Donald E. McInnis’s book, She’s So Cold, is painful to read. McInnis was the defense attorney for one of three boys falsely accused of killing one of the boys’ sister. Much of the book is recreation of police interrogations that were videotaped, and of a court hearing.
This was one of those cases the mass media love and for which they effectively convict the accused in the minds of the public. This was in 1998 in San Diego, and the original victim’s name was Stephanie Crowe. But there were more victims, including Stephanie’s brother, two of his friends, and the three boys’ families. The trauma willfully and knowingly inflicted on them by the police and prosecutors was limited by the fact that so-called “confessions” by two of the three boys were videotaped. I haven’t watched the videos, but reading them is like watching violence in slow motion.
A new film by Will Watson, called Soldiers Without Guns, ought to shock a great many people — not because it utilizes a yet more gruesome form of violence or bizarre form of sex (the usual shockers in movie reviews), but because it recounts and shows us a true story that contradicts the most basic assumptions of politics, foreign policy, and popular sociology.
Bougainville Island was a paradise for millennia, inhabited sustainably by people who never caused the rest of the world the slightest trouble. Western empires fought over it, of course. Its name is that of a French explorer who named it for himself in 1768. Germany claimed it in 1899. In World War I, Australia took it. In World War II, Japan took it. Bougainville returned to Australian domination after the war, but the Japanese left piles of weapons behind — possibly the worst of the many forms of pollution, destruction, and lingering effects a war can leave in its wake.
Thanks, John McCain! Let’s mix a little humor in with war. It’s so much easier to take when we do. By the way, have you noticed that we’re always on the verge of war?
"No borders! No nations! Stop deportations!" A small but mighty group gathered across the street from the Hotel Leveque to protest Trump's announcement that deportations would be stepped up starting Sunday morning, June 23 in certain major US cities. The protestors shouted at people coming out of the building that they should not stay in a building in which ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) uses to hold immigrants in cells in that very building.
The activists had written chalk messages against deportations, detention centers and mistreatment of immigrant children on the sidewalk in front of the hotel but were shooed off by the hotel staff. From across the street they chanted, sang, and read the names aloud of the immigrants who had died in U.S. custody or shortly after being in a U.S. detention center.
Some drivers honked as they passed by and the group was joined by some of the pro-choice ralliers from a statehouse demonstration that had just ended. One anti-abortion counter-protestor also argued with some in the "stop deportations" group. Police were not present.
Trump has since "postponed" the mass arrests he had scheduled for this week.
Monday, June 24, 2019, 7:00 PM.
The film is 41 minutes. This documentary, produced by the United Church of Christ Palestine Israel Network, describes how Israeli practices of detaining children are illegal under international law and how the U.S. is deeply complicit in sustaining this destructive assault upon children. Discussion about the video and what we can do will follow the screening. Learn more about the campaign to end military detention of Palestinian children here: http://bit.ly/2Qp5vbf.
Location: Columbus Mennonite Church, 35 Oakland Park Avenue, Columbus, Ohio.
Sunday, June 23, 3-5pm, First Unitarian Universalist Church, 93 W. Weisheimer Rd.
This Town Hall will present experts on the Federal proposal and how it might work in Columbus. Dr. Fadhel Kaboub, economics professor at Denison University, will present an overview of the Resolution, including the Job Guarantee program. Cathy Cowan Becker, leader of the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign in Columbus, will discuss on-the-ground movements in central Ohio. Terry Hermsen, leader of a strategic effort to create a Hub for local organizations that are addressing the climate crisis, will moderate the discussion. A question-and-answer discussion will take place after the presentations.
Simply Living is sponsoring this event in conjunction with the Justice Action Ministry of First Unitarian Universalist Church.
Doing nothing is not an option. Here are some articles and resources we've found online that give advice on what you can personally do if you want to help migrants and to change this horrifying situation.
Joe Biden just put a spotlight on his mindset when he explicitly refused to apologize for fondly recalling how the Senate “got things done” with “civility” as he worked alongside some of the leading racist lawmakers of the 20th century. For Biden, the personal is the political; he knows that he’s virtuous, and that should be more than good enough for African Americans, for women, for anyone.
“There’s not a racist bone in my body,” Biden exclaimed Wednesday night, moments after demanding: “Apologize for what?” His deep paternalism surfaced during the angry outburst as he declared: “I’ve been involved in civil rights my whole career, period, period, period.”
President Trump’s steady following among his base of support is worth a reflection. No matter how often he “spins” the truth on matters large or small, and acts like a “bully” to demean those who have another view, his followers persist.
Psychiatrist Scott Peck followed up his famous, The Road Less Traveled, with a rather frightening book entitled, People of the Lie, 1983.
A summary of People of the Lie found in Wikipedia, captures what Peck said:
