Children before guns: The Second Amendment was not written to enable mass murder!

I have to tell my son.

This echo essay was published in the Abilene Reporter News by Nancy Kaffer of the Detroit Free Press. 

Michigan State University mass shooting- Februaray 13, 2023

My son went to bed at 9 p.m. 

Monday, because he’s 12 and it’s a school night, before I saw the news alerts rolling in: a shooting on Michigan State University’s campus.

The shooter was still on the loose. One person, reportedly, slain; five at Sparrow Hospital. It’s 11:30 p.m., and I’m watching the news. The dead now number three, and there’s a blurry picture of the shooter on my screen. I hope at least they catch the guy before my son wakes up. At least then I can say it’s over.

I can’t not tell him, not anymore. He has a phone. He has a laptop, required for school. He has friends with phones and laptops and older siblings. I had to tell him about the mass shooting at Oxford High School on Nov. 30, 2021. He listened, quietly – he is not, by nature, quiet – and asked: “Are you sending me to school tomorrow?”

Will lawmakers act to prevent gun violence?

My son's first active shooter drill was kindergarten. I didn’t know. They didn’t have active shooter drills when I was his age. 

There had been a substitute teacher, clearly as blindsided by the drill as any of her young charges. Administrators used a code name to communicate the actions of the fictional shooter. It made the drill seem real.

He came home that day earnestly explaining to me that his class had to hide in the bathroom, because a bad guy had been in the school.

This morning, a story penned by my colleague Clara Hendrickson led the Detroit Free Press website: “Michigan lawmakers want to curb gun violence. What gun safety researchers suggest.” 

Michigan Sen. Mallory McMorrow, D-Royal Oak, tweeted that Democrats are prepping a slate of gun reform bills. Things are different now. 

There’s a caucus on firearm safety. It has 50 members.

It’s too early to know whether the laws supported by vast majorities of Michiganders but blocked by right-wing politicians and the gun lobby – universal background checks, red flag and safe storage laws – could have stopped it. We know what happened, but we don't know how. We don't know why.

After dinner Monday night, we watched an episode of a sitcom we’ve been streaming. I paused the show to explain a grown-up joke to my son, and he laughed and laughed, delighted, for once, to be inside the circle of adulthood.

It's six and a half hours until I have to tell him.

Growing up with these tragedies

This isn’t the first time; it won’t be the last. I know what I’m supposed to say. I’m meant to be empathetic but matter of fact, to validate his feelings, but make him feel safe. I’m told to watch him for signs of trauma. I have to keep my cool. If I lose it, he will, too.

The children at Michigan State University are older than my son, six or 10 or 12 years; a gulf to him – to me, the blink of an eye. Wasn’t it just yesterday that he took his first steps?

Last month, my son saw footage on YouTube of the shooter in Uvalde, Texas, a kid running away, down the school hall. He looked that child up, afterwards. He thinks that child died.

He told me, later, what he had seen. At first he thought it was a fake. Then he was caught, unable to turn away. Why would anyone put that footage online? Why would anyone watch it on purpose? 

Why won’t anyone make it stop?

“To give a little context, I saw some footage of the Uvalde, Tex., Robb Elementary School shooting on YouTube,” he wrote last month. “What I saw definitely scared me. Then I thought … why is gun violence still happening? Why is this happening? Why do politicians pretty much completely ignore it? Like it didn’t happen. Like a dozen kids didn’t just die?

“This needs to stop. Politicians need to stop choosing money over death. What soul do you have if you let kids die, and teachers, and as a matter of fact regular people, die, and choose money?”

It’s six hours, now, until I have to tell him, and my newsroom is reporting that the shooter has killed himself, another thing I’ll struggle to explain.

“They just do that,” I’ll say. “I don’t know why. I don’t know why they do any of it.”

This time, I can tell him, the people in Lansing are listening. They’re prepping some new laws. They’re going to pass those bills, and the governor will sign them. Would those laws have made a difference?

“We don’t know,” I’ll tell him, “but it can’t get worse". 

"We need to do everything we can. Whatever we can.”

Because he’s right: This needs to stop.

#MarchForOurLives

Born out of a tragic school shooting, March For Our Lives is a courageous youth-led movement dedicated to promoting civic engagement, education, and direct action by youth to eliminate the epidemic of gun violence.

Nancy Kaffer is a Detroit Free Press columnist. Contact: nkaffer@freepress.com

Humanitarian health care for Ukrainian refugees

Georgetown University Medical Center

"(Helen) Perry was also grateful for the ethics training she received at Georgetown. “I loved my ethics course, because the examples were very real,” she said. “The instructor who led it was very open to discussion, and in my time in public health, I have run into some very challenging ethical dilemmas where you really have to have a solid understanding of what your ethical compass is.”

Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, Hoyas from the Georgetown medical center have provided support by training civilians to treat those wounded in the attacks, raising money to send critically needed supplies, and working with NGOs (Non Governmental Organizations) to assess and improve health care systems for refugees. In the midst of reports about the war’s widespread violence and devastation, their work has been a source of hope and inspiration.

Biomedical Graduate Education (BGE) Alumna and Biology Professor Raises Millions for Humanitarian Aid.

Maryna Baydyuk, PhD

When Russia annexed Crimea in 2014, Maryna Baydyuk, PhD, assistant research professor in the biology department, worked with members of the local Ukrainian community to set up United Help Ukraine, a grassroots nonprofit organization dedicated to providing humanitarian relief in the country.

Donations to the organization have increased exponentially since the start of the Russia-Ukraine war. In the first week following the invasion alone, United Help Ukraine received more than $5 million in donations.

“The support has been overwhelming from all Americans, from the global community,” Baydyuk said. “We’d certainly give all the money to not see what’s happening in Ukraine, but now we’re trying our best to get the aid over there quickly. It goes directly to those who need it right now.”
Family Ties

Born in Kyiv, Baydyuk came to Georgetown in 2002 as a research assistant before earning her doctorate in pharmacology in 2010 through the Biomedical Graduate Education program. 

After working as a postdoctoral fellow at the NIH (National Institute of Health), she returned to Georgetown in 2015.

When the invasion started, Baydyuk called her family in Kyiv at 4:00 a.m. local time to tell them to go to the bomb shelter, where they stayed for a week. Her sister, mother and uncle evacuated to Lviv, where her sister now volunteers for United Help Ukraine.

Baydyuk’s father stayed in Kyiv. “He’s a doctor so he’s working in his clinic,” she said. “A lot of people like my father stayed back because they have to be there.”

Here in the United States, the war inspired a sense of patriotism in Baydyuk’s 12-year-old son. “He’s really proud of Ukraine,” she said. “He really tries to speak to us in Ukrainian only.”

At a rally in honor of the children who have died during the invasion, Baydyuk’s son read a letter he and his friends had written, addressed to children in Ukraine. “One day, you’re going to come out and you’re not going to be scared of bombs and shelling,” he said. “You’re going to see a clear sky that has no planes.”
Supporting the Defenders

In early March, United Help Ukraine arranged for a shipping company to take supplies to a warehouse in Lviv in western Ukraine. From there, volunteers deliver supplies all over the country. “The time from the moment the item reaches our warehouse in Delaware to the moment it reaches our warehouse in Lviv is about seven days,” Baydyuk said.

In addition to medical aid going to hospitals and humanitarian aid for internally displaced people, United Help Ukraine distributes medicine and protective gear to Ukrainian defenders. 

According to a blog, the organization spent more than $3 million in the first month of the war on supplies for the defenders, including individual first aid kits and tourniquets.

“We really focused on helping Ukrainian defenders who are civilians who were mobilized from territorial defense units,” Baydyuk said. “They’re college students, IT professionals, businessmen. They don’t have any protection.”

The need for medical aid in Ukraine is also especially critical. “The number of wounded is really, really high and many of the manufacturers that were providing supplies were bombed,” she added. “I think over the past month, we have shipped over 200 tons of medical supplies to Ukraine.”

When the conflict ends, United Help Ukraine will turn their attention to supporting efforts to rebuild Ukraine. “Even if the war stops tomorrow, the devastation and the damage are beyond understanding,” Baydyuk said. “I’m sure Ukraine will get all of the support it needs, but it’s going to be a long, long effort to rebuild the country.”

‘What Country is Next?’

In anticipation of the invasion, United Help Ukraine started working to raise awareness in early January. 

Baydyuk expressed frustration that the international community didn’t do more to prevent the war in the first place.

“Even when Russia invaded, sanctions were slow to come,” she said. “The economy will slow down in Russia, but that time means that every single second, Ukrainian lives will perish.”

“If all of us stand together, we call our representatives, we demand certain things, our voices will be heard,” Baydyuk said. “If we don’t see the strong stance against Russia, what country is next?”
On the Ukrainian Border, NHS Alum Works to Improve Health Care Systems for Refugees

After fielding several requests from people interested in supporting humanitarian efforts in Ukraine, Helen Perry (NHS’18) was moved to post a general response on Facebook.

“I know everyone wants to help in Ukraine, and I truly believe that everybody can help,” she said. “But if you don’t have conflict experience, you should not be trying to inject yourself into the middle of Ukraine.”

