May 2009 Archives

The White House has a kitchen garden. The Department of Agriculture has the People's Garden (with USDA facilities around the world to follow suit). However, sustainability campaigners haven't stopped to smell the roses.

Their goal, undertaken by a coalition named Green the Grounds, is to see environmentally friendly landscapes and vegetables gardens put in place at governor's mansions, statehouses and mayoral residences across the country.

Some of the practices that Green the Grounds advocates include reduced water use, water catchment systems (rainbarrels and cisterns), nontoxic fertilizer and pesticide use, native-species plantings, and less intensive lawn management -- or simply reducing the amount of lawn, period. As a result of these changes being adopted by government leaders and facilities, Green the Grounds activists believe that similar methods will then be adopted by homeowners and businesses.

Examples of the landscape and garden plans that Green the Grounds support are the Heritage Garden at the governor's residence in Ohio; "The Greening of the Mansion" in New York; and the grounds management systems at the governor's mansion in Maryland.

Perhaps as these lobbying and consciousness-raising efforts continue, there will be another target set: getting the men into the garden. Have you noticed that it's always the First Ladies who are leading these garden and groundskeeping efforts? Why is that?

Like my AWEARNESS colleague David Alm I, too, am of mixed feelings about the idea of selling one's virginity. On the one hand, "Natalie Dylan," the aspiring California grad student selling her virginity, has ultimate ownership of her experience. Who are we to tell her no? Still, the fact that wealthy businessmen are always and invariably the ones with the means to purchase such an experience from a person in financial want should give one pause. Over and over again, this wealthy businessman-young woman dynamic is at play in this complex sexual situation and it is frankly, to this blogger, more than a little bit creepy. This ultimate act of capitalism -- and it is, make no mistake about it -- raises questions about the commodification of sex that are certainly discussion-worthy.

In the case of Natalie Dylan -- a pseudonym, by the way -- the reason for her selling her virginity has evaporated. Graduate school tuition was the stated reason for selling a sexual relationship at the Moonlite BunnyRanch. The anonymous millionaire, however, who offered six figures for the "deflowering" forfeited his non-refundable deposit -- no pun intended. He may have gotten cold feet, or, as it has been hinted, he has reconciled with an ex-wife. Whatever the case, Natalie has free money.

Here's where things get confusing. Natalie Dylan still wants to go through with the sale and is looking for more offers. Why? Minus the percentage of that $250,000 deposit going to the house, Dylan has more than enough to walk away and fund her graduate studies. Dylan could take her cut, call it a day, and thank her lucky stars. Why is she still up to selling her virginity to a kind of creepy stranger since she has already achieved her financial goal without having to -- pun intended -- go through the motions? We emailed BunnyRanch proprietor Dennis Hoff who responded, "She has a book documentary and movie that needs an ending."

[Image: The Improper]

The Republican party failed in its attempt to re-brand the the Democratic party as the Democrat Socialist Party. Maybe that's because none of the pols who were in a position to affect the change seemed to be on the same page. The RNC chairman himself, Michael Steele, tried to defuse the situation, rejecting the proposal and claiming that it would "accomplish little than to give the media and our opponents the opportunity to mischaracterize Republicans."

Here's a glimpse into why the effort failed: It seems that no one could agree on anything.

You have been recognized as "Change Agents" by Kenneth Cole and AWEARNESS. What advice would you give other community organizers and activists who are trying to bring change to their communities?

Begin with the needs of the people in your communities. Practice diversity by bringing people of all persuasions, beliefs and nationalities together as a community. They will give us the message of what are the critical needs for programs. They are the essential partners in how we build an authentic and mutual community in our non profit organizations and our social, religious and political structures.

What are some of the resources -- either online or offline -- that you can recommend for staying informed about social issues like homelessness?

For San Francisco, the best central access point for up-to-date information about services, events, meetings, and networking possibilities is the San Francisco Homeless Resource

Last week the president's new credit card legislation became law. Granted, reform of financial industries and especially credit card companies has a ways to go. That having been said, there is delicious schadenfreude in this video from FunnyorDie. It's sort of how one imagines credit card execs -- including one laughing with a mouth full of half-masticated steak -- reacting to the president's new rules.

The words heard over and over again Tuesday night at a marriage equality march and rally in New York City's West Village and Union Square were, "The time is now."

The march, which began at the place of the Stonewall riots of 1969 and continued to Union Square, was organized as part of a national protest against the California Supreme Court's 6-1 ruling that same day to uphold Proposition 8. The court's decision puts the seal of approval on the voter-approved ballot from November that makes same-sex marriage illegal in California. It ruled, however, that the 18,000 marriages performed before the vote would remain legal.

The ruling appears to only have further galvanized the fight for marriage equality in New York.

"What happened to liberty and justice for all?" says Cathy Marino-Thomas, president of Marriage Equality New York, one of the organizations that organized the rally. "What happened to separation of church and state? These principals are being ignored on this issue. The current situation in California is fundamentally unfair, and it will not stand."

Thomas, speaking after the march that was one of more than 100 held across the country Tuesday night, stressed that gays and lesbians are not asking for a church-sanctioned wedding, but a civil marriage. "There is nothing religious about it other than the commitment I have to my family. I am very religious about that," Thomas says, as her wife and 9-year-old daughter stand next to her. She makes a plea to the state leaders of New York to "protect that life."

Thomas is passionate about acting now in her home state. "The time is now, New York. You gotta do it now."

It's one of the most famous spots in the world, as storied as the city in which it lives. In the past 30 years, Times Square has been a seedy strip of porn shops and cheap hotels, a Disneyland-esque urban theme park for tourists, and as of Sunday, a pedestrian mall.

Whether or not this effort to curb pollution and reduce traffic will work remains to be seen, but here's a small taste of the culture that may not be long for those eye-popping blocks between 42nd and 47th Streets in Midtown Manhattan.

