in 1973, and in Mexico a total ban on the capture and sales of these animals or their byproducts went into effect in 1990. But consumption of turtle meat and trade in its shell and leather continue, said the activist. Mexico is famous for its varied and sophisticated cuisine. The states of Jalisco, Campeche, Michoacán, Quintana Roo, Tabasco, Baja California and Chiapas -- each with its own culinary personality -- include among their typical dishes turtle soup and other preparations of turtle meat. Biologist Jorge Téllez López, of the University of Guadalajara, says the established turtle nesting areas in Mexico are vital for the survival of the species and must be protected, as should the sea turtle migration routes along the Pacific, Atlantic and Caribbean coasts. Conservation groups, scientific and education institutions are working in the field, taking the direct approach to protecting the sea turtle. Téllez López explained that temporary security fences are set up around nesting areas. Unearthed eggs are reburied and incubated under strict controls until the turtles hatch. More > |
| 16 Year Old Remote Healer | 12 comments |
 10 Jul 2003 @ 14:00All About Adam - 16 Year Old BC Remote Healer By Alexandra Gill The Globe and Mail 7-9-3 VANCOUVER -- Adam doesn't seem extraordinary. Tall and handsome, with short, brown hair and a trace of dark fluff on his upper lip, he looks like a typical 16-year-old. He's a sporty guy who plays basketball and snowboards. In his spare time, he lifts weights, listens to alternative rock music and hangs out with his girlfriend. If you met Adam in a mall, you would never in a million years guess that this is the kid who claims to possess an extrasensory X-ray vision that helped him to cure rock 'n' roll legend Ronnie Hawkins of terminal pancreatic cancer. "The most important thing for us is to protect his anonymity so he can enjoy life as a normal teenager," Adam's mom says when I meet him and his parents this week at a secret location in the suburbs of Vancouver. Normal might be an odd adjective to use to describe a young man who says he can see a heart beating within a chest, or pop cancer cells inside people on the other side of the planet as effortlessly as most kids squeeze a pimple. But other than his girlfriend, none of Adam's friends are aware of his supposed abilities. "I'd like to keep it that way for as long as possible," says Adam, attacking a bowl of vanilla ice cream with a fork. "I'll come out when I finish high school." He says he has healed more than 300 people from ailments that range from breast cancer to genital herpes during the past two years. He charges $75 per treatment, but he says he has never turned anyone away because of an inability to pay. Most of his clients have heard of him by word of mouth. All contacts are made through his Web site Distant Healing and he no longer heals anyone in person. Because of an overwhelming response, he has recently decided to focus his efforts on people with terminal cancer that has not spread, and in situations when chemotherapy, radiation and surgery are not recommended. The mysterious, self-professed distance healer has become a minor sensation this week, after Mr. Hawkins issued a press release to announce his recovery and sing Adam's praises. Adam's father, who administers the Web site, says he has had to turn down more than 100 requests in the past few days alone. "I wish I could treat everyone, but I am only one person," says Adam, who is currently offering help to four cancer patients, and has a waiting list of 10. More > |