July 2009 Archives

I saw a documentary several years ago about the homeless people of New York City, and I was surprised to learn that they often move here for the same reason that I did: to make it. Not make it big, necessarily, but to survive and maybe even thrive in the city where dreams can come true.

But things happen, and 10 years later, I've seen my ups and downs, but I've never been homeless. Meanwhile, for the thousands of people who arrive, like I did, in these five boroughs with a one-way ticket and a bag of clothes, to whom the city hasn't been so kind, New York must feel like like a city where not dreams, but nightmares come true.

The Bloomberg administration has an option for those homeless New Yorkers who are lucky enough to have family elsewhere that are willing to take them in: a one-way ticket home, paid-in-full by the City.

But the initiative, Project Reconnect, is not without its critics. Orlando, Florida is among the destinations for New York's homeless men and women, and the local media there has a very different view of Bloomberg's plan. Here Katie Couric describes the project and briefly reviews its potential problems.

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One of the joys of traveling, for me, is the serendipity of sitting down in my departing gate and finding an abandoned newspaper strewn about, as if waiting for me. This happened Monday morning at the O'Hare International Airport in Chicago, where I was connecting to a flight home to New York.

There sat a full copy of Monday's USA Today and the Metro section of the Washington Post. Under any other circumstances, I doubt I'd read the Metro section of another city's paper. But the front-page story grabbed my attention instantly: a church in Washington D.C. that caters to gay, lesbian and transgender blacks in a city where being gay and black is not always a favorable combination.

Sixty percent of HIV cases in D.C., where 3-percent of the general population has the virus, are black men, and it continues to spread precisely because of the secrecy that shrouds their sexual lives. Many of these men are on the "DL," maintaining double lives as husbands and "straight" boyfriends who sleep with other men.

This church, meanwhile, offers an alternative: an open, non-judging environment in which it is not only OK to be gay, but HIV-positive as well. Led by an HIV-positive pastor, Bishop Kwabena Rainey Cheeks, the Inter-Light Ministries was founded in 1993 and offers a non-denominational approach to Christian fellowship. From what I can gather, it's defined more by acceptance than exclusion -- indeed, you don't have to be gay or black to attend.

Cheeks was diagnosed with HIV in the early 1980s, after he came down with the same symptoms that were sending his friends to an early grave. The symptoms passed, only to return again years later. By all appearances, the reverend had developed AIDS and would not live another year. But he kicked it that time, too, and went on to found Inter-Light.

We reported on the HIV epidemic in D.C. back in march, and the story of Reverend Cheeks and Inter-Light comes as a welcome turn in what might otherwise seem a helplessly bleak situation.

[Image: Nikki Kahn for the Washington Post]

So you have a car that's pretty old. It doesn't get good gas mileage and you wish you could get a new car, but come up just a tad short...Good news! The Cash for Clunkers program could be just what you need...

Or is it? Some think that Cash for Clunkers will dry up the second-hand car market:

Roger Penn's charity, the Car Ministry...fixes donated cars and gives them away, mostly to single moms.

Penn set [Emma Johnston] up with a donated 1995 Oldsmobile Ciera in good working order.

"You're good to go," Penn said as Johnston revved up the engine on her blue sedan late last week.

Penn worries that the $1 billion "cash for clunkers" program will make matches like this one much harder to make and limit the good quality used cars available for resale at car lots and auctions.

"This is kind of a typical car that would perhaps be junked under that cash for clunkers law. But look at it: It's really a nice car. It drives well. So why wouldn't somebody benefit from that?" Penn says.

The program is scheduled to end November 1, 2009, so perhaps this short-ish window won't be enough to do too much harm to the second-hand market. While some are lobbying for an extension, perhaps someone can figure out a way for charities to get in on the cash for clunkers program too.

[Image: NPR]

Newsflash: Americans are overweight, around two thirds of the population to be exact. And about a hundred million of them are obese.

This is a fairly recent phenomenon: according to the Centers for Disease Control, the number of overweight Americans rose by more than 18 percent in 1998, and by 25 percent in 2008. If you put on a size large t-shirt made before 1985, as I often do thanks to the cache of old running shirts I inherited from my dad, you'll find that an old "large" is about the size of a current "small." Call it size inflation, and it's a clear reflection of all the extra pounds our nation's carrying around these days thanks to all the processed foods and refined sugars that dominate the average diet. And if that doesn't bother you, consider this: the annual cost for treating weight-related health problems is estimated at $40 billion.

So what if all those foods were levied with such a high tax as to make them, well, disgusting? I covered this topic back in December, when I asked if the so-called "Obesity Tax" was ethical. But that tax was limited to soft drinks and fake juice. This tax would be applied much more broadly.

Earlier this week, a new study from the Urban Institute, "Reducing Obesity: Policy Studies from the Tobacco Wars," suggests that we could take a page from the efforts to curb smoking, which also inspired the Obesity Tax last year.

Melissa Healy of the Los Angeles Times writes that a conservative estimate projects that a mere 10 percent tax on foods deemed "less healthy" by a standard recently established in Great Britain could generate $240 billion in its first five years, and $522 billion in the first 10.

If that's the case, here's a question: doesn't that presume that the taxes won't work, and thus serve primarily as a cash cow? If you don't believe the government could be so conniving, here's another question: Why, then, would the estimate for 10 years be more than double that of the first five?

Now, I'm as against junk food almost as much as I am smoking. And while I empathize more with smokers than with your average Joe Six-Pack with a size-44 belt, merely because they're drug addicts, I don't think we should be viewing people's weaknesses as a way to make money.

Indeed, as I asked months ago, shouldn't we be just helping them become healthier?

[Image: Ebru from Wikimedia Commons]

This circus is almost over. On Thursday at 6:00 pm, President Obama will take some time out from overhauling the nation's health care and negotiating world peace with the most powerful people in distant lands to enjoy a few cold ones with Professor Henry Louis Gates Jr. and Sgt. James Crowley, the Cambridge police officer who arrested the professor on July 16th for breaking into his own house.

But the party, like the controversy that's erupted over Obama's comment that Crowley "acted stupidly," suggests that the men have some fundamental differences of opinion that just can't be reconciled: Politico reports that each man will drink a different kind of beer.