Not only is Ursula M. Burns' story a classic American story, but as she transitions into the position of CEO of Xerox she will be the first African-American woman to be at the top of a Fortune 150 company. But wait! That's not all! She's also the first woman to succeed another woman as CEO of a company of this size. Yes, it's mid-2009 and we are just now seeing this type of transition.

Congrats to Ursula on her promotion, and I wish her lots of luck in taking over the reins in this time of economic uncertainty. And here's to two more barriers broken!

"Eco Trip - 106: Bottled Water"
I understand that bottled water might sometimes be more convenient, but really, it is basically the same and, in most cases, is exactly the same as tap water. Bottled water can be good in some ways, i.e. bolster the technology and efficiency of water systems, but otherwise bottled water seems barely necessary.

In this episode, David considers America's obsession with bottled water -- a $12 billion industry. While the health benefits of bottled water are dubious, the old bottles enter the food chain as birds and fish ingest bits of plastic. Later, David talks to San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom, who eliminated bottled water from the city's purchases for environmental reasons."

"Eco Trip - 106: Bottled Water" debuts on the Sundance Channel Tuesday, May 26 at 9pm ET.

Tuesday, May 26th at 10am Pacific time, the world will find out if the California State Supreme Court will allow Proposition 8 to repeal marriage rights for same-sex couples or not. As with any landmark decision, there is a plan in place to celebrate or protest.

Here's hoping that there will be celebrations across the country for equal rights!

Thanks to Eliza Dushku for the heads up!

On the Glide website, there's a section devoted to "real people and real stories." What has been the most inspiring real-life story of someone that your organization has helped?

There are thousands of Glide stories out there -- people are making meaningful changes and transforming their lives. One of the better known stories is told in Pursuit of Happyness, the memoir of Chris Gardner and his son, Chris Jr., one of the many families that have come through Glide's doors. Struggling as a single father raising his young son in the 1980s, homeless and living on the streets of San Francisco, Chris and Chris Jr. came to Glide for food, shelter and hope. Today Chris is a self-made millionaire with a successful stock brokerage firm, an entrepreneur, writer, motivational speaker and philanthropist.

Much has been written about soup kitchens -- particularly nowadays -- solving the immediacy of hunger, if only for a moment. There are other hungers more difficult to address. What about, for example, the human need to be seen and heard by others? What about the impulse to express oneself through the act of creation? Those are problems that cannot be solved by a bowl of soup.

Award-winning author and New Yorker contributor Ian Frazier resorted to higher mathematics when describing the 15 readers at the final installment of the Holy Apostles Soup Kitchen Writer's Workshop on Wednesday night. "They come in as a point and after developing an interest in their writing they add another dimension and become a plane, to use a geometric metaphor." The occasion of Frazier's speech, at Holy Apostles Church in Chelsea in NYC, was the annual reading of the workshop. Soup kitchen participants will have spent three hours on Wednesdays in April and May expressing themselves through writing, building to this day -- a public reading of their work, being seen an heard by a large audience. The readings, which covered topics as varied as "What is love," to the nostalgic "1954," to one guests obsession with UFOs and another's dreams of moving to New Hampshire and drinking champagne (done via an alias), were unusually rich. Powerful. Perhaps it is the hard life experiences and the exhilaration of being listened to that made for such an interesting evening.

From Frazier's New Yorker account of the annual "afterparty":

"When the reading is over, everybody gets something to eat--there's a spread of sandwiches and soft drinks provided by the soup kitchen--and the writers and the audience mingle. The people who attend the reading may be Holy Apostles parishioners, soup-kitchen donors, editors, arts administrators, students from other writing programs, clergy of various kinds, curious passersby. Soup-kitchen alumni from workshops in past years sometimes show up and fill us in on where they are and what they're doing now. Sometimes we talk about people from past workshops whom we haven't seen for a while, or about the ones who came only a few times and then were never seen again--names like Lisa, Wayman, Smokey, White Mike, Coleman, Rashid, Blue, Luis, Rosa . . . The alchemy of writing gives everybody who's been in the workshop an extra dimension: along with possessing a name and a face, each is also the particular person who wrote whatever. Somehow, writing even a few lines makes the person who does it more substantial and real."

Or, in geometric terms, the difference between being a point and being a plane. An anthology of the writers' work is available here.

[Image: The New Yorker]

Here's why Michelle Obama is a radical extremist that must be stopped -- lest we develop into a nation of emaciated, obese, cancer-ridden monsters. All because of that organic farm at the White House.

Meditation is an approach that has been used for thousands of years to aid people in coping with anxiety and stress. The present economic situation has been a boon to the yoga industry. How much more stressful is life for a soldier and what, worst case scenario, can we as a society expect when the soldiers return? The military has said that at least one in five American soldiers who served overseas in Iraq or Afghanistan suffers from some degree of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). As combat tours overseas multiply, veterans -- the last people one would imagine carrying a yoga mat -- are increasingly looking to yoga and Eastern meditation techniques to relieve anxiety and PTSD from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. Central Mass Yoga in West Boylston recently started a veteran yoga program. Lucy Wagner of the Central Mass Yoga Institute told WHDH, "(Yoga is) a way to quiet the brain. To relax and calm the mind. It gives them a chance to be in a safe environment. To do something with their bodies, minds, and breath so they have a little bit of peace."

The VA Puget Sound Health Care System teaches a technique called mindfulness-based stress reduction. Mindfulness treatment is not based on any formal religion. "It's like the thoughts lost their hook," a Seattle veteran who preferred to remain anonymous told the Seattle Times. "It's like the thoughts lost their hook. Before, they were just ripping me. With mindfulness, it opens up the blinders, and you realize (those thoughts) are not the totality of your existence forever."

[Image: SeattleTimes]

I really don't understand what comes over people that they believe that incarcerated people have no rights or aren't human beings. That's the only reason for this story:

Blood covered Terra Keil's hands, and her cries echoed against the jail cell walls.

But the Dubuque County Jail inmate said she took little notice of her own tears; she was focused on the howls coming from the infant squirming in her arms.

Early Tuesday morning, the 19-year-old Dubuque woman gave birth behind bars.