As a global health consultant for NGOs, Perry sets up medical care in low resource areas and evaluates existing health care programs to identify gaps. She has worked in areas affected by conflict and natural disasters, including Iraq, parts of Mexico that are largely controlled by drug cartels, the Bahamas after Hurricane Dorian and most recently, the Ukrainian border with Poland and Romania.

“You can’t magically create a robust developed health care system in an underdeveloped country,” she said. “Instead, what I focus on is setting up networks that are sustainable, efficient and effective for the resources that are at hand.”

Refugees often struggle to navigate complex bureaucratic health care systems, and they’re less likely to speak up when they encounter problems, especially when they don’t speak the local language. Those challenges have a disproportionate impact on women and girls, who are higher risk for sexual violence and trafficking.

“Access to health care, particularly for women and girls, is lacking,” Perry said. “We know that in a conflict that rates of rape and sexual assault increase significantly, but rates of reporting go down, because who do you call?”
Lessons Learned at Georgetown

The majority of medical research subjects are white men, so research findings may have limited relevance for Perry’s patients. She credited Georgetown with teaching her how to think critically about research. “That’s one thing that I really thank Georgetown for, is making me a critical thinker and helping me think outside the box,” she said.

Perry was also grateful for the ethics training she received at Georgetown. “I loved my ethics course, because the examples were very real,” she said. “The instructor who led it was very open to discussion, and in my time in public health, I have run into some very challenging ethical dilemmas where you really have to have a solid understanding of what your ethical compass is.”

Having an education grounded in ethics helped Perry walk away from jobs with organizations that were acting unethically, giving her time to reprioritize and refocus. “It’s allowed me to come back as a better professional to help people who need it,” she said.

Kat Zambon
GUMC Communications

Ukrainians are fighting for our freedoms

Echo Ukrainian support opinion published in the The Stanley News & Report, a North Carolina newspaper.

We must support the Ukraine. 

Yes, The Ukraine in Eastern Europe. 

What has support for Ukraine got to do with the people of Stanly County, USA? Everything, I say, if you know your history, specifically the history of tyrants and autocrats like Hitler and now, Putin, who would do anything, go anywhere, fight anyone, destroy at will, because they believe they can do so to get power.

It is stunning to me, thinking about my Republican father who fought in the trenches of WWII and in the Battle of the Bulge for freedom’s sake, that anyone would suggest that we ignore Putin’s war against the Ukrainian people and just “concentrate on our country.” So first, this is about freedom versus slavery under autocracies. Do we really want to see countries overrun by Putin so that he can gain more power? Don’t we want our European allies to live in peace with freedom to choose their own way like we do? 

Then, let me remind anyone who is thinking that we don’t need to support Ukraine what Mitch McConnell said last week in Munich at a gathering of some world leaders: “…giving money to Ukraine ‘is not an act of charity’ on America’s part…If Putin were given a green light to destabilize Europe, invading and killing at will, the long-term cost to the United States in both dollars and security risks would be astronomically higher than the minuscule fraction of our GDP that we have invested in Ukraine’s defense thus far.”

So think again, you who believe we should abandon Ukraine. Think very hard about the consequences.  

From Nancy C. Bryant in Norwood, North Carolina

Ukrainian momentum continues to receive support during unprovoked Russian aggression

As Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues, a humanitarian crisis is unfolding that is turning millions of people into refugees, many of them children.

America must maintain its support for Ukraine:

Echo opinion letter published in the Springfield News-Leader, a Missouri newspaper:

As the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine approaches, the war there still fiercely continues. While Russian missiles strike civilian targets and cripple national infrastructure, Ukrainian resolve remains unwavering as they fight to maintain their territorial integrity and their freedom. 

Americans, who are abhorred by these blatant and cruel violations of international law and human rights, rallied to support the young democracy in the first stages of the war, but as time progresses further from those early months when this crisis dominated the news cycle, it continues to drift out of the national attention and apathy increasingly settles in. This apathy, while natural, must be resisted as the stakes of this conflict remain as high as they were when it started.

Ukrainian support rally.

In a speech given upon the outset of the invasion, President Putin stated unequivocally that this war was a challenge to the United States and the international order it has maintained since the end of the Cold War. 

This is, simply put, a war on sovereignty and the consequences of a Ukrainian defeat would spread far beyond their national borders. Since Putin took office in 1999, Russia’s foreign policy has grown increasingly aggressive and there is no reason to believe that their military ambitions will cease if they succeed now, as they have already issued threats to other European nations in the time since the fighting began. Additionally, the eyes of all other ambitious despots rest firmly upon this conflict and the United States’ reaction to it. In this last year, China has become increasingly aggressive towards Taiwan and North Korea, likewise, has taken a more hostile stance towards their southern neighbor. 