While Sgt. Crowley will indulge in Blue Moon, a relatively bland white ale owned by Coors, Mr. Obama will drink Budweiser. Professor Gates will be the only one drinking an imported beer: Red Stripe, which comes from Jamaica.

The three pals won't eat pretzels or chips because, as White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told Fox News Sunday, there's "no sense diluting it."

Hopefully no one will say something indelicate about their respective beer choices. With those brands on the table, it could be hard not to make a joke.

[Image: Ocatecir for Wikimedia Commons]

Rolando Cruz spent a decade on death row before finally being released. He was wrongly accused of the murder of Jeanine Nicarico. It was this miscarriage of justice that prompted me to become anti-death penalty.

The Nicarico family may finally get their justice this week as the man who has said he was responsible for Jeanine's death will finally plead guilty. What has held up his plea was first the instance of law enforcement officials that Rolando and another man did it and then the death penalty. Brian Dugan, who pleaded guilty yesterday to the murder, wants immunity from the death penalty and law enforcement officials want it.

Ironically, it appears that Rolando Cruz wants the death penalty for Dugan as well.

Who is justice for? The victim and her family or the Chicago community who has lived with this for decades? Was Cruz's justice confined to his own trial that he won? Is there any for this case?

[Image: KTLA]

This weekend the streets of Boston were witness to the on going fight against Breast Cancer as over 1,600 women and men laced up their sneakers and walked 60 miles in the Susan G. Komen Breast Cancer 3-Day.

There were teams dressed up like Bruno, a lone soldier in pink fatigues who was on a mission "from Baghdad to Boston and Back" and teams with names like Breast Friends, Breast Sox and the Drazin Girls Walk for Life, the team of Beth, Samantha and Krysta, three amazing women that I traveled to Boston to support.

On Sunday, we met up with the Drazin Girls team in Marine Park as they stopped for lunch before they finished their final 3 miles of the walk. As we sat in the grass looking out at the water I couldn't help but notice the love, support and respect the walkers, crewmembers and most importantly strangers had for each other, the feelings would only be intensified at the closing ceremony of the walk later that afternoon.

As night fell over Boston the ceremony began. Groups of walkers holding flags entered the ceremony, each flag with a different word like Best Friend, Anniversary, Mother, Daughter, Joy and many others to mark the different reason why the participants were walking. But there was one flag was saved for last. The Survivors flag was the final flag to be carried in and was followed by a group of women that had made the most remarkable journey that was much longer than the three days they had just spent walking through Boston. Some of the survivors are in remission, while others are currently undergoing treatment to combat their breast cancer. The survivors joined the sea of other walkers, their bare fists mixed in with the raised shoes of the other walkers. Despite whatever differences separated them in life, the past three days joined them together with a common goal, to end breast cancer so that every man or woman afflicted with the disease can have a lifetime, a lifetime with their friends and loved ones free of breast cancer.

There was some serious talk that Sarah Palin might form a third party after she left the governorship of Alaska. The argument goes that while the elites of the Republican Party -- Peggy Noonan, David Brooks, William Kristol -- have all but dismissed her, Palin still has significant support within middle America. There is, of course, a strong tradition of "outsider" third party political candidates storming the heartland, attacking the eggheads -- from Millard Fillmore to Theodore Roosevelt to Palin supporter Pat Buchanan.

There are benefits to a Sarah Palin third party. If Palin were to run as a "Know Nothing" candidate, she would probably purify the Republican party of political toxins such as fringe groups like the "Birthers" and, we cannot fail to note, the outright sour tea-partying racists. The AM talk radio crowd and all that. Such an event would allow the Republican party to evolve into something more 21st century, multicultural-friendly without the dead weight of the past. The Democrat and Republican Parties could then conceivably have a grown-up conversation about the direction of the country without the knuckleheads in tow. The Republicans would probably veer towards sounding more like the consensus-building David Cameron of the UK (accelerating a perhaps inevitable party trend). Finally, a Sarah Palin-led third party would probably garner about as many votes as George Wallace, who in 1968 received less than 10 million. Significant, yes, but that run is essentially relegated to the dustbin of history.

In many ways the Palinites, the Birthers and the anti-Obama-at-all-costs crowd are more dangerous exerting their influence within the Republican Party.

[Image: LAProgressive]

The issues surrounding the arrest of Harvard Professor Skip Gates in his own home dominated news coverage for most of last week, with members of the press corps even asking President Obama to weigh in on the situation. The subsequent accusations of racial bias exposed even more of our country's fractures around race and reality.

However, as much ink was spilled about Professor Gates and Officer Crowley, every day we find stories that have slipped under the radar. On Friday, the New York Times published an article titled "Racist Web Posts Traced to Homeland Security" which states:

After federal border agents detained several Mexican immigrants in western New York in June, an article about the incident in a local newspaper drew an onslaught of vitriolic postings on its Web site. Some were racist. Others attacked farmers in the region, an apple-growing area east of Rochester, accusing them of harboring illegal workers. Still others made personal attacks about the reporter who wrote the article.

Most of the posts were made anonymously. But in reviewing the logs of its Internet server, the paper, The Wayne County Star in Wolcott, traced three of them to Internet protocol addresses at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border protection.

The larger issue that has been overlooked is the question of how much we trust law enforcement to work within our best interest. And if law enforcement officers are engaging in actions based on prejudicial thinking, what does it mean for their ability to protect and serve?

Forget the Olympics, forget the Special Olympics. This is a time for coming out, or staying out, or just celebrating those who are out and also pretty good at sports. The 2nd annual World Outgames kicked off this weekend in Copenhagen, and for the next week, the LGBT community will duke it out in 38 different events, ranging from aerobics to wrestling.

But you needn't be a gay Michael Phelps to compete: according to its website, the World Outgames offers events for competitors at "all skill levels."

In addition to all the running, vaulting and calisthenicizing, the Outgames features cultural events like musical performances, exhibitions and parties intended to "inspire, provoke and make you dance like crazy." A human rights conference will also be held to address issues and concerns of the LGBT community, "and all others for whom love of freedom and freedom to love is self-evident."

Then again, as the Copenhagen Post reports, "summing up the World Outgames is just plain unfair." With a 200-page program and competitors from 111 countries, I can see what they mean.