Keil claims guards ignored her pleas for help and left her to deliver her son alone. Jail officials say the mother never showed signs she was in labor.

"I guess it's a he said-she said situation," Keil said. "I know it's their word against mine, but how does somebody have a baby in jail without anybody noticing?"

As awful as this story sounds, at least Keil was able to move around during childbirth. There is a pending court case, Nelson v. Norris, that is trying to get shackling birthing mothers outlawed. Yes, our "justice" system shackles women while they are giving birth. Luckily groups like National Advocates for Pregnant Women are standing up against this treatment.

There may be some women who might try, but lemme tell ya that during birth, running is the last thing I think I could have done. Especially after the stupid epidural which numbed the entire lower part of my body. Put a guard at the door, heck put two. But seriously shackling?

[Image: Dave Kettering / TH Online]

Of all the stories I've brought you here at AWEARNESS, this is not one of the ones I thought would need a follow up piece. Alas, the minds of some people are a bit too active.

So last week I brought you the amazing story of a 35,000 year old sculpture that I thought was pretty cool. I also found it interesting that one person in the story felt it represented fertility. I have a few fertility goddesses in my home and wear one around my neck. I can see the resemblance. Another person in the story thought it was very sexually charged. OK, fertility and sex go hand in hand.

But get this...The Economist titled their story about the sculpture as "Palaeolithic pornography: Smut carved from a mammoth tusk." HUH? Smut? Porn?

The BBC teases the story online with this headline: Ancient man scuplts a grotesque vision of the human form. Grotesque?

The BBC did end up changing the headline to: German 'Venus' may be oldest yet.

It really boggles my mind how a sculpture of a well endowed and curvy woman can be seen as porn, smut or even grotesque. Not to mention that scientists and journalists think that ancient people thought in that sense. My guess is that they worshiped each other's bodies for the miracles they bore and crafted sculptures in their honor. And really, how do we know it's not just man-boobs?

[Image: Nature via The Economist]

With the first confirmed swine flu-related death of a New York City resident, now seems like a good time to revisit the so-called "pandemic." GOOD Magazine, which is an early affiliate of the Awearness blog, offers this take on the status of the flu, or to use its legal name, A(H1N1). While the swine flu has caused some deaths and made many more people sick, the hysteria around it is in many ways more dangerous than the flu itself. This short tutorial on the flu doesn't suggest that it's harmless, nor does it suggest that it's cause to lock yourself in yourself in your room for the next six months. It's a balanced assessment, offering useful facts and honest realities.

Last Wednesday, eight journalists received one of the nation's most unique awards in their field: the James Aronson Award for Social Justice Journalism. Begun in 1990 to honor James Aronson, a former professor of journalism at Hunter College, CUNY, and founder of The National Guardian, the awards are given every year to advocacy journalists working for social change.

This year, I had the honor of serving on the committee that selects the winners, and I was inspired by the level of competition. We read through more than 60 entries that ranged from short features to multifaceted portfolios of articles, the result of lengthy, months-long investigations. Entries came from such diverse publications as the New York Times, Mother Jones, Foreign Policy, and the Brooklyn Indypendent.

To say the selection process was difficult would be a great understatement. So many great writers, so many important issues. But a few did stand out: Joseph Huff-Hannon for his piece about the subprime mortgage crisis and how it particularly victimizes people of color; E.J. Graff, for her thoroughly researched and superbly written feature about the corruption in the foreign adoption "industry"; and Nick Turse, who revisited the My Lai massacre in Vietnam, updating the work of Kevin Buckley, who originally covered the event for Newsweek more than 30 years ago, an effort that was largely buried and ignored at the time.

In addition, we gave a lifetime achievement award to Les Payne, a Pulitzer-prize winning editor and columnist at Newsday, whose career is far too vast to even begin trying to capture in a few sentences. Suffice it to say, I wish Les Payne had been my mentor during my formative years, or even just an acquaintance. We also awarded the prolific, tireless, and unapologetic Danny Schechter for his latest incarnation as a blogger, and Ed Stein, whose political cartoons set the standard for incisive, non-partisan, crystalized commentary on current events. Two Hunter College undergraduates, Sarah Grieb and Prakirti Nangia, also received recognition for their exemplary work for the Hunts Point Express, an newspaper produced entirely by students at Hunter College.

But the evening wasn't only about these writers and their work. Apropos of the times, due attention was paid to the future of journalism, print newspapers, and the ongoing debate over what the next fews years might entail. While all of the awardees agreed that New Media is forever changing the field, some took a more positive view than others.

Expressing confidence in the next generation of journalists, Mr. Buckley said: "I teach part-time at the Columbia School of Journalism, and journalism will be just fine."

[Image: Ed Stein]

I'm not an "angry" person, but I have a tremendous ability to become angry. Very angry. And it makes me very uncomfortable -- it tells me that I sometimes lose control of my emotions, scare people around me, and put myself at great risk.

Case in point: Sunday morning I got up at 3:30am in order to be out the door by 4:15 to run a marathon in the Pocono Mountains. I was supposed to be there by 6:00, and I figured an hour and 45 minutes would be sufficient to drive 80 miles.

No doubt that was true, but it wasn't sufficient to get out of New York City -- at least not for someone who doesn't drive here. Turns out that Google Maps sucks, New York traffic signs are misleading and often wrong, and long story short, I got lost. My directions were faulty, I didn't know any alternative routes, and after an hour of driving I hadn't traveled more than six miles from my apartment. Thus, it was now 5:15 and I had 45 minutes to travel 74 miles. The race was a bust.

Before I'd lost all hope, though, I lost all temper. I handled that hour of trying to find my way to the New Jersey Turnpike like a raving lunatic. I was beating the steering wheel of my rental car, screaming four-letter words at street signs, and yelling out the window to tell New York City exactly what it can do to itself.

TV, movie and theatre star Cynthia Nixon proudly showed off her new engagement ring at a Broadway Impact rally for marriage equality Sunday in Midtown New York.