A Ukrainian victory is an American victory and sends a clear message to the world that state sovereignty is still inviolable.

The Ukrainian military has proven beyond a doubt that they have the conviction and the willpower to win this war. What they lack, however, is the weaponry needed to fend off a foe with three times their population. Despite recent victories in their counter offensive, including the liberation of Kherson, the situation remains perilous. Many Russians reservists and released criminals continue to be deployed to the frontlines and the Russian Defense Ministry recently announced plans to further expand the size of its standing army.

Additionally, the threat of a new offensive from the north is growing as Belarus looks poised to invade in conjunction with Moscow, which would add a sizable wave of fresh troops and equipment to the already large enemy force. The United States and the West possess the funds and weaponry needed to defend against such a threat, but it must be provided swiftly so that proper training can occur before this next offensive begins. Americans must not let apathy, or the price of aid obstruct this crucial influx of support. The cost is undeniably high, but the cost of a defeat would far surpass this in terms of both life and money as aggressor states would feel emboldened. 

Organizations accepting donations include those providing medical aid, aiding refugees and powering local journalism.

While those who daily face the prospects of torture and death in Ukraine remain committed to this noble fight, let not us, who contribute in safety, be the ones who back down.

From Jesse Liebmann, Eureka Missouri

Russia is still a "Red menace" - Republicans have short term political memory loss

Continued Support for Ukraine to Withstand Russia’s Assaults

So, why are GOP lawmakers slow to support Ukraine?
Echo opinion published in the Springfield News-Leader in Springfield Missouri.

It's hard to understand. Why are GOP lawmakers speaking of nixing our full support to Ukraine? For over 70 years the Republican Party has actively fought the 'Red menace' of Communism both here and abroad. Remember the Cold War? Remember the Berlin Wall? Cuba? Korea? Vietnam? Wow.

A black "Z" is the same old Red. Russia is a brutal bully even today. Look at what it's doing. It's waging a ruthless war against Ukraine in bombing, burning, and bulldozing innocent people. 

Cruel warfare against both Ukrainian individuals and families, who've done nothing to them. What's with the GOP now? Do they hate President Joe Biden so badly they'd side against freedom? 

Or, has former-president Trump's apparent affection for Putin, and fondness for the Russian homeland of his spouse, clouded the vision of his modern Republican Party? 

Let the people know your position now. If the Trump GOP (Growing Old Party) has become soft on communism, you'd better let folks know it for sure. They might not vote for you. Comrades?

Kevin Corbin, in Springfield Missouri

Republicans are the problem. Reality training in required

Republicans speak with forked tongue.

Keep backing Ukraine; GOP doesn't back words:
Keep providing aid to Ukraine! 

Why defund Ukrainian aid? When we send arms and aid to Ukraine, we drain Russia’s military without risking American lives. When talking about appropriate and effective assistance going toward our military goals I can’t think of a better scenario, at least for America.

It also puts our money where our mouths are (so to speak) when saying our goal is to promote democracy around the globe.

Mike Brennan, Camarillo
GOP’s actions speak volumes

Republicans are hypocrites. They say one thing for political advantage and then they do the opposite.

Republicans claim to love the Constitution, be pro-life, be for small government, and be the party of law and order. 

Let’s see:

Republicans need reality teaching!

• While claiming to “love the Constitution,” you want to stop the peaceful transfer of power.
• While claiming to “love the Constitution,” you restrict voting rights for people who don’t look like you.
• While claiming to “love the Constitution,” you disenfranchise eligible citizens so they can’t vote.
• While claiming to “love the Constitution,” you participate in (or cause) an insurrection to overthrow our government.
• While claiming to “love the Constitution,” you ignore the Supreme Court’s orders regarding gerrymandering.
• While claiming to be “pro-life,” you tried to take away healthcare over 70 times.
• While claiming to be “pro-life,” you support forced pregnancy.
• While claiming to be “pro-life,” you want to end Social Security and Medicare.
• While claiming to be for “pro-life,” you create the greatest wealth inequality since the 1930s.
• While claiming to be “pro-life,” you propose eliminating the protection of pesky “regulations” so corporations can do anything they want.
• While claiming to be “pro-life,” you endanger every living thing on the planet by denying climate change.
• While claiming to be for “small government,” you insert the government in to every OBGYN’s office.
• While claiming to stand for “law and order,” you go along with subjugating and politicizing the Judicial branch of government to the president’s or your party’s whims.
• While claiming to stand for “law and order,” you allow a complete fraud to be a sitting Congressman and chair of two committees.

