They're killing women.

by: teacherken

Mon Feb 08, 2010 at 07:11:33 AM EST

They are raping the women, and the little girls.  Multiple times.  With sex organs and with any object that's handy.  

Nicholas Kristof has written about this.  I recently wrote this diary about 1 of his columns.  Yesterday, in The World Capital of Killing, he argues the death total may have exceeded the 6 million Jews in the Holocaust.  He still writes about rape, and about Dr. Denis Mukwege, who has treated many of the raped, whose insides have been destroyed.

So does Eve Ensler, in a powerful piece in Glamour, Women Left for Dead-and the Man Who's Saving Them.  I ask that you please keep reading.

Do not read this until you are prepared to be shocked

by: teacherken

Thu Feb 04, 2010 at 06:42:58 AM EST

You may not yet want to click through, but the column is titled From 'Oprah' to Building a Sisterhood in Congo. Ultimately it is story of hope beyond imagination under circumstances that would crush most people.  I really want you to read the Kristof, and invite you to consider the words I will offer in addition, although I wonder if they can add anything to what he has written.

You will be reading about the effect of war in the Congo,

the most lethal conflict since World War II. More than five million had already died as of the last peer-reviewed mortality estimate in 2007.

Perhaps now you are ready to go below the fold.  You might not yet be ready for the Kristof.

Religion, rigidity, and women - thoughts after reading Kristof

by: teacherken

Sun Jan 10, 2010 at 08:56:52 AM EST

Religions derive their power and popularity in part from the ethical compass they offer. So why do so many faiths help perpetuate something that most of us regard as profoundly unethical: the oppression of women?

an independent group of eminent global leaders, brought together by Nelson Mandela, who offer their collective influence and experience to support peace building, help address major causes of human suffering and promote the shared interests of humanity.

Are We Going to Let John Die?

by: teacherken

Sun Nov 29, 2009 at 14:28:05 PM EST

If Joe Lieberman or other senators came across John Brodniak writhing in pain on the sidewalk, they presumably would jump to help him and rush him to a hospital.

Unfortunately, an emergency room won't help - indeed, the closest E.R. has told him not to come back, he says. So, for those members of Congress who are wavering on health reform, listen to John's story.

So begins the Sunday op ed by Nicholas Kristof, titled as is this diary Are We Going to Let John Die?

It is a tale that will break your heart.  Would that it would soften the hearts of those in Congress who are fighting meaningful healthcare reform.

A foreman at a logging mill in the county where Kristof grew up in Oregon, he married at 23, then 10 days later he blacked out.  That is where the tale begins.

You must read it.  NOW.  And pass on the column to everyone you know.

Remember the children

by: teacherken

Sun Nov 15, 2009 at 08:37:46 AM EST

And note especially these words:  

Tererai is a reminder of the adage that talent is universal, while opportunity is not. There are still 75 million children who are not attending primary school around the world. We could educate them all for far less than the cost of the proposed military "surge" in Afghanistan.

talent is universal, while the opportunity is not  - words to ponder.  But not merely in terms of impoverished nations overseas with little or no primary school.  Ponder as well those words with respect to the lack of opportunities for many American children as well.

When "political sense" makes poor public policy : health care and undocumented aliens

by: teacherken

Sun Sep 13, 2009 at 08:16:07 AM EDT

I disagree with the President on public policy grounds.  I especially disagree with him because I teach in a public school.  And I finally decided to write directly on this topic because of Nicholas Kristof's column this morning.  In The Body Count at Home he writes about a young woman who died for lack of health care, about whom T. R. Reid writes in a powerful new book.  Kristof writes of her,

Indeed, if Nikki had been a felon, the problem could have been averted, because courts have ruled that prisoners are entitled to medical care.

I lost a good friend yesterday

by: teacherken

Sun Jun 21, 2009 at 09:07:06 AM EDT

He was already elderly when we moved into this house in 1984.  For almost a quarter century he was a part of our lives, although in recent years he was fading.  Yesterday I went out to the car to put a bag in of someone I was taking to Union Station in DC, and realized he was finally gone.  The heavy rain had been too much, and as the soil loosened, he gave up the ghost and keeled over, into the driveway.

It is not as if he did not have a long and fruitful life. I am told that Stayman apple tree was on the property when the house was built in 1937. For most of our quarter century he did not ask much - to  be watered in times of drought, to keep the vines from choking his branches.  And in return he blessed us - and the birds and the squirrels - with his bounty.  Some years he gave us almost 100 apples.  

And now he is no more, except in the pile of wood I cut up to clear the driveway.