Nixon was there to support the cause that obviously now is more important than ever to her.

"This is just getting embarrassing," the "Sex and the City" star said of New York's failure so far to adopt a same-sex marriage law. "New York is a trendsetter. We're going to be sixth (to legalize same-sex marriage), if we're lucky."

Nixon said she and fiancée Christine Marinoni will marry by the end of next summer. "We want to do it in New York, but we won't wait forever," she said.

Nixon said she appreciates the progress that the equal marriage movement has made so far, though.

"I think we are impatient, and we have a right to be impatient. This is all unfolding rather quickly. I'm just glad I don't live in California," where a law that made same-sex marriages legal was overturned last year.

As a young black woman, it feels like AIDS has a personal grudge against me. With blacks having the highest rates of new infection (followed by Hispanics and then white), and with black females being 25 times more likely than white females to contact the virus, I feel like I might as well be dodging bullets.

At 25 years of age, I just squeaked past one of the more alarming new stats - that black youth (aged 15-19 and 20-24 specifically) now account for 70% of new HIV cases. Black men now have a 1 in 16 lifetime risk of contracting HIV. American Indians and Alaska Natives are also experiencing the full force of the epidemic -- they are the third most affected minority group, but only constitute 1.5% of the general population. Latinos are also seeing a severe upswing in their infection rates, with HIV/AIDS being the fourth leading cause of death in Latinos aged 35-44. But the numbers aren't lying -- they are pointing to serious issues for youth, minorities, women, and men who sleep with men.

Someone becomes infected with HIV every 9.5 minutes. Of that number, 65% are racial or ethnic minorities and 53% are men who sleep with men. One in three people are infected through "high risk" (read: condomless) heterosexual contact. Back in the 1990s, when TLC and Salt-n-Pepa were telling us to wrap it up, new instances of HIV infection dropped dramatically.

I was motived to check out the PAWS (Philippine Animal Welfare Society) shelter after a friend of mine paid a visit for a school project. I got to experience first hand what a shelter for rejected and homeless animals looked like. There was this dying indescribable breed of dog that was covered in lesions and bruises and pus, and over 260 cats inside huge communal cages. With only a handful of experienced people looking over the shelter, I felt the need to get a message across and tried to help them by starting an adoption campaign. After my photographs reached the school paper, over 50 cats were adopted from the shelter in a span of two weeks.

If you want to get involved and help animals in your local community, click here.

Governor David Paterson signed an executive order on Tuesday to phase out bottled water in all state agencies. The governor's office cites both economic and environmental reasons for the mandate, which has a precedent in the United Kingdom. In March, 2008, the English Parliament banned bottled water from all government meetings, joining that country's neighbor to the north, Scotland, in the quest for a more eco-conscious governing body.

Bottled water has obviously become a part of our lives -- everywhere you look, there are numerous brands offering refreshing, pristine water from a mountain stream. But the reasons not to drink the stuff are many. Yes, it's expensive: to calculate how much you spend per year on it, click here. What's more, all that money you're spending is not, contrary to its marketing, buying you a superior product than what you'd get from the tap. And yes, it's an environmental nightmare: bottled water consumes far more water to produce than you'll ever see in the bottles themselves, not to mention the myriad additional problems the stuff causes.

We salute Gov. Paterson and New York State for passing this legislation. If it's true that things happen first in New York and California, and then move across the country, perhaps we'll see more states following suit. It could be a while, though -- the last I checked, a lot of people in the Dakotas were still wearing stone washed jeans.

[Image: Lighterfootstep.com]

In the summer of 1960, the French anthropologist Jean Rouch walked the streets of Paris with a small film camera and asked passersby a simple question: Are you happy?

The result, Chronicle of a Summer, provides a glimpse into the extraordinary complexity of that question as it relates to the human condition. What makes a person happy? Is it genetic? Is it circumstantial? Is it love? Money?

In 1937, 268 sophomore men at Harvard were selected for a lifetime study into the mysteries of human development and the ability to find happiness. For the past 72 years, they have been tracked by researchers at the university, 42 of which have been overseen by one man: George Vaillant.

Joshua Wolf-Shenk, who happens to be one of my favorite writers at one of my favorite magazines, The Atlantic, investigates both the study and Professor Vaillant in this extensive feature story for the June issue that publication. And he couldn't have picked a better time: While it might not seem that a 72-year study would elicit any kind of urgency, it's really now or never for this story to be told. The surviving men in the study -- all in their 80s now -- are nearing death, and Vaillant, now 74, is nearing retirement.

In this video, Vaillant explains the project and offers a few of the insights into one of life's great questions: how does a person endure decades of life, and still find a way to be happy?

A 35,000-year-old ivory carving of a busty woman found in a German cave was unveiled Wednesday by archaeologists who believe it is the oldest known sculpture of the human form. The carving found in six fragments in Germany's Hohle Fels cave depicts a woman with a swollen belly, wide-set thighs and large, protruding breasts.

I love discoveries like this for more than one reason.

First, I'm just a total archaeology nerd. It's the second grader in me.

But what I really love is that when relics like this "busty woman" is found, we try to figure out why someone made it a zillion years ago using our 21st Century minds. We got two very different theories in the same story:

1. "It's very sexually charged," said University of Tuebingen archaeologist Nicholas Conard.

2. [Jill] Cook [a curator of Paleolithic and Mesolithic material at the British Museum in London] suggested it could be symbol of fertility, perhaps even portrayed in the act of giving birth.

And no, I didn't notice that the woman thought of fertility and the man thought of sex until I sat down to write this piece. But I do think it's quite, um, interesting to ponder.

[Image: Daniel Maurer / AP]

Have you ever been to Arizona? It's really, really hot. I have a friend, a lifelong Chicagoan, who enrolled in a PhD program at the University of Arizona, and though it was her lifelong dream to become a professor, she barely survived grad school because of the heat.

But if one company has anything to say about it, some of that unrelenting sunshine will be put to good use: power a hyperfast solar-powered bullet train. Proposed by Solar Bullet LLC, the train was inspired partly by President Obama's plan for high speed railways in the near future -- but this train makes "high speed" sound like an understatement. Capable of traveling at 220mph, the bullet train could cover the 187 miles between Tuscon and Phoenix in just 30 minutes.

The company's initial plan includes train stations throughout Arizona, with additional stations stretching all the way down to Mexico City comprising phase 2 of this ambitious plan to help us reduce our carbon footprint and still get around -- fast.

[Image: Solar Bullet]

I'm not a lawyer nor do I play one on the internet, but I'd love to hear from law experts on this one...

From what I know of hate crime legislation, one key aspect is that it provides local law enforcement to do their job first. If local officials won't or don't provide justice, then federal law enforcement can step in. I know, I know, I'll hear cries of "double jeopardy" but given the viciousness of some crimes, there are times when justice needs a re-do.

The not-guilty verdict on the murder of Luis Ramirez is one such injustice. Three teenagers were found guilty of simple assault. Not surprisingly, this verdict was delivered by an all-white jury.

While many of us will continue to theorize why 12 people decided that simple assault was acceptable, we can also urge the US Department of Justice to step in.

[Image: Crystal Dillman / AP]

On Tuesday, the New York State Assembly voted for the marriage equality bill (A07732) 89 to 52 votes. Next stop: the New York State Senate, where, if the bill passes, it will make the Empire State the sixth in the union to legalize gay marriage. In a curious shift, several members of the Assembly switched their opposition to the bill from two years earlier. New York magazine asked some of the vote switchers about what changed their mind. Suffolk County Republican Fred Thiele said in a press release, "I didn't support the bill in 2007 because I thought equal rights could be guaranteed through civil unions. Since then, more states have experimented with civil unions as separate but equal, only to find that discrimination persisted in health care and other areas. The only way to ensure equality is by giving all couples access to the same civil right -- the right to marry."

On Wednesday the Empire State Pride Agenda began a statewide advertising campaign urging the New York State Senate to pass the marriage equality bill. The above 30-second ad featuring a Cicero, N.Y. mother will be broadcast in the Albany, Syracuse and Buffalo areas. "This is about putting a face on the people who are affected by this," Alan Van Capelle, executive director of the Pride Agenda, told The New York Times. "Marriage equality should not be a political issue. It is too important; it affects too many people."

Maryland became the first state to include the homeless as a protected class under its hate crimes statutes on May 7. A person convicted of an attack on a homeless person in that state will be sentenced to a maximum of 10 years in prison, in addition to other penalties related to that crime.

Maryland's new statute comes as documented attacks -- many lethal -- against the homeless have steadily risen nationwide. The trend of violence has been most acute in Florida, where more than one fifth of the country's homeless attacks took place in 2007, according to statistics compiled by the National Law Center on Homelessness and Poverty.

The perpetrators of this violence are often teens and young adults. In Florida, where hate-crime protection for the homeless is also on the legislative agenda, the National Coalition for the Homeless teamed with AmeriCorps Vista to set up speakers' bureaus around the state. The goal of that program is to have people who are or who have been homeless share their experiences with young people so that their humanity, vulnerability and need for respect and safety will be recognized.

Other states that are considering hate-crime legislation for the homeless include Alaska, California, Massachusetts, Nevada, Ohio and Texas. Two bills that sought revision of federal hate-crime laws, H.R. 2216 and H.R. 2217, were submitted but did not emerge from committee in the 110th Congress.

Representatives of advocacy groups have said that hate-crime legislation is needed and welcome, but their top priority remains the end of homelessness and the economic and social policies that contribute to it. That work seems more pressing now as families lose homes to foreclosure, encampments for the newly homeless appear in cities across the country, and existing services for the homeless come under greater strain.

[Image: Richard A. Lipski/The Washington Post]

When New York City passed a law last year requiring some restaurants to post the number of calories and fat grams in each menu item, advocates believed the measure would help curb the city's collective weight problem.

More than half of all New Yorkers are overweight, and around 20% are technically "obese."

But according to a new study conducted at Yale University, all those scary numbers haven't done much at all to influence the choices people make when dining at four of the usual suspects: McDonald's, Burger King, Starbucks and the ostensibly "healthy" Au Bon Pain.

Researchers staked out eight locations of these restaurants and monitored how many people took the time to read the nutritional information or look it up on computer terminals provided by the franchises, and while they were expecting the number to be low, they say they were shocked by how low it really was.

Only six out of 4,311 of the diners bothered to investigate the nutritional value of what they were eating -- in other words, 0.1%.

This is bittersweet news for me. In the past few weeks, I have twice stopped by places I've often gone in the past to buy a single, relatively small cookie -- Au Bon Pain and Subway -- and twice I've turned away and left after I read how many calories are in each of those seemingly harmless snacks. (More than 200 in each cookie from both restaurants.)

Why bittersweet? Because I'm glad to know that I'm health conscious enough to be among such a tiny segment of the population, but I wish this segment weren't so tiny.

[Image: Whopper Combo Meal, from Wikimedia Commons]

FRONTLINE "The Madoff Affair"

FRONTLINE unravels the story behind the world's first truly global Ponzi scheme -- a deception that lasted longer, reached wider and cut deeper than any business scandal in history.

Watch the details of how he Madoff with people's money when FRONTLINE "The Madoff Affair" airs on PBS Tuesday, May 12 at 9pm ET.

FRONTLINE "Inside the Meltdown"

FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the worst [PDF] in 70 years and how the government responded.

Bail out of squash or pottery class to watch FRONTLINE: "Inside the Meltdown" on PBS Tuesday, May 19 at 9pm ET.

They say there's no such thing as a free lunch, and if Mayor Bloomberg has his way, there'll no longer be any free beds either.

The City government quietly announced that it will begin charging residents of homeless shelters for their keep, as much as 50% of whatever income they have from minimum-wage and often unstable jobs. Those without any income at all? They'll still have a place, for now, if they can find one -- the city's shelters are overcrowded as it is, and if they start privileging those who can pay, it seems likely that those who can't will be turned away.

The law is actually more than a decade old, but has not been enforced until now.

Of course it hasn't: doesn't it seem rather counterintuitive to so heavily tax people who are just trying to get themselves back on their feet? If a fast-food cashier makes $800 per month and has to shell out nearly $400 to stay in a shelter, how will she ever get out of the shelter?

With only about $400 left, and the persistent need to eat and clothe herself, she won't. And in the long run, she'll be an even greater burden on the social services that are already stretched dangerously thin.

In a related story, one of New York's last remaining flophouses along the Bowery -- once a derelict street strewn with garbage and junkies, now home to high-end hotels and expensive boutiques -- is likely to be razed, turning out some elderly men who have lived there for decades.

The Whitehouse Hotel, which rebranded itself 10 years ago to attract backpackers and other young travelers, charges less than $10 per night and looks like something out of Jacob's Ladder. But at least it has a roof and running water -- amenities its year-round residents might not have in their future digs.

[Image: Librado Romero for the New York Times]

Ah Mother's Day. The one day a year the country stops to say "Thanks, Mom!" by buying cards, flowers, brunches and jewelry. Don't get me wrong, I had the best Mother's Day ever and got all of that and much more. But it's the fact that Mother's Day has lost its meaning -- a day for peace.

Arise then...women of this day!
Arise, all women who have hearts!
Whether your baptism be of water or of tears!
Say firmly:
"We will not have questions answered by irrelevant agencies,
Our husbands will not come to us, reeking with carnage,
For caresses and applause.
Our sons shall not be taken from us to unlearn
All that we have been able to teach them of charity, mercy and patience.
We, the women of one country,
Will be too tender of those of another country
To allow our sons to be trained to injure theirs."

Yes, we have breast cancer awareness events from walks to Major League Baseball sporting pink (even if some announcers still smirk about manly baseball men using pink bats), and each year we are reminded how much free work moms do every year. But the Monday morning after we all go back to ignoring the issues that would really make moms' lives easier.

Moms Rising made a dent in this issue over the past few weeks with their viral "Mother of the Year" video. It's not just a feel good video, but watch the scroll and it gives you amazing facts on moms including that moms make 73 cents to every man's dollar. Poverty is mentioned, but the fact is that 84% of homeless families are headed by single moms. Virtual diaper drives are being held.

What says we value Mom more?

This image was taken in market streets adjacent to Lahore Fort, Lahore, Pakistan. I came across these gypsy kids sitting on a shop's pavement in front of a mosque, begging. The deserted setting really encouraged me to take some upclose portraits but the elder girl was reluctant and I had to move away to a dark spot to take this shot. These poor kids live their lives on the streets begging and their generations have lived in utmost dire conditions. Efforts need to be done to support them and their families so they can be a better part of the society.

There are a few basic kinds of comedians: those who make us laugh by being dumb, those who make us laugh by being smart, and those who make us laugh with their bodies.

In the first group we have folks like Al Bundy, of "Married With Children" fame, and in the second, cerebral types like Woody Allen and Tina Fey. The third group requires no examples, but here are some anyway: Charlie Chaplin, Buster Keaton and John Carey.

If George W. Bush ever made us laugh, which he did -- often -- he fell in the first group. And his counterpoint, Barack Obama, most certainly falls in the second.

This became clear on Saturday night, at the annual White House Correspondents' Association Dinner. The president scored some points for making jabs at Dick Cheney, who, he said, was working on his memoir, "tentatively titled How to Shoot Friends and Interrogate People." He then promised to make his next 100 days in office so successful that he'll complete them in 72 days, and on the 73rd, he'll rest.

He cited Arlen Specter, the 79-year-old Pennsylvania senator who recently changed his party affiliation to Democrat, as a good example of bringing "fresh, young faces" to the Democratic Party, and he advised Michael Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, to stop asking for a bailout for the GOP. "Rush Limbaugh does not count as a troubled asset," the president explained.

What's more, I wouldn't be surprised if Obama wrote these jokes himself. Why not? He's no Bush-league comedian. (Pun very much intended.)

[Image: AP]

The hissing underbelly of the jungle burrows itself into my ears. There is no space to think amid the writhing insect orgy. All is slow among this foggy haze. Mist seems to swallow the horizon into the the squinting sun.

Three months in South America, and I finally feel like I've arrived. Here among the trees, the ferns and the monstrous insects, I feel as though I am finally being man-handled by nature. I can not walk, unless it allows. I can not touch, if it says no. I am dominated by it's strong embrace in every waking moment.

Mimi and Jim are from the U.S. and have been out here in the jungles of Ecuador for the past 20 years. They raise fruit on their farm and sell the seeds globally. Over time, they have developed a reputation among the academic community and consistently receive volunteers and students who are eager to live and learn sustainably on their farm. The result is a natural equilibrium between their lives, their business and the land.

We arrived on the farm after a long trip from Peru. We had managed to get robbed as well as pick-pocketed along the way. It is a sad day when you realize that you can't even afford a 10 cent lollypop. Our days with Mimi and Jim were experienced in a delicious state of limbo. Aside from working and cooking on the farm, we managed to find time to put together some graphic signage made of bamboo along one of the paths.

If you are interested in learning more about Mimi and Jim's farm, please visit their website. Click here to view more pictures of Ecuador and Santa Rosa. I have also posted some video on my YouTube account.

That is what Girls Inc is asking us to consider during Girls' Right Week.

Girls Inc is a national nonprofit youth organization dedicated to inspiring all girls to be strong, smart, and bold. There isn't a Girls Inc in Chicago, so I've never seen one in action, but everything that I have read tells me that I'd be bowled over. I also know that because I've met a former executive director and she bowled me over!

There is a Girls' Bill of Rights that is short and sweet and includes:

• Girls have the right to be themselves and to resist gender stereotypes.


• Girls have the right to express themselves with originality and enthusiasm.


• Girls have the right to prepare for interesting work and economic independence.

So what would the world look like if all girls had their rights? If all girls had access to formal education? Felt safe? Were respected and not sold off to the highest bidder?

I'm not sure, but I know my heart would be broken less often.

What's one way to mitigate Swine Flu hysteria? Make a game out of it!

Or rather, re-name an existing game. "Sneeze" was started as a way to educate children about healthy living practices and infectious illnesses, and it's gross enough to work. Still, the objective of the game, which can be played for free at MiniClips.com and has become even more popular under its new name, "Stop Swine Flu," is not to avoid Swine Flu, but to spread it.

You have only one sneeze, so you have to make it count: on each level out of 10, you maneuver your figure through a variety of public spaces -- a city street, park, library, etc. -- and your objective is to infect a certain percentage of the other people in the area. As soon as you're in a nice cluster of healthy bodies, you hit the space bar, and kapluuushh! , your green snot goes flying into the crowd, infecting everyone you hit, who in turn begin to infect everyone else.

In other words, you win by infecting others, and it's remarkably easy to do well. I scored 3800 on my first attempt, infecting well over the required percentage on each level in order to advance through the game. Still, at the bottom of the page is this minor effort to educate kids on spreading the flu:

Help to prevent the spread of the swine flu by catching your sneezes with a tissue and then washing your hands. This educational software/game illustrates the consequences of allowing the flu to spread in an interactive graphical simulation. It is intended to inform people of the reasons to take measures that will help prevent further spreading of the flu. Funded by the biomedical research charity, WellcomeTrust.ac.uk.

All well and good, but shouldn't the game be called "Spread the Swine Flu"?

[Image: National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases]

The first year of kindergarten is almost over! OMG, where did the time go? It seems like yesterday when my husband & I dropped off our fresh-faced 5-year-old, sat with her until it was time for class and handed her her lunchbox. Eight months later we barely have to open the car door for her as she jumps out of the car, pecks us on the cheek and waves goodbye. But her Laptop lunch box is also eight months older.

Since she is only 5, we don't use every box, and for almost six months we used the empty space provided by using only one large box to put her individual milk box in the Laptop Box. Um, that was a mistake. We kinda ruined the closing mechanism of the box. We learned this one day when her grapes spilled out into her messenger bag.

Now we use her other lunchbox, which has a plastic box for her sandwich, but nothing else for her snacks, veggies or fruit. I admit that we use throw away plastic baggies for her lunch. I try to use small plastic boxes if they aren't filled with leftovers. But baggies seem so easy. *insert whine*

So....when I saw that there are two green options for baggies, I screamed YES! Of course, I still haven't ordered them. But I know they exist and I'll be on the lookout for them over the next few months at local green stores.

Of course, for this plan to succeed I'd not only have to buy them, but the kid will have to remember to not throw them away like she did her reusable spoon and the lid to her dip container.

[Image: Laptop Lunches]

Roughly 77% of all animals in shelters across America are killed each year. This is a startling statistic that I wish could be minimized. It may be true that one person alone cannot have a huge impact on societal change, but that one person can help advocate a cause. Which is what I aspire to do. As Americans are feeling the downturn of our economy not just people are paying the price, companion animals are too. About 68% of American households which translates to about 70 million homes have companion animals and due to human irresponsibility, over 10 million accidentally bred animals end up in shelters and rescues. Due to economic difficulties, real estate foreclosures, job losses and increased pet health bills, animal shelters have seen a 74% increase just this last quarter of turned in animals. Shelters across the country see anywhere from 10-20 animals being turned in and in Nashville, Tennessee, Animal Control euthanizes 60 dogs a day because of overcrowding.

In truth, when the economy goes down so does human happiness and hope. Economic uncertainty can foster depression, anxiety, restlessness, and lack of sleep among others for anyone experiencing hardship and psychiatrists have reported an increase in patients seeking help with depression and often times with worsening symptoms. The Suicide Prevention Hotline had also reported a 36% increase in calls from those seeking solace. That's about 545,851 calls.

Those are just some of the facts of what is going on today. However, in troubled times you wouldn't throw out your ill son or daughter just to save money, would you? The same should be an example for your companion pets. For every action there is a positive and negative reaction. I have stated the negative reactions but now I want to address the positives. Perhaps you know of someone suffering through depression; animals reduce depression and anxiety in people and bring a smile to everyone's face. While at an early age animals can also teach people about love, loyalty, responsibility, and help improve our own health as well as theirs. Having a companion animal helps lower blood pressure in humans and assists in balancing cholesterol levels. The Humane Society had also found that survival rates for victims of heart attack have increased if the person has a companion pet. Companion animals are even used as the hands, eyes, and ears of a special needs person that could have physical or mental disabilities, enabling that person to interact with everyone around them normally. Some animals are also mediums of animal-assisted therapy, helping patients in hospitals, nursing homes and rehabilitation centers develop and regain sensory and mobility aspects and improve physical health.

There are those, like me, for whom it isn't possible to adopt homeless animals. Many pet rescues have a foster care program, one can volunteer to take in a seized, turned in or abandoned animal and find a good home for it. By being a foster "parent" this minimizes the increasing numbers at shelters and lessens the likeliness of euthanasia due to overcrowding and the pet has a chance to live in a home rather than a cage. Although many pets in rescues are maltreated, they also need a temporary caregiver, a chance to get better before they are ready to be adopted. If you cannot be a foster mom or dad a few things you can do to help out are by donating mint-condition bed linens, towels, and blankets to shelters and pet rescues along with food, toys and clothing. For the crafty, hands-on helpers, sewing blankets and toys is also a welcomed gift. This maybe too much for some people as well, but even by offering a rescue to babysit foster animals while foster families are out, walking dogs (speed walking your dog everyday for 30 minutes promotes weight loss), taking needy animals to the veterinarian and back and even help find homes for animals by interviewing possible families that are willing to adopt.

Kenneth Cole put out an ad addressing social awareness to the homeless issue with a one-liner, "Have a heart give a sole," encouraging customers to donate gently worn shoes to the homeless. I would say, "Have a heart, adopt a soul" because animals also are part of the homeless too and no one, other than your significant other will love you unconditionally than your companion pet.

To find opportunities to help animals in your area, visit the Kenneth Cole Volunteer Now page.

[Image: Animal Care & Control of New York City]

Sienna Miller is raising awareness -- awearness? -- for the International Medical Corps, which provides health care for people around the world in dire need. The actress traveled through the war-torn Democratic Republic of the Congo with her best friend Tori, Margeret Aguirre from the IMC and documentary filmmaker David Serota, who served as cinematographer for the humanitarian trip. She just returned to London on Monday, May 4, but her blog posts chronicling nine days in Africa -- from Rwanda to the Congo -- are on the Take Part website. These blog posts do not conjure the usual Hollywood starlet channeling Audrey Hepburn. The blog posts contain raw, emotional and acutely personal observations that any sane person would have in the aftermath of war. From her blog on Takepart.com. An example:

The stories I hear are again, harrowing. I met a mother who was running away from a group of militia three days earlier with her baby strapped to her back. They both got shot, but survived and thankfully made it into the facility in time. Her boy is so little and the huge bandages on his arms break my heart. Everything about this place breaks my heart. These people all have stories which they share with me and there is just simply too much to try to grasp. Everyone has lost something, everyone has lost someone. I meet malnourished babies, mothers, fathers, widows and widowers, malaria sufferers, their eyes glazed, victims of rape and pillaging. They are all here in massive numbers, and their stories are agonizing. I meet a group of about a hundred who have selected an old man to read out on behalf of them all, their list of grievances. They have no homes and no possessions and they need others to recognize they are in crisis. I sat down with the Mai Mai, an armed community defense group that has been placed here by the government, but not paid for months. The general told me that he wants to go back to his old post but leaving this area would look like he was plotting to join another force and would essentially place a target on his head. He was surrounded by his men in green uniforms, holding their ammunition and AK 47s. It is intimidating for me to interview them and certainly against the norm for them to answer difficult questions posed by a woman. Even though their definition implies that they are allies of the government, I know that there is really no 'good' armed group in this country. I later asked a victim of rape if she felt protected by the Mai Mai or any of the military here. She simply said 'I don't trust any man wearing a uniform.'

Miller visited, among other places, Panzi Hospital where IMC is training doctors to treat severe gynecologic ruptures as a result of rapes suffered during the regions horrible wars. Sienna also provided -- via Children Mending Hearts -- hundreds of t-shirts for the children who in desperate need of clothes. The publicity surrounding the trip and her blogging should bring greater recognition to these noble organizations. You can listen to Air America Radio's Ron Reagan, who interviewed Miller on Friday here. In the interview, Sienna noted that she will never look at the pampered life on-set while filming a movie the same way again after experiencing the Congo.

This week the Independent Film Channel premiered the new season of "The IFC Media Project with Gideon Yago." The show is not unlike a wonderful cross between Howie Kurtz's "Reliable Sources," "60 Minutes" and Current TV's documentary shorts. This week they ran segments on the lack of availability of Al Jazeera English in the U.S., 26-year-old j-school grad Radmilla Suleymanova's personal journey to the country of Georgia to better understand the media's coverage of the Georgia-Russian conflict, and an interview with BBC executive producer and creator of "BCC World News America," Rome Hartman.

Our favorite segment by far was "News Junkie," The IFC Media Project's animated media critic, who de-constructs the MSM coverage of Somali Pirates ("Yanks 3, Pirates 0"). Enjoy.

What is it about our culture that makes us think we can sit in judgment of everything someone else does? That "celebrities" have no feelings whatsoever or perhaps deserve ridicule when they aren't perfect? Who is writing this? Not the woman who sadly is far too prone to gossip, jealousy and snark? Um, yes.

On Friday Denise Richards, who grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, sang the 7th inning stretch at Wrigley Field. As a die-hard Cubs fan, I was listening to the game on the radio. I heard her do the obligatory interview with Pat & Ron. She chatted about losing her mother last year and a charity event she was in town to do. I admit to multitasking during games, so I didn't catch every detail. But I do recall her mentioning that she wasn't a singer. A few minutes later she was up and singing... badly.

Again, I'm a die-hard Cubs fan. I've heard many of the "guest conductors," as the Cubs call the long list of celebs and special guests who have sung the 7th inning stretch since the 1998 death of Harry Caray. There are few non-professional singers who are not singing badly.

So why then did a video of Denise burn up the internets over the weekend? I don't think she has handled her divorce well nor the custody fight. But still, is that enough justification for us to laugh at her poor voice?

I think we need to look at ourselves in the mirror and figure out who we want to be.

What if I told you that laziness was the number two cause of death in the United States, right behind smoking and ahead of alcohol?

You'd probably cock an eyebrow and expect a little clarification, and you'd be right to. That sounds like a pretty harsh judgement, and not a scientific fact. To wit, here's a little support: numerous aspects of Americans' sedentary lifestyles can be directly to blame for health problems that can lead to death, according to a bourgeoning field known as Active Living Research.

Active Living Research is a multi-disciplinary program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that incorporates 40 different fields, including architecture, urban planning, psychology, nutrition, pediatrics, and traffic engineering, to better analyze the numerous and deeply rooted causes of our national sloth, and to explore ways of making us a more active population.

Instead of looking at just one side of the problem -- childhood obesity, for example -- Active Living Research considers the issue holistically. Its advocates are investigating ways to completely revamp our lives.

I can't applaud the field enough, but I also recognize the enormity of its task. Every time I step on an escalator, I have to move through the stationary bodies that won't budge if they don't have to. Every time I board an elevator, I'm flabbergasted by the people who take it just one floor. Wherever I look, carts offering donuts and croissants tempt passersby on their way into the office.

In order to flip the ratio of overweight to healthy adults -- currently two thirds of American adults are overweight -- the active living researchers will have to tackle a staggering number of problems. But at least they're trying.

[Image: Screen-grab from the film Wall-E]