The state of Minnesota can now see your credit and debit card histories, your every transaction, and you'll never know whether they're looking or not.
The Department of Revenue started using Accurint for Government's new online tools a couple months ago, for extreme scrutiny during its collections processes.
You can always request a credit report to find out who is checking on your credit and how often, and you can always file a Freedom of Information Act request to learn what a government agency is saying about you. You can get all records with your name mentioned in them for a very small fee, but it won't include who is looking at your credit or debit card or EBT card purchases, or how often or why.
At present the public has no idea that someone collecting their fine for a speeding ticket or calling about their sales tax that is due can also know what groceries they purchased and when.
Thursday, November 1, 2012
The Bare Buildings of Fall
A couple of my friends are so much quicker at seeing animals than
I-- I have a better eye for special effects in films but they have
better eyes for reality. Like all the deer left in the ditches at the
side of the road, or running along fields hundreds of yards away. Like
eagles and raptors in the sky and squirrels on the road. I am
learning, starting to see animals a little more quickly and clearly --
sadly they are easily overlooked because the modern mind prioritizes
other things.
This morning dawn broke slowly & elegantly, colors rippling across
the thin cloud canvas that protects my bit of sky.
A delicate violet blanketed the western horizon, covering the lake,
and above me easing into orange. The pale orange clouds bubbled into
bright orange up by the eastern hill, and below them a bold yellow
stripe broke the gentle cloud cover with its uncommonly optimistic
tint. Birds in the sky stripe seemed to be suspended there, still,
just basking in that beautiful yellow until all was unveiled as the
clear blue of day, unyielding.
The lake, mysterious as ever, mimicked the sky by showing one
unexpected stripe of calm-- right down the middle, the waters had a
different texture from the waters on either side of the elliptical
lake, in their unnoticed choppy flow. Phalen's contents are unknown,
and they stir the body into inexplicable currents sometimes. Likely
its underwater landscape is like a Cartesian graph, quartered into
four basins, more evident now that the water level is so low.
The bushes and trees are also revealing more today, more today than
yesterday. The boughs are bare and through them I see large stone
structures on the other side of the railroad tracks which I'd never
noticed before.
The manmade structures absorb early sunlight, and they stand out to
me as the landscape that's left for the freezing fall. Suddenly I see
that Regions Hospital is a series of angles and curves: spiraling
parking ramp, two rectangles, a curve outward, a bisecting rectangle,
a curve inward. Very artistic-- and for whose benefit?
The Economy Motel is as ugly as ever, but Gillette Children's Hospital
is angled glass like an accordion-folded note unfurling. The law
enforcement building at the end of the street is mysteriously blue
meeting oxidized iron. Why? Why is there a thin rectangular awning of
iron intersecting the front of the building like something alien,
something sliding in from another plane?
Why is the fence along the sidewalk on the overpass curving cast
iron? It's lovely and black, geometric and dramatic, featuring a
design of squares within squares that's reminiscent of the black
accents on a windowless brown office building: circles within circles,
which hardly anyone ever sees.
Who has gone out of their way to add curves, designs, and needlessly
tall jutting shapes to the buildings that line the route to work? Such
importance is given to the overpass by its tall smooth fence of
squares, when it could've just been a chain-link precaution there. I
couldn't stop turning my head round & looking everywhere this morning.
We're so fortunate to live where people have once and will again
value art and architecture.
I-- I have a better eye for special effects in films but they have
better eyes for reality. Like all the deer left in the ditches at the
side of the road, or running along fields hundreds of yards away. Like
eagles and raptors in the sky and squirrels on the road. I am
learning, starting to see animals a little more quickly and clearly --
sadly they are easily overlooked because the modern mind prioritizes
other things.
This morning dawn broke slowly & elegantly, colors rippling across
the thin cloud canvas that protects my bit of sky.
A delicate violet blanketed the western horizon, covering the lake,
and above me easing into orange. The pale orange clouds bubbled into
bright orange up by the eastern hill, and below them a bold yellow
stripe broke the gentle cloud cover with its uncommonly optimistic
tint. Birds in the sky stripe seemed to be suspended there, still,
just basking in that beautiful yellow until all was unveiled as the
clear blue of day, unyielding.
The lake, mysterious as ever, mimicked the sky by showing one
unexpected stripe of calm-- right down the middle, the waters had a
different texture from the waters on either side of the elliptical
lake, in their unnoticed choppy flow. Phalen's contents are unknown,
and they stir the body into inexplicable currents sometimes. Likely
its underwater landscape is like a Cartesian graph, quartered into
four basins, more evident now that the water level is so low.
The bushes and trees are also revealing more today, more today than
yesterday. The boughs are bare and through them I see large stone
structures on the other side of the railroad tracks which I'd never
noticed before.
The manmade structures absorb early sunlight, and they stand out to
me as the landscape that's left for the freezing fall. Suddenly I see
that Regions Hospital is a series of angles and curves: spiraling
parking ramp, two rectangles, a curve outward, a bisecting rectangle,
a curve inward. Very artistic-- and for whose benefit?
The Economy Motel is as ugly as ever, but Gillette Children's Hospital
is angled glass like an accordion-folded note unfurling. The law
enforcement building at the end of the street is mysteriously blue
meeting oxidized iron. Why? Why is there a thin rectangular awning of
iron intersecting the front of the building like something alien,
something sliding in from another plane?
Why is the fence along the sidewalk on the overpass curving cast
iron? It's lovely and black, geometric and dramatic, featuring a
design of squares within squares that's reminiscent of the black
accents on a windowless brown office building: circles within circles,
which hardly anyone ever sees.
Who has gone out of their way to add curves, designs, and needlessly
tall jutting shapes to the buildings that line the route to work? Such
importance is given to the overpass by its tall smooth fence of
squares, when it could've just been a chain-link precaution there. I
couldn't stop turning my head round & looking everywhere this morning.
We're so fortunate to live where people have once and will again
value art and architecture.
Friday, June 1, 2012
Lessons from the OUT! Twin Cities Film Fest at St Anthony Main Theater
Marry me, Minnesota? This civil rights issue has come before 30 states before; now it's finally Minnesota's turn to wrestle with a referendum to restrict marriage to the hetero-normative.
In November Minnesotans will face this question on their ballots: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage in Minnesota?”
A similar amendment passed in California in the 2008 elections, and we can learn a lot from the story of Prop 8. This story was the first to be told, last night at the 3rd annual Out! Twin Cities Film Festival. More great films about LGBT life will screen tonight and tomorrow night at the St. Anthony Main Theater.
Showings: www.outtwincitiesfilmfest.com/
Charlie Gage didn't expect to be inspired by LGBT protests in LA; he didn't expect to make this particular
documentary about them either.
But all the creative steam driving people to act against Proposition 8, a 2008 amendment to California's constitution, drove an incredible story that he captured from the get-out-the-vote efforts to the Supreme Court's Day of Decision on the amendment.
At the screening of Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8, director Charlie Gage said that he had just showed up at protests, noticed who stood out in the footage, and contacted these people for interviews. Several of them had said they weren't the type to go out and protest, until Prop 8 passed and gay marriage in California ended. The initial campaign to vote "No" burst into several different organizations, each with their own target group. All or Not at All, the Gay UN, Latino Equality, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, and more groups swung into action to support a repeal of Prop 8 with commercials, slogans, websites, boycotts, marches, candlelight vigils, and a LGBT Equality Conference that was organized by young people.
In the film, there's also a young man who acted alone and organized a protest beyond LA, in the more conservative Pasadena.
Boycotts against small businesses and large corporations that had given money to support Prop 8 were discussed for their relatively low impact, and Asian, Latino, black and white gay marriage proponents recounted the dissonance between their separate action groups. How aggressive should the demands in the street get? What do people gain by blocking the streets and defying law enforcement?
It seemed that through all they went through, the new activists gained stronger voices and community organizing skills. With direct actions they changed, and their movement grew. They kept the issue in the news and on the minds of the judges.
Though the California Supreme Court had ruled in May 2009 that yes, the people have the right to change the constitution, a federal district judge ruled in 2010 that the change was unconstitutional.
There was no rational or legal basis for the change to the constitution, and it stripped a minority of its rights for no reason. This opinion was upheld by a US Appeals Court ruling in early 2012. Can the majority vote to remove any rights from any group?
This is the larger issue, and as it awaits a higher court, the marriage restrictions remain in California.
Today, Minnesotans United for All Families is present at the film festival and in a neighborhood near you. They are counting votes door-to-door and glad for the support of 420 other organizations. To win on this issue, it will take a very large effort beyond the Twin Cities, beyond our comfort zones, cooperation between organizations, and a steadily cool & reasoned approach rather than aggressive tactics.
In November Minnesotans will face this question on their ballots: “Shall the Minnesota Constitution be amended to provide that only a union of one man and one woman shall be valid or recognized as marriage in Minnesota?”
A similar amendment passed in California in the 2008 elections, and we can learn a lot from the story of Prop 8. This story was the first to be told, last night at the 3rd annual Out! Twin Cities Film Festival. More great films about LGBT life will screen tonight and tomorrow night at the St. Anthony Main Theater.
Showings: www.outtwincitiesfilmfest.com/
Charlie Gage didn't expect to be inspired by LGBT protests in LA; he didn't expect to make this particular
documentary about them either.
But all the creative steam driving people to act against Proposition 8, a 2008 amendment to California's constitution, drove an incredible story that he captured from the get-out-the-vote efforts to the Supreme Court's Day of Decision on the amendment.
At the screening of Inspired: The Voices Against Prop 8, director Charlie Gage said that he had just showed up at protests, noticed who stood out in the footage, and contacted these people for interviews. Several of them had said they weren't the type to go out and protest, until Prop 8 passed and gay marriage in California ended. The initial campaign to vote "No" burst into several different organizations, each with their own target group. All or Not at All, the Gay UN, Latino Equality, Children of Lesbians and Gays