[Image: World Outgames website]

I loved, loved, loved "I Love Lucy." Even as a kid, I had a sense that Lucille Ball was something special and the more I learned about her over the years I came to respect her business mind. She was a trailblazer, but what I didn't know was that she had a bread crumb path to follow.

A new documentary, Yoo-Hoo, Mrs. Goldberg! shares the story of "Gertrude Berg. She was the creator, principal writer, and star of 'The Goldbergs,' a popular radio show for 17 years, which became television's very first character-driven domestic sitcom in 1949." It's not just a story of a woman making her way through Hollywood; you also get a sense of how entertainment was changing as it went from radio to television. There are also the themes of Jewish families, stereotypes and the Red Scare and how that impacted Gertrude's career.

The film is moving its way across the country for selected showings. I sure hope that the DVD will be out soon for everyone who can't make it to the theater.

But first, a scenario to consider:

You're walking to a bus stop in a posh suburb near your university after checking out the local mall. It's the middle of the afternoon on a bright day. You're by yourself. And your skin is brown.

As you continue down the boulevard -- not lingering, not doing anything untoward to person or property -- you realize that you're being followed. By a police car. Really, the cop inside is just following you, rolling along at your pace but trailing about five feet behind.

This little pas de deux continues for the next two blocks, until you reach the intersection where the bus stop is located. The cruiser turns away. The cop inside says nothing to you, but the implicit message is that you're unwelcome and considered a potential criminal. And you feel disgusted and embarrassed and ashamed, since this trailing maneuver was seen by anyone who passed by or happened to look out a window, and you just know it was because of the color of your skin.

This was my experience walking down Northwest Boulevard in Upper Arlington, OH, during my first year at Ohio State. I was 18 or 19.

I did feel a compulsion to stop and ask what exactly he wanted with me. That's almost certainly what I would do now, even though there's the inherent danger of seeming confrontational toward a police officer, which can lead to threats, arrest and/or violence (solely, in my opinion, because you're not submitting).

This is just what it seems went on with Henry Louis Gates Jr. last week. Unlike the situation I found myself in (at least the one I've mentioned so far), Gates lived in the neighborhood to which police were called in response to a burglary call. Versions vary, but at one point or another, Gates became indignant over how he saw himself being treated, and he expressed that indignance repeatedly. So he was arrested for being disorderly.

Now, President Obama has weighed in on the matter, saying that the police "acted stupidly" by arresting Gates.

People -- I'll say it more bluntly, some white people -- are nuttin' up about how Gates and Obama could say that the police acted out of prejudice. I think that these people do not have an understanding of A) the reality and history of abuse, brutality and intimidation exercised against people of color (or poor people of any color) by police and federal agents, and B) that those actions and policies reinforce the hierarchy of class and ethnicity from which they benefit.

I don't think the Cambridge cops "acted stupidly." I think they simply acted like average cops. And that's the problem.

Happy Birthday American feminists! Our movement is 161 years old this week and what did our leaders get us? The Equal Rights Amendment! Is this regifting at its highest form? Alice Paul wrote the ERA in 1923, almost 100 years ago. It passed the Congress in the 1970s and fell three states short of ratification in the 1980s (thanks in part to my home state of Illinois. Grrr...)

New York Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney has reintroduced the Equal Rights Amendment with a good number of co-sponsors. With the Congress in the hands of Democrats, it very well may pass. But as my partner in punditry, PunditMom says, can it pass the states?

My question is do we need this ERA or a revised one? The classic ERA is simple, plain and easy to explain to people. [PDF link] But it also seems to have many flaws including using the word "sex" instead of "gender" and thus perhaps leaving out the LGBT community.

So while organizations and Congress people gathered to hail the introduction earlier this week, I have to ask why?

I'm no Ainsley Hayes, but I do take the criticisms of the classic ERA to heart. If we are going to put in a lot of money, sweat and tears to pass an ERA, it had better cover all women and our issues. I'll be waiting to hear from my lawyer friends on the pros and cons of this move and what it means if we do get it passed.

On Tuesday, I received a mass-email from the Jewish Community Center in Manhattan, whose email list I've been on for some time though I can't recall why I signed up in the first place. I'm not Jewish, and rarely do I even read the emails I receive. But for some reason I read this one, and I'm glad that I did, because it resonated with an earlier incident that took place on the Upper West Side a few months ago, which I read about after the fact in the Times.

"On Thursday from 9:30-10:15 am," the email read, "the JCC will be picketed by the Westboro Baptist Church, an extremist anti-Semitic, anti-gay independent church based out of Topeka Kansas."

If that's not a good lead, I don't know what is. I was hooked.

"They plan to send 5-10 representatives who will stand on our sidewalk for 45 minutes displaying disturbing signs and provoking those entering our building," the email continued. "They try to create enough confrontation to incite others to provocation."

The email's author, Rabbi Joy Levitt, went on to explain that it is entirely within the group's rights to picket the center, but that the safety of the JCC's members and visitors is a top priority. And while you, like the picketers, are entitled to free speech, Levitt asks "that you calmly pass these protesters and walk directly into our building without incident."

This would be hard for any principled human being that recognizes Westboro for what it is: a hate group masquerading as a Christian church. Indeed, its URL is "godhatesfags.com." To read the group's highly offensive description of their protest on Thursday, as well as all the others they've got planned around the country, you can see their schedule here.

Levitt ended the email on an inspiring note: "The JCC in Manhattan is an amazing community- one with big, wide open doors. This group has picked us BECAUSE of our commitment to those who desire community and who stand arm in arm with us while we travel though this 'vertical neighborhood.' Though Thursday may be upsetting, it is important to remember that our precious values (targeted here by an obscene group) are truly a source of great pride."

[Image: Shirley Phelps-Roper of Westboro Baptist Church]

He's apologized and in polite circles that means we should move on. But can we? Can we trust him to live up to his promises? Can he really be a role model for other young men and women?

Before we can answer that, we need to ask ourselves why we think he apologized. He didn't have to. He could have go on with his life and his career acting as if nothing happened. But what if this is a career move? What if Chris Brown and his people know that there are some of us who still flip the radio station when his songs come on?

Chris Brown can take solace that we have short memories and that Sean Penn, Woody Allen and countless other stars of stage, film and athletic fields have done something that makes us all quiver, even if just for a moment. While I still avoid all things Woody Allen, I still find Sean Penn's work outstanding. But I do believe that Chris Brown is sincere when he talks about being raised in an abusive environment and how that impacts him today. It's a step that I think far too many men are willing to take and for me, that is the first step to "recovery." I also know that I'm giving him more credit than others are able to do. In the end, it's all up to Chris Brown -- not me, not anyone else.

I would suggest that Chris Brown set up a way for a domestic violence organization is always at his concerts, that their business cards are left in the women's restrooms so that women can take them without going up to a table in the concourse and that part of his proceeds go to shelters. Intimate violence among teens is a real issue and Chris Brown has the power to do so much to help quell this wave of disrespect.

Paul Kagame [PDF], Rwanda's pro-business President, is in the midst of a political renaissance. Fifteen years after the Rwandan genocide, the tiny African nation had 11.2% growth last year, up from 6% in 2007. And Rwanda -- along with Botswana and Ghana -- is often mentioned as a superlative examples of African success. Curiously, Kagame embraces Dambisa Moyo's increasingly influential thesis that Africa no longer needs aid (he is influenced, to be sure, by the West's ambivalence at that sanguinary genocide). Emmy nominated Fareed Zakaria asks hard questions of President Kagame this week on CNN's GPS.

On Friday, I came down with body aches, fatigue, and highly sensitive skin. My threadbare T-shirt was literally hurting my flesh. I had very little appetite, and spent the evening on my back. I slept for 13 hours that night, awoke to the same symptoms, and thought I had the flu, or worse, leukemia.

Three days later, the symptoms had subsided but were still present, so on Monday I went to the doctor. He ruled out all the scary "L" diseases -- lymphoma, leukemia, Lyme disease -- and never mentioned mono. But the swine flu did come up, or should I say, I brought up the swine flu.

"You don't have the swine flu," he said, "and even if you did, it wouldn't be something to worry about. It's just the flu, and for a young man in good shape, you'd get over it without any problem."

So we talked a bit about the "pandemic" that began its worldwide spread of hysteria this spring, and my doctor all but dismissed the panic it's caused as unfounded. "But, it's been good for business, so I'm not complaining," he said with a shrug.

How can you blame him? If people want to get all worked up over nothing and visit their doctor at the first sign of malaise, and as a doctor he can profit off their fear, why not? It's not like he put a placard in front of his office urging everyone to get checked out. I'm sure he simply inspected those who came in, and told each of them to go home, relax, and think about something else. They did not have the swine flu.

Much has been said lately about the benefits of animals to people with chronic conditions, from seeing-eye dogs to parrots that can calm a paranoid mind. The range is forever growing, it seems, and these days you're as likely to meet someone whose pet iguana offers as much assistance as another's helper monkey.

But these animals are often the cause of controversy, and in some cases, lawsuits. If you have a medical excuse to carry an animal around with you that might otherwise be considered unclean or dangerous, you will have to face constant barrage of questions from restaurant managers, bus drivers, and regular shmoes who might find your service animal offensive.

But new research suggests that all this might change sooner than later, as more and more animals are found to help alleviate anxiety, curb depression, cut steak, reach for items at the grocery store, and generally make life more livable for disabled people.

Over the weekend, I watched an independent film from 2004 titled Keane, about a paranoid schizophrenic whose friendship with a 7-year-old girl seems to offer his only relief when the demons begin pounding on the door to his troubled mind. This relationship, I thought, was the most compelling part of the small, understated film. And it reminded me a New York Times article from last January that describes how one man's parrot is able to talk him down from having psychotic episodes.

I'm glad to see that more animals are being found to help those with chronic conditions, and that research is on the side of making them more acceptable in mainstream society. This could be a step towards a less medicated population, and a culture that doesn't prescribe pharmaceuticals for everything from simple shyness to full-on depression.

[Image: Blogher.com]

I hadn't checked in with Jonathan Mann for a while, so on Sunday I visited his site and came upon this little gem. Mann has spent the last 200 days writing a song every day and posting them on his website, Rock Cookie Bottom. Song #187 takes Palin's own words and makes them sound, well, a lot more poetic than the former VP candidate could ever hope to.

If you find yourself on the streets of New York this month, make it a point to swing by the Kenneth Cole store at 95 Fifth Avenue at the corner of 17th Street. Now through July 25, you'll experience CommUnity, a display of fine art works created by New York City artists with special needs. Kenneth Cole Productions has partnered with the non-profit fresh art to produce this incredible, inspiring exhibition.

At fresh art, we believe that artists with special needs should be recognized for their talent and not solely for the obstacles they face in their lives. It is our mission to introduce these artists to the greater community through fine art exhibitions and through our fine art and craft workshop program.

Our artists includes seniors; people with mental, physical, and emotional disabilities, and HIV and AIDS; and those in longterm recovery from chemical dependencies and homelessness. We work in conjunction with a number of social service agencies and community programs.

On Wednesday, June 24, Kenneth Cole Productions hosted an opening night event for the artists whose work is currently on display. More than 15 artists attended, and the night was a very special one for them.

"I think it's beautiful," said one of the artists, Tiara, when she was asked what she thought of the show. "It's an opportunity for people to get a chance to look at my work, because it is usually confined."

Another artist, Alfonso, agreed. "It's good exposure," he said. "I feel good about [the show] because it is spreading the word about outsider art, which is considered underground art."

The unique setting of the show added an interesting element to the artwork. "I feel great," the artist Julia said. "I've never had my art in a men's store. It's different, and I get to meet new people."

All of the artwork on display is for sale, so stop by and take a look!

[Image: Alfonso Fuenzalida, via fresh art]

The Economic crisis is affecting the world. Underdeveloped countries who have been struggling to improve their economic and living conditions are taking steps backwards due to this world financial crisis.

WIDE ANGLE explores these issues in Ethiopia in "The Market Maker." Eleni Gabre-Madhin, an Ethiopian Economist, has been trying to "end hunger in her famine-plagued" country. Most underdeveloped countries seek foreign aid to assist them; instead she "designed the nation's first commodities exchange," Gabre-Madhin, which began in April 2008. This is to improve Ethiopians' old market system that resulted in the food shortages.

Having established a system of trading sites in rural villages, she is trying to maintain the machinery that keeps her country fed while facing daunting obstacles ranging from leaky warehouses to powerful special interests to antiquated farming practices, poor infrastructure and an unpredictable climate -- not to mention a global economic crisis.

Discover Eleni's persistence and dedication to her country during harsh times in Wide Angle: "The Market Maker" on PBS July 22 at 10pm ET.

Would it startle you to know that roughly 20% of Americans are poor enough to either be on food stamps or so close that they can't afford to eat healthily? If so, you're remarkably aware of one of this country's biggest injustices, one that's paradoxically as hidden as it is pervasive.

In this clip from Grit TV, Sasha Abramsky, author of Breadline USA: The Hidden Scandal of American Hunger and How to Fix It, explains his theory that we do not have a food shortage in this country, we have an income distribution problem.

I just returned from a five-day trip to San Francisco, where I went for a wedding and to enjoy a brief reprieve from New York. I hadn't been to California in six years, and I was anxious to smell the fragrant ocean air, walk the mountainous streets, and enjoy some reasonably priced California wines. Not by design, but apparently by some kind of subconscious choice, reading the newspaper was not on my agenda.

To be fair, I did inquire at the nearest convenience store if they sold the New York Times, but as soon as I learned they did not, I stopped looking. I think that as much as needing a change of scenery, I needed a break from my routine of compulsively checking news sites, with a paper copy of the Times on my lap and a cup of coffee on my desk.

But contrary to expectations, I did not feel more relaxed for the break. My eyes enjoyed their vacation from a computer screen, but I didn't wake up each day like an eager little puppy, wagging his tail and jumping to get outside. And it's not like I was thinking about all the news I wasn't getting, either -- I just felt sort of blah.

Sure, my walks were nice, my runs were fantastic, I took a lot of great photographs, and I thoroughly enjoyed the novel I read on the flight back (a conscious choice over the newspaper, which I'd read exclusively on the flight out), but mostly I just felt unmoored. Perhaps this is because I'm simply accustomed to a different routine, but I also think it's because I don't like not knowing anything.

On Fluther.com, one person asked if she would be happier if she stopped reading about global warming, poverty, politics, and war. The responses ran the gamut: yes, no, maybe -- all with more detail than that, of course.

This morning, during the confirmation hearings of Sonia Sotomayor, Senator John Cornyn asked if judges were permitted to change the law.

I listened to her answer carefully.

Sotomayor hedged her response, knowing that her political opponents were waiting to pounce on any misstep. Senator John Cornyn appeared to be asking a heavier question -- would you, as a judge, change the law? His implication was clear: judges should not be in the business of "activism" because the law is the law.

But as a citizen, I would certainly hope that the Supreme Court doesn't hold all laws as sacred.

As Dr. King once said, "An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law."

Mahatma Gandhi noted, "An unjust law is itself a species of violence. Arrest for its breach is more so."

Unfortunately, the law is created by humans, who occasionally create unjust laws. Here in the United States, there were laws segregating the races, laws prohibiting women from owning property, and laws against certain sexual acts between consenting adults.

These laws were wrong because they denied rights to citizens of this nation for no reason. People in power were allowed to manipulate the law to reflect their own prejudices. And at times, the court has ruled to uphold these prejudices. We can now see that was wrong. Rulings like Plessy v. Ferguson, where the Supreme Court ruled that racial segregation was fine as long as the facilities were "separate but equal" were eventually revisited and struck down as unconstitutional. (The Plessy decision was overturned by the landmark Brown v. the Board of Education of Topeka which stated "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.")

While Sotomayor is playing a delicate political game during her confirmation hearings, I would hope she understands and believes that allowing unjust laws to stand, simply because they are laws, is a foolish proposition.

To celebrate the fact that the Kenneth Cole Facebook page has grown to almost 15,000 fans in just a few months, we're donating $15,000 to charity. We've picked five worthy causes to choose from but we want our Facebook fans to decide where the money should go. We are excited about this opportunity to let our fans tell us where to donate the funds!

It's simple, just click here and cast your vote for one of the causes. The cause with the most votes by Monday, August 3, will receive $10,000 and the cause with the second most votes will get $5,000.

Now, go vote, come back, tell us who you voted for, then encourage your friends to do the same!

If your political conversations are anything like mine, you've probably had a discussion at one time or another about Hilary Clinton, and how she hasn't been in the press much. Perhaps you've even discussed how Barack Obama seems to be doing everyone else's job in addition his own -- cutting ribbons, improving foreign relations, and of course, giving a great many speeches on behalf of virtually every member of his cabinet.

Indeed, according to a CNN poll, 55% of Americans believe he's trying to do too much.

On Monday, Tina Brown wrote on her site, The Daily Beast, that President Obama had confined Clinton to a kind of "wifehood of the Saudi variety" and that it is "time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa."

Cool your jets, Tina. According to Politico, that will change on Wednesday, when Ms. Clinton will give a thorough speech to the Council on Foreign Relations detailing what she has done in the past six months, and also what she intends to do for the next three years.

I highly doubt that Clinton's speech is a reaction to Ms. Brown's blog -- it was just a coincidence. But the fact that I, too, wondered as recently as last weekend just where in the world Hilary Clinton was makes the speech seem spookily well-timed.

[Image: Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama]

As policies go, "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" is particularly lame. The idea that it's not exactly kosher to be gay in the military, but it's also not OK to ask anyone about his or her orientation, has always struck me as sort of a cop-out -- especially for such an enlightened age as the early 1990s, when the law was passed by Bill Clinton at the beginning of his first term.

Now, President Obama, who's gotten his share of flack from the LGBT community, is speaking out against this archaic notion that a person can just go about his or her military business as though sexual orientation were a pair of socks you can simply stow in the back of your closet.

According to Ann Coulter, the arch-conservative Fox News commentator, Sarah Palin had to leave her post as governor of Alaska because she's a "huge, huge star" and has outgrown her position there. Too many people love her in the lower 48, Coulter says, and Palin owes it to them and to her herself to come on down and share her greatness beyond that enormous, rinky-dink state up north.

