InkTank

More than a year later: the gangrape in Dunbar Village

Can you believe it's already been a year and a half since this:

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. - Mother and son huddled together, battered and beaten, in the bathroom — sobbing, wondering why no one came to help. Surely the neighbors had heard their screams. The walls are thin, the screen doors flimsy in this violence-plagued housing project on the edge of downtown. For three hours, the pair say, they endured sheer terror as the 35-year-old Haitian immigrant was raped and sodomized by up to 10 masked teenagers and her 12-year-old son was beaten in another room.

I recently came across this great commentary by Rod Dreher on the subject. That's worth reading. I had a similar occurance to Dreher. I was in middle school out in Wellington and kids were pegging me with gumballs (doesn't sound painful, but when they hit you in face, eyes, etc. it really hurts). It was in my English classroom. Ms. Warren saw it and ignored it. That set the stage for the rest of my middle school career because at the moment I realized that I wasn't safe. That whatever happened would be up to me to stop, because the adults were too scared to do anything.

Yes, Virginia, There is...

I've of course heard the famous newspaper story before. But never before this year has it been so publicized. I heard about this article on three different occasion. What makes an editorial in the New York Sun from 1897 so pertinent today? First, here's the story from the Newseum website:

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.

Virginia's letter to the editor:

"DEAR EDITOR: I am 8 years old. "Some of my little friends say there is no Santa Claus. "Papa says, 'If you see it in THE SUN it's so.' "Please tell me the truth; is there a Santa Claus? "VIRGINIA O'HANLON. "115 WEST NINETY-FIFTH STREET."

Here's an excerpt of the response:

Faith and Unity

I read this article in USA Today and was reminded of this study. Yes, religion can be a forum for people of different discussions to converse...if they go to the same Church. I'm not sure how often that's the case. I hope for the sake of our national conversation that Mr. Thomas is right. But he certainly has the right thesis:

People are pack animals. We need one another. From the earliest chapters of Genesis we read that it is not good for people to be alone. People need community. Only in community are we fully human. There are lots of places we go looking for community: bars, golf courses, civic clubs. But it's hard to find real community. Especially since the advent of air conditioning, VCRs, home computers, video games and iPods. Forget gated communities. Most of us live gated lives.

Tale of One City

I've lived in Washington DC long enough to see that it is, as the saying goes "Two Cities." There's Washington: that famed center of pomp and power connected by the metro; and DC the land of crime and generational poverty connected by the bus lines. In an essay by one of my students this past semester, he said that Washington was divided "if not racially, at least socially." And I think that's fair. Living off Anacostia on the green line is very different than living off DuPont Circle on the red line. They may as well be two cities.

But I do believe that sometimes the city is one. There's two things we all have in common here in DC: that were all different and we're all here. Maybe that's enough. A few weeks back, I was on the yellow line headed from Columbia Heights to Chinatown. And I saw something that's stuck with me.

Who's Coming Down the Chimney?

This might call for a parent-clergy conference...

HuffPost: Retelling Hope where Peace is still on the horizon.

I want to applaud Mark Leon Goldberg of the Huffington Post for his recent story on the a survivor from Uganda.

Goldberg does an excellent job of summing the history and ultimately setting up for the story he shares about a boy he recently met.

Tens of thousands of people were killed and over 2 million displaced in two decades of conflict. But those numbers tell only half the story. The LRA was notorious for swelling its ranks with child soldiers. In all, some 60,000 children were abducted during the course of the war.

The article does include some graphic story re-telling of LRA tactics to brain wash children into the movement. I would suggest that Goldberg add a warning in the header about content of the story.

Dying with Laughter

It may be the single most depressing story I've ever read.

As I was browsing through the Virginia-Pilot while staying with relatives this weekend I came across an Associated Press article article about New York hospitals increasingly using laughter therapy to treat terminal patients and those with chronic disease.

While the verdict is out on whether laughter plays a role in healing, the American Cancer Society and other medical experts say it reduces stress and promotes relaxation by lowering blood pressure, improves breathing and increases muscle function.

And hey, they're dying anyway so what do you have to lose by trying, right?

The story describes some of the methods involved in laughter therapy. Patients are required to practice laughing noises--that is, adults, cancer-stricken adults who already have had to go through plenty of humiliating, invasive procedures, are instructed to sit there and say "Ha-ha. He-he. Ho-ho" etc.

An Influx of Cheaters?

In this article, Associated Press writer David Crary verified that out of 29,760 students at 100 randomly selected public and private high schools throughout the nation, 64 percent of them cheated on a test in the past year, and 38 percent did so two or more times. These results had increased from 60 percent and 35 percent in a survey taken in 2006.

Now I don't know about you, but I find these statistics to be supremely disconcerting. 64 percent of 29,760 high school students have cheated on a test? That's almost 19,000 kids! How we have allowed our country to reach such abominable lows -- in terms of ethics -- is beyond me.

"What is the social cost of that -- not to mention the implication for the next generation of mortgage brokers?" Josephson remarked in an interview. "In a society drenched with cynicism, young people can look at it and say, 'Why shouldn't we? Everyone else does it.' "

The survey, conducted by the Josephson Institute, also ascertained that more and more students are utilizing the Internet to further their own attempts towards exceptional academic achievement. According to Crary, 36 percent of the students said that they plagiarized using the Internet, a statistic that has increased from 33 percent in 2004.

"How Obama got Elected," measuring a biased Media using Biased Media

However you feel about the outcome of the recent Presidential election, most can agree that popular criticism has surfaced, whether warranted or not, towards to the accused "uneducated left" who voted for Obama.

The latest in online name calling has come courtesy of conservative talk show host John Ziegler who released "How Obama got Elected" on a host site called, howobamagotelected.com, dedicated to prove that the reason millions of Americans voted for the candidate with "limited experience, extreme liberal positions and radical political alliances" was because "the news media, completely enamored with Obama, simply refused to do their job."

The video interviews twelve Obama supporters immediately after casting their vote and asks them questions to find out what they knew heading into the polls and how the media has shaped their knowledge.

The controversial video has already received 1.5 million views on Youtube and sparked outcries from frustrated viewers on both sides of the political spectrum. It has gained so much attention that even mainstream news outlets have dedicated coverage to the video and the message behind the theory.

Space, What Is It Good For?

You might not have noticed, but there was a Space Shuttle mission last week. I don't blame you if you didn't. Frankly, space has quickly become a niche subject. My friend Mitzi is always quick to point out how boring the subject of space is.

When did this happen? Space used to be awesome! They used have parades and stuff!

All you have to do is look at the current space coverage and you'll see why people think space is boring: cause the stories are boring.

Look at the coverage of the latest space shuttle mission. With headlines like "Astronauts Pack Up Space Shuttle Cargo Pod" and "Space Shuttle Undocks From Space Station" of course nobody cares about the space program any more!

In fact, as one who follows such things, I noticed that the coverage of this last shuttle mission was uniformly boring.

"Vladimir Solovyov, Russian Mission Control's flight director for the international space station, said problems emerged in the final stages of the docking procedure, including the loss of frequency information and unexpected toggling of the automatic system's tracking displays, Russian news agencies reported."

Ooh, toggling! Tell me more!