Yes, hypocritic Republicans, your partisan political actions speak much louder than your words.

Pat Butler, in Ventura, California, echo published in the Ventura County Star.

Russian volunteers help Ukrainians: Echo report

Discreetly, and at their peril, Russian volunteers help Ukrainian refugees. Echo report published in The Washington Post, by Mary Ilyushina and Ksenia Ivanova.

Volunteers help carry items for a family of Ukrainian refugees outside the Moskovsky railway station in St. Petersburg, Russia. (Ksenia Ivanova for The Washington Post)

To avoid the authorities, thousands of displaced Ukrainians in Russia are relying on a discreet network of unofficial volunteers — a sort of Slavic echo of the Underground Railroad — working to bring war refugees through Russia to safety in Europe.

These volunteers are not linked to each other, and are not part of an organization. They often do not live in the same city and, for safety, most of them will never see each other in person. The common denominator is the risk they face from the Russian security forces, who are suspicious of citizen initiatives and have cracked down on all manner of civil society groups.

Independent volunteers do all kinds of things. Some work from home processing help requests. Others help care for pets, gather food, clothing and medicine, or deliver to makeshift warehouses. Hosts who open their doors to Ukrainians or drivers who transport them across the Russian border face the steepest risk as they are ones interacting directly with refugees and the authorities.None of the volunteers’ activities are illegal, but amid Russia’s wartime laws, anything that involves Ukraine and does not fit with the current pro-war patriotic fervor is sensitive and regarded unfavorably by the security services.

Brussels Health Network wishes to express its support for Ukrainian health professionals and the Ukrainian people.

“In our country, any volunteer organization or any kind of attempt to self-organize is a like a red rag for a bull,” a Ukrainian-born volunteer, in her late 50s, who has lived in Russia for most of her life and has a Russian passport, said. She was at a stop along the snowy highway on her way to bring nine Ukrainians to the Finnish border from St. Petersburg.

The Ukrainian-born volunteer said she makes the trip about five times a month, each time a gamble. A lot could go wrong: the car might swerve on the snow-covered road, its battery could die in the bitter cold, a tire could burst. The Russian border guard might be in a bad mood, a refugee might carry too much money through customs or do something else to attract undue attention.

The volunteer recalled one passenger, an older man, getting so drunk during the wait at the border that he tried to bum a cigarette from a Federal Security Service (FSB) guard, risking the whole operation.

“As long as you are here in my car and we have not reached the Finnish border, you listen only to me,” the volunteer strictly admonished her passengers as a family boarded her minivan at St Petersburg train station.

Nearly 1 Million Child Refugees Have Fled Ukraine for Poland Since War Began (WSJ)

Whether refugees make it across the border in many ways depends on the volunteer.

At the same time it launched the war in Ukraine, Moscow tightened the few loose screws across civil society, demonstrating through dismantling opposition and human rights groups that it will not tolerate any dissent.

The Kremlin’s desire for total control in a wartime setting has targeted official volunteer movements, forcing some to work in exile or shut down completely.

Those now aiding Ukrainians are split into two contrasting camps: “official” groups, like the one run by the governing United Russia party, like the one run by the governing United Russia party, and “unofficial” networks with no hierarchy or affiliation.

The “official” groups help Russian authorities place Ukrainians in temporary shelters, where they are insistently offered Russian passports that make subsequent travel to the European Union nearly impossible. These groups deliver aid to occupied areas of eastern Ukrainian territories that the Kremlin now refers to as “liberated.”

Having passed the ideological check, they have no issue fundraising or talking publicly about their work.

The “unofficial” volunteers materialized primarily to close the gaps left by official aid groups: They bring phones to replace those seized by Russia at the border, find veterinarians for sick pets, obtain hard-to-find medicines, and do myriad other tasks, some mundane, others lifesaving. They also offer a lifeline for those seeking shelter in a country that invaded their own. They charter buses, buy train tickets or drive Ukrainian families to the border.In some towns, the “unofficial volunteers’” were forced to halt their activities after pressure from local law enforcement. Last May, police came to a temporary shelter in Tver, northwest of Moscow. They questioned Ukrainians about an independent Russian volunteer, Veronika Timakina, 20, asking if she was “engaged in campaigning activities,” took photos of them or invited them to join any political party, Russian news outlets Verstka and Mediazona reported.

Tver’s Orthodox diocese was in charge of refugees there, and according to Timakina, Ukrainians were treated in a rather dismissive manner. It was difficult for them to get any support, including the $140 payment promised by Russian President Vladimir Putin to all Ukrainians relocating to Russia.

Timakina’s house and two other volunteers’ homes were later raided as part of a criminal probe into whether they were involved in spreading “fake information” about the Russian army, a criminal charge Russia created at the onset of the invasion. 

All three activists left Russia, fearing further persecution.

Irina Gurskaya, a retired economist and activist from Penza in western Russia in her late 60s, was helping people from the razed Ukrainian city of Mariupol reach the Estonian border.
Soon, Gurskaya herself had to follow the same path.
Late last spring, someone spray-painted “Ukro-Nazi enabler” on her door. Then, a few days later, police searched her house following “anonymous complaints” about the aid packages she was stocking in her hallway. They took her in for questioning, she recalled in a mini-documentary by journalist Vladimir Sevrinovsky.

The police wanted to know what organization was helping and financing Gurskaya. “I explained that [help comes from] complete strangers, even pensioners,” Gurskaya said. “One person will send 100 rubles, and the other will send 30,000 … But for them, it was strange.”

She was released from the police station, but a few minutes later, two men in balaclavas grabbed her, put a hat over her head, and threw her into a car. The men twisted her arms and screamed, demanding answers to all the same questions.

“They yelled: ‘What do you need Ukrainians for? … Let them sit here. If you escort at least one more out, we will find your children,’” Gurskaya said in the documentary. The activist was eventually told to burn the tickets she had bought for refugees and let go. Soon after, Gurskaya fled the country.

The targeted volunteers in Tver and Penza were outspoken about their opposition to the Kremlin policies or criticized the war. This public activity probably increased the likelihood of them being targeted. Most volunteers steer clear of conversations about politics.

“Overall, the main thing is not to conduct any conversations outside of the issue they need help with,” said another volunteer who helps Ukrainians with documents and transportation. “Watch your mouth. That’s the main safety rule.”

“To me, a human life is above all else, and I don’t do anything illegal,” this volunteer added.

Volunteers interviewed for this article said they felt helpless when the war began, and assisting Ukrainians in Russia was their only way of dealing with fear, guilt, despair and anger. “My relatives told me I need to go out to protest and I said I don’t think it’ll be easier for you if I’m fined and then jailed. They agreed with me,” the Ukrainian-born volunteer explained. “So volunteering was the only way for me.”

“My hope is that we will be able to create at least a tiny spot of light in this bloody mess,” she said. “Somewhere deep down I have this flicker of hope that maybe in 20 years, if I’m still alive, Ukraine will let me see my parents’ graves or see my siblings. Maybe I still have a chance. Maybe Ukraine will see this as a tiny sliver of light.”

Free speech does not exist in Florida. Big Brother Governor Ron DeSantis will decide what is legally "free speech"

America, Right-Wing Censors and the ‘Battle for the Next Century, echo essay published in The New York Times, by Charles M. Blow.

Christopher Rufo, the man who orchestrated the attack on critical race theory, underscored a new focus this month. Unfortunately, he is best known for his activism against critical race theory,

“Conservatives must move the fight from ideology to bureaucracy,” he tweeted. “We’ve won the debate against CRT; now it’s time to dismantle DEI.”

D.E.I. stands for diversity, equity and inclusion, a concept that goes far beyond just the racial prism of critical race theory and moves into the worlds of ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender, gender identity, age and class.

What Rufo is proposing is the distorting and demonizing of legitimate practices and areas of academic inquiry. He admitted as much in a 2021 tweet, back when he was still focused primarily on critical race theory: “The goal is to have the public read something crazy in the newspaper and immediately think ‘critical race theory,’” he wrote. “We have decodified the term and will recodify it to annex the entire range of cultural constructions that are unpopular with Americans.”

Republicans who are elected officials are quick to “amen” Rufo’s talking points. Representative Chip Roy of Texas, for instance, amplified Rufo’s tweet this month about moving on from fighting “ideology” to taking on the entire bureaucracy. Rufo, Roy said, was “speaking my language.”

This is the same Roy who voted against the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act, one of only 14 members of the House to do so, on the grounds that it created “a separate Independence Day based on the color of one’s skin.”

This is the same Roy who, during a congressional hearing a few years ago, referred to an “old saying” that seemed to be celebrating lynching: “Find all the rope in Texas and get a tall oak tree.”

OMG! Christopher Rufo is a right wing extremist prominent advocate for bans on teachers discussing LGBTQ issues in classrooms.

This is the same Roy who was one of only three representatives to vote against the Emmett Till Anti-Lynching Act, saying that the legislation “simply raises the punishment” for offenses that are already federal crimes “in an effort to advance a woke agenda under the guise of correcting racial injustice.”

Meanwhile, Roy has been pushing his Restoring Military Focus Act, a bill he first introduced two years ago that would, if passed, eliminate the Department of Defense’s chief diversity and inclusion officer.

In 2022, Senator Marco Rubio introduced companion legislation in the Senate, and together, the two men released a report on political influences in the military titled “Woke Warfighters.”

The report, which featured on its cover six cartridges strapped to the back of a helmet, each one carrying a rainbow-colored bullet, repeatedly invoked the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. as it railed against the Pentagon’s attempts to deal with racism within its ranks.

The report also focused on trans people serving in the military and receiving gender-affirming care, as well as what it called the military’s promotion of “individual identity and self-actualization in recruitment and retention efforts, particularly for the L.G.B.T.Q.+ community.”

This year, just a week before Roy responded to Rufo’s tweet, he reintroduced the bill, this time to a House that Republicans controlled.

This fight against D.E.I. isn’t confined to public institutions and bureaucracies. As the leader of this movement, Rufo has set his sights on corporate America as well. In July he published what he called a survey of the “programming” of every Fortune 100 company and found they had all adopted D.E.I. programs, including those that “promote the most virulent strands of critical race theory and gender ideology.”

When Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida signed a law limiting D.E.I. in the workplace last April, Rufo likened him to Teddy Roosevelt and praised his “muscular” strategy for combating “corporate malfeasance.” “Conservatives,” he wrote, “need to build on these efforts by developing a comprehensive agenda for pushing back against left-wing ideology in corporate America.”

In fact, Rufo sees Florida as the seeding ground for his censorship, where it can take root and spread, and Texas has already followed suit. This month, just a few days after DeSantis announced plans to block state colleges from having programs on D.E.I., the office of the Texas governor, Greg Abbott, issued a memo warning state agency and public university leaders that the use of D.E.I. in hiring was illegal.

This was precisely the worry of Kimberlé Crenshaw, a law professor at U.C.L.A. and Columbia, who played a leading role in developing critical race theory into a discipline, when I spoke with her recently.

She said: “They started with C.R.T. They moved to ‘Don’t Say Gay.’ Now they’re moving to all of Black studies. It’s not going to be long before they include all ethnic studies. We’ve already seen they’re attacking diversity, equity and inclusion in higher education. 

Ron DeSantis wants to outlaw free speech.  Is this issue destined to the Supreme Court?

And the real thing, Charles, is going to be when they come for diversity, equity and inclusion in corporations.”

This is the New Right’s strategic plan: a relentless push to re-establish and strengthen the straight, cis, patriarchal, white supremacist power structure. And, Crenshaw said, “this thing will not be satisfied by one victory. This is just one skirmish, in a wider, broader battle to make racism unspeakable and basically to contain the power of Black folks, queer folks, women and pretty much everybody else who doesn’t agree to the agenda of reclaiming this country that the MAGA group claims.”

In fact, every perceived win will only embolden the extremists. The objective is to win the war against progress and to freeze America in a yesteryear image of itself. This is a swing-for-the-fences play. They are seeking to widen the conservative aperture in their quest to suppress and reverse, to promote a universal vision on oppression, to apply uniform pressure.

As Crenshaw put it, “I believe that this is the battle for the next century.”

Governor Ron DeSantis legalizes "Doublethink"

Opinion echo letter: Doublethink* on indoctrination. 

By Dale Gerboth published in the Anchorage Daily News:

Florida's Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law what he has branded the “Stop WOKE Act,” which restricts how race is discussed in schools, colleges and workplaces, and sparked a nationwide debate over censorship, critical race theory. (Tallahassee Democrat)

If the German far-right passed laws forbidding schools from teaching about the horrific crimes of Nazism, because such teaching causes anguish and guilt in German children, condemnation would be immediate and worldwide.

Likewise, Americans should condemn Florida’s Stop Woke Act.

Governor Ron DeSantis promotes banning the teaching of concepts that suggest that “a person, by virtue of his or her race, color, sex, or national origin, bears personal responsibility for and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions, in which the person played no part, committed in the past by other members of the same race, color, national origin, or sex.”

Proponents of such laws claim they free schools from indoctrination. In the immortal word of Barnstable Bear, “Rowrbazzle!”

Indoctrination does not come from allowing the free flow of ideas. Indoctrination comes from banning ideas. 

To ban authors and concepts and call it freedom is straight out of George Orwell’s dystopia.

George Orwell (1903-1950)

From — Dale Gerboth in Anchorage Alaska

* Acceptance of or mental capacity to accept contrary opinions or beliefs at the same time, especially as a result of political indoctrination. Examples of doublethink:
War is Peace, Freedom is Slavery, and Ignorance is Strength—are examples.  Act of simultaneously accepting two mutually contradictory beliefs as correct.

Veterans caring for the homeless- Compassion Campaign

The San Diego chapter of Veterans For Peace, during the past dozen or so years, has actively engaged street dwellers in a signature charity, named the “Compassion Campaign.”

Stan Levin is an activist and advocate for homeless people in San Diego, a volunteer with Veterans For Peace and a combat veteran of the Korean War. He lives in Serra Mesa.

This echo opinion published in The San Diego Union Tribune caused a visceral reaction to the acute needs of homeless people.  Of course, who has not witnessed homeless people?  They make themselves visible, so they often become invisible to us, because they are so obvious.  In this essay, 93 year old Veteran for Peace Compassionate Campaign volunteer Stan Levin introduces us to the reality of what it is like to help the homeless.  Alert!  Some descriptions in this essay are bluntly graphic. 

Reports Mr. Stan Levin:  We constitute just one among many charitable efforts trying to lend a helping hand to some of the thousands of unfortunate humans whose “home” of the day is any sidewalk on any street in San Diego County.

Our minimal contribution can only provide temporary relief. Our specific service to those we, unfortunately, have come to know so well has been and continues to be providing a sleeping bag, and, when we’re able, food and clothing as well. Primarily our interest is to soften bodily contact with concrete or tarmac. It is, to say the least, a profoundly daunting effort.

We have interacted face to face with substantial numbers of those folks among us who endure as best they are able the elements of the night, and we have tons of experience with the program. We keep learning. As the saying goes, “Experience is the best teacher.” We have at this time distributed more than 5,000 new sleeping bags to the homeless population since 2010. Imagine yourself and two others crammed into your Prius along with a wall-to-wall cargo of 20 sleeping bags!

When the subject is the homeless condition, the public observers can often be plain ignorant as well as have copious misunderstandings or they can believe myths. Space in this opinion column will not allow for detailing what has been seen on the streets of San Diego. 

What is seen would fill the pages of a heavy book, some chapters horrific in content. So much of the homeless phenomenon is heartrending and leaves a caring person overwhelmed with empathy, feeling helpless to do more to protect these (vulnerable) people.

Yes, some folks appear to be “living” in a car. In fact, on occasion, we have made a difficult judgment calls to donate a sleeping bag (or two) to folks who, at the moment, have such a “bed.” (We are acutely aware of our moral responsibility as custodians of donated monies from our generous, ordinarily anonymous donors.) There’s another saying: “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Often, those in the car do not own it. Nor have they stolen it.

The temporary accommodation can be in actuality a legitimately rented vehicle, paid for with the pooled money of the poor — sometimes for one night, sometimes for longer, depending. It is not comfortable but can be had for a fraction of the cost of a motel. 

And, cars provide shelter for a person from the weather. Who are we to judge? Working on the mean streets as we do is an education like no other. Every night presents unique experiences, and often, shocks.

We find ourselves approaching and resolving some situations in a way we never knew we were capable of. One night there was a man curled up on the sidewalk with his face in his own vomit! I wondered, how could a decent, capable person leave him there like this and go about his business? Impulse plus an adrenaline rush got me to drag him out of the mess, and provide him a sleeping bag.

On another occasion, I was “vetting” a potential recipient who was in rags, had been drinking and smelled terrible. As we were speaking with each other, without breaking stride, my new friend wet his pants. He got a sleeping bag, no questions asked.

Near Petco Park, we came across a young woman sitting on a bench. She had just come into town. She had a small bag with her things in it, and nothing more than the clothes on her back. I was devastated by her condition. She politely declined a sleeping bag because she had no way to carry it around. I was at a complete loss for what to do. There are no do-overs, so, at 93, I often wonder what became of her.

I wonder about others I have interacted with, hundreds of them, as well, and how I might have done better.

Each night, hundreds of thousands of people experience homelessness in the United States.

What do I have to say to vociferous critics who find themselves at odds with those of us who are making some effort towards resolving the unenviable plight of our human brothers and sisters on the street and extending sympathy and love for those without a place to call home.

Just have a heart. Please.

Reasons why people are homelessness are complex. 

They can include a combination of factors such as:

• Poverty
• Unemployment
• Lack of affordable housing
• Mental and substance use disorders
• Trauma and violence
• Intimate partner violence
• Justice-system involvement
• Sudden serious illness
• Divorce
• Death of a partner or parent
• Disabilities