Ann Coulter looks and talks (and writes) like a whiny sorority girl at a party, drunk on vodka cranberries and determined to make you understand why her best friend, like, totally deserves to be class president. "I mean, she's like totally awesome, you know? And she's like way more popular than you'll ever be, so you know, just accept it. You know you love her."

Except more and more Americans don't love her, Ann. She's become a laughing stock, particularly to many in her own party. If you continue hitching yourself to this star, you might just follow her meteoric descent into the annals of political has-beens.

Last week one women threw Illinois politics for a spin —Lisa Madigan.

The current Illinois Attorney General was being recruited by the White House to run for the U.S. Senate (as they say, Barack Obama's seat) as well as considering a run to be the Governor. In the end, she decided to run for re-election.

As a Monday morning political pundit, I have to say that I think she made the right choice. She never seemed to have given any hint that she wanted anything to do with the U.S. Senate -- Illinois is where she wants to leave her mark. When former Governor Blagojevich was first under fire for allegedly trying to sell the Senate seat, Madigan's name was tossed around. She made it fairly clear that she didn't want to be the next senator from Illinois. And for some reason that I can't put my finger on, I believe her. Despite her father, I think she's a fairly honest politician.

As for governor... I think she's been gunning for this position for many years. But given the almost anemic powers of any governor, even the Governator seems strapped with kryptonite, has in the country and the horrible economic times, why would anyone with a bright political future want to trade up at this time?

But what is getting a lot of play in the media is Madigan's use of "family" in her decision:

"I made a decision about what was best for my family and what I ultimately thought was best for the state at this point,'' she said.

She said her role as mother to two young daughters "factored in" to her decision to run for re-election, though she wouldn't say it was the deciding factor.

"We have two wonderful little daughters and I want to be around to see them," she said.

This year's Emmy race for lead actress in a drama is particularly rich and the nominees will be revealed (finally) on Thursday, July 16. Women, IMHO, are better actors than men. The Best Actress Oscar is, for me, always more competitive than Best Actor. Television more often than not offers meatier roles for women, particularly women over the age of 40 (who experience ageism, unfortunately, in the movie business. This year there are plenty of seasoned women, young women and women of color in the running. My choices for the best actresses on television this year are: Glenn Close, Sally Field, Anna Paquin, Regina King, Jill Scott and Elizabeth Moss. Who should win the Emmy for lead actress In Drama? If I forgot anyone, please feel free to place your choice in the comments section so we can discuss.

Bill Moyer, a veteran journalist, hosts Bill Moyer's Journal, a weekly series on current affairs such as politics, the economy, war and other issues our world faces.

"Buying the War," part of the series, is a documentary that portrays the story of the media's attempts to find out the skepticism behind the invasion of Iraq under the Bush Administration. The program includes interviews with Dan Rather, formerly of CBS; Tim Russert of "Meet the Press"; Bob Simon of "60 Minutes"; Walter Isaacson, former president of CNN; and John Walcott, Jonathan Landay and Warren Strobel of Knight Ridder newspapers, which was acquired by the McClatchy Company in 2006. These well respected reporters give their well thought opinions as they questioned the reporting they were seeing and reading. "Buying the War" analyzes how the "misinformation about WMD [weapons of mass destruction] went virtually unchallenged by the media" and how it "shifted the role of journalism."

Watch Bill Moyer's Journal "Buying the War" on PBS Friday, July 10 at 9pm ET.

Irrepressible media personality Ivy Supersonic -- nee Ivy Silberstein -- crashed the Bernie Madoff verdict by sneaking in through a side stairway. I don't condone that act (which is illegal), but she felt strongly about the pain Madoff caused to so many people and wanted to be there to see his face as the verdict was read, consequences be damned. Ivy, for the record, has a heart as big as her impulsiveness. She also happened to tape the incident -- also illegal -- before her recording device was confiscated. The whole sordid story is recounted here on my blog. Here's an excerpt from her text message on how the recording device was found out:

At 11am I was famished and weak I nodded out for a brief second from exaction hunger and boredom while madoff lawyer spoke he Was unconvincing and dull..is the word droll?? I would think there would b a pitbull in the room not roosters Ladybodycourtguard said "shut off ur phone." I am mechanical boob I couldn't shut off ...

That's where her cell -- originally gifted to Robin Quivers of the Howard Stern show -- was confiscated. District Judge Denny Chin issued a summons on the spot. In the court documents Judge Chin wrote: "The FPS shall make a copy of the recording before the recording is deleted from Ms. Silberstein's device, and the FPS shall retain the recording in the event Ms. Silberstein wants to assert any rights thereto, in which case further proceedings will be required." Ivy texted me a couple of days ago saying that she was strongly considering mounting a legal challenge for the tape, adding, "If I was (Judge Chin) I'd release it to the entire world." You can't keep a good woman down.

[Image: BusinessWeek]

Every semester Kenneth Cole Productions' Interns participate in an intern day of service to support various charities. This time the interns volunteered for the charity Fresh Art. Fresh Art is a non-profit organization that helps special needs artists expand their artistic and personal development. Thirty-nine interns contributed by making hand sewn sock monkeys. We worked vigorously for four hours and created some great pieces. Although some (like myself) found it difficult, in the end they all turned out to be really creative designs.

Check out our sock monkeys at the Kenneth Cole Store on 95 Fifth Avenue at 17th Street from June 24 - July 25, 2009.

To volunteer or donate to Fresh Art check out their website.

CNN's "Inside Africa" is one of the best shows on television for getting a peek into the inner lives of sub-Saharan Africans who often live in repressive, closed regimes. Recently, the program has focused on Morocco and the effects of the 2004 Moroccan Family Law (Moudawana). After a 20-year battle women's groups in Morocco brilliantly persuaded King Mohammed VI to enact some of the most progressive family legislation in the Arab world. Although the law is not perfect, and there are reports of men circumventing it, the effects on the lives of Moroccan women have been incredible. For example: the minimum age for marriage is now 18 (up from 15). Also: Marriage now has to be certified by a judge, making it more difficult for men to simply abandon their wives. Could this be the model for the empowerment of women throughout the Muslim world?

My husband, Mark, has a briefcase that is older than I can admit, because - of course - it would age him and me! It is a source of contention for my fashion savvy daughters, who view a briefcase as a purse that should be updated regularly. I have unsuccessfully purchased several briefcases to replace the object of shame, but Mark rejected them all. He can be frustratingly sentimental at times.

This year I resorted to more manipulative tactics. I had to target Mark's weakness, and this was diabolically simple. He is putty in my daughters' hands. I feel somewhat guilty at how easy it was. The girls consider shopping a sport so, they were enthusiastically up for the game. The family knew that Mark would use the new briefcase for years to come, so we had to be strategic in regard to style.

The girls found a chocolate brown Kenneth Cole briefcase that looked more like a schoolboy satchel. It was made to carry a laptop but big enough for documents too. We loved it and, of course, he couldn't resist the gift with the girls oohing and aahing over him. It was a closed case - goodbye to old faithful.

Before I could toss the receipt, however, I remembered the sales clerk telling me to enter a contest online. It was the Kenneth Cole Make Your Presents Felt Sweepstakes. The money, I was told, would be directed to the non-profit of the winner's choice. I work for a non-profit organization, Family First, as director of their motherhood program, called iMOM. And I am acutely aware of the demand for our services and the never-high-enough supply of funds. Amazingly and thankfully, I won $10,000!

That $10,000 equates to 100 iMOM Morning program kits to be provided for free to 100 more schools. iMOM Morning is a program which provides an opportunity for moms and kids to get together once a month for breakfast at their child's school. The event includes lively discussion on topics relevant to school age children, fun bonding activities, and provides moms with valuable parenting tips they can take home and put to use immediately.

I am impressed that Kenneth Cole created a sweepstakes to create awareness of more than just fashion. I am also very thankful for the money, which I will have the privilege of seeing joyfully spent to impact the lives of mothers and their children everywhere.

In 1991, a 23-year-old man was convicted of killing a police officer in Georgia and sentenced to death. For the past 18 years efforts have mounted to exonerate Troy Davis as evidence has come to light that all but proves his innocence. On May 19th, a "a global day of action" inspired protests around the country and raised awareness about his cause.

Amnesty International reports that seven of the nine witnesses have recanted or changed their statements, and jurors on the case have also expressed concern about the fairness behind the verdict.

On June 29th, the United States Supreme Court postponed any further action until September, when the Court will return from summer vacation.

That leaves two months to produce enough evidence to free Davis, and while he will never regain the 18 years he's spent on death row, at least he'll still be alive.

In the two weeks since Michael Jackson died, I've felt like I'm living in a movie for which he alone did the soundtrack. Everywhere I go, I'm surrounded by the infectious, timeless beats of "Billy Jean," "Thriller," "Man in the Mirror" and "Don't Stop 'Til You Get Enough."

An open apartment window, a car driving by, the sound system at a bar or cafe. The King of Pop is the man of the moment, reminding me of when he ascended to stardom in the first place, when everyone seemed to know and love his songs and you could hear them wherever you went. But this time around, his ubiquity strikes a different chord: it's like a triumphant rebuke to all the scandals that came to define his life over the past 20 years.

In death, as in his youth, Michael Jackson is finally loved again. People who might have dismissed him as a freak three weeks ago are now listening to him with fond memories of when they, too, were die-hard fans. And those who grew up after he'd become more of a tabloid fixture than a musical icon are finally getting to see (and hear) the origins of Michael Jackson's unrivaled celebrity.

Michael Jackson will be remembered the way people choose to remember him, not by the way the media reports on his debts, his alleged child molestation, his whitening face, or even how he died. And the memories will go beyond the media spectacle that took place on Tuesday morning in Los Angeles, which has caused no small amount of debate.

From what I've been hearing all over town, Michael Jackson is being remembered by what made him great. And that is, quite literally, music to my ears.

[Image: Michael Jackson performing at the Superbowl in 1993]

Paul McCartney, as my colleague Ron Mwangaguhunga wrote in June, is encouraging people to go veg for just one day a week: Mondays. McCartney's not alone. His effort is part of a larger campaign that includes celebrities and dietitians, authors and chefs, to curb our dependence on meat and the often corrupt industries that satisfy our daily cravings.

On a personal level, I'm all for a vegetarian diet, if only one day per week. But I have to wonder what a massive, international day of abstaining from meat products might do to the economy. Just think of all the restaurants that specialize in steak, ribs, chicken or fish. While a farmer might be able to withstand a collective day of rest from what they're selling, the cost to a restaurant would be enormous. After all, the restaurants have to remain open, but if no one's coming in, their overhead will greatly outweigh their profits for the day, creating an indelible dent in their operating budgets. Plus, the service staff in such restaurants will be deprived of their income for the day.

It's one thing to ask everyone to not eat meat one day per week; it's another to ask everyone to do it on the same day. I'm confident that any business could withstand the loss of a few customers per day, but to lose all of them once a week seems like a death knell. In other words, why not spread out the effort over seven days? People whose last names begin with A-D will abstain on Mondays, those in the E-H group on Tuesdays... OK, that won't happen, but you get my point.

Just something to think about when we champion the Meatless Monday cause. There's more at stake than our bodies, our consciences, and the earth. Those can be cleansed by going veg any day of the week. For everyone to do it on Mondays might only replace one set of damages with another.

[Image: Meatless Monday website]

The Secretary of Defense during the Vietnam War, Robert S. McNamara, died early Monday morning at the age of 93. McNamara was one of several promising men whom President Kennedy plucked from the private sector at the beginning of his time in office to help run the country. The idea was to populate the White House with the best and the brightest in the United States, figuring that brilliance could only steer the country in a more positive direction.

He was right and he was wrong. As Errol Morris's phenomenal, Oscar-winning 2003 documentary about McNamara, The Fog of War, shows, brilliance can also produce a remarkable ability to rationalize and defend terrible choices. The documentary provides a chilling insight into McNamara's psyche, at once razor-sharp, ambivalent and charming. He can say he was wrong in one sentence, only to counter the claim with a thoroughly convincing reason for why it was still the right decision in the next.

In this clip, McNamara discusses his reasons for going to war with the North Vietnamese from a 40-year vantage point, as well as his 1995 meeting with the former foreign minister of Vietnam, who accused McNamara of having "never read a history book."

In 2005 I brought together friends, colleagues and some of the most recognized names in photography to "put a face" on foster children in New Jersey in hopes they would find permanent homes. Fours years later, more than 160 of the children we photographed have now been adopted.

I often wondered, what happens when a foster teen doesn't get adopted. The sad truth is that three out of every 10 homeless youth in America admit to a history in foster care, and with 25,000 youth aging out of care each year, the next wave of homeless in America will most likely be comprised of former foster youth.

The issues surrounding homelessness are complex, the answers illusive, but what if everyone did 1 thing to help? Homeless youth Ronald Foster featured in this photo was the first taken for the Do 1 Thing project, a project to raise awareness for homeless teens while making a call to action, asking everyone to do 1 thing to help.

They say things always occur in threes. First, Michael Jackson's untimely death, then the Bernie Madoff sentencing, and now, the most famous Republican in America, Sarah Palin, resigns from her post as governor of Alaska.

According to her, the decision to quit comes from her sincere belief that you "don't need a title to help people" and that she believes she can accomplish more outside of the governor's office than inside it. She's not "hardwired for politics as usual," she says, and because she's not running for re-election in 2010, she figures it's silly to stick around now.

To read 11 theories for why she really quit, check out the Daily Beast's article on the topic.

Much speculation has already been made about whether this means she's setting up shop for a presidential bid in 2012. The reasons are plenty: she can travel the country without abandoning responsibilities back home, write a book, and spend more time learning about things like the Bush doctrine (should she need to invoke that archaic bit of political trivia during her campaign).

But my question is, how can Sarah Palin launch a presidential campaign from such a shaky foundation as the one she's created since her failed efforts with John McCain last fall? When in history has a presidential candidate begun from less than zero and managed to prevail?

To some, Sarah Palin is an American queen, adored by the hard-right Republicans that populate the middle states and the South. But to more, she's kind of a joke, defined more by scandal, controversy and misguided, uninformed ideas than anything else.

Adding to that, she seems incapable of making a coherent speech. Even this one, arguably the most important of her political career, is no less disjointed than it is bewildering. Just what is she saying?

When protests and riots broke out in Tehran two weeks ago, Twitter rapidly eclipsed CNN, the New York Times, and every other major news outlet to become the primary source for real-time, on-the-ground updates on what was happening. The event will doubtless change journalism forever, in more ways than one. But let's put aside the discussion of access, immediacy, and who can rightly be called a "journalist" for now, and focus instead on the psychic effects of this new technology.

For years, I've been anticipating the death of literacy due to our high-tech world; I didn't expect the loss of human empathy too. But according to a new study from the University of Southern California, the rapid-fire stream of information from sites like Twitter and Facebook may be stunting our emotional growth. We're deluged with more information than we can process, the report states, and as researcher Mary Helen Immordino-Yang says, "If things are happening too fast, you may not ever fully experience emotions about other people's psychological states and that would have implications for your morality."

Jason Calacanis, an early Internet pioneer and champion, refers to this as Internet Asperger's Syndrome. On his blog, Calacanis.com, the author describes how he's seen Twitter and other new media transform the ways we interact. Today, he writes, it's all about the numbers: how many followers do you have, how many page-views do you get, what is your monthly subscriber count? But numbers aren't human beings. No longer do we see the eyes of the person sharing heartbreaking news; no longer do we think twice about flaming a fellow forumite on a discussion board. It's all removed, virtual, computerized.

Except it isn't. There are still real people at the ends of each Internet connection, and sometimes the anonymity of online communiques dehumanizes them for those on the other end -- and vice versa. To cite an extreme but very real example: the case of Choi Jin Sil, the South Korean film star who reportedly killed herself last fall because of rumors circulating the web about her.

The House and Senate have given preliminary support to bills intended to discourage child marriage around the world.

The International Protecting Girls by Preventing Child Marriage Act (S.987, H.R.2103) would direct American aid and diplomatic agencies to implement or assist with existing programs that support girls' highest social, educational and economic development.

Child marriage undermines girls' lives in all of those areas, according to the International Center for Research on Women. By the ICRW's accounting, 60 million girls worldwide are child brides, with that number projected to reach 100 million girls within the next decade.

Apparently for some, it's for the honor of meeting First Lady Michelle Obama:

San Francisco Supervisor Sophie Maxwell and other African American leaders in the Bayview are not at all happy about how this week's visit by first lady Michelle Obama was handled.

"One look at the picture on the front of The Chronicle says it all," Maxwell said. "The people in the neighborhood had to climb fences to even get a look at what was going on.

"The people I have talked with felt very disengaged and somewhat offended," Maxwell said.

But hold up!

Not so, said Jackie Williams a longtime Bayview gardening and youth program activist who worked at the event.

Williams, who learned only Sunday that Obama was coming, said the call went out weeks ago for volunteers to help with the playground construction. That's when she signed up.

"They knew about it, honey," Williams said. "They just didn't know the president's wife was going to be the there."

Thanks to Michelle Obama Watch for the low-down on how volunteering can lead to sharing tools with FLOTUS and being too busy to help out can lead to a big case of the grumbles. They even have some amazing photos from the event too!

Now everyone should be on high alert! You never know where FLOTUS will show up next. The food bank? The playground? Beach clean-up? And if she doesn't show up, try to have solace in the fact that you helped your community out.

After a 238-day feud over who would be the next state senator of Minnesota, the Republican incumbent, Norm Coleman, finally conceded to his rival, Al Franken, a Democrat, comedian, and political pundit and activist.

For months, it's seemed as if Coleman just didn't want to give in out of principle, despite the increasingly obvious fact that he'd been licked. He waged a nearly tireless legal battle against Franken, and the recount that ensued made that fiasco in Florida back in 2000 look like small potatoes.

But now that it's over, Franken has become the 58th Democrat now serving in the U.S. Senate. Just two more seats and the Democrats will have a filibuster-proof majority -- something that hasn't existed since 1981.

Here Coleman tries to save face by wishing his former rival well, but maintains that he fought a good fight for the past eight months. Maybe he did, but partisan politics aside, if you're done, you're done. Insisting otherwise only slows the machinery of politics and prevents the senator-elect from focusing on the work to be done. Thank god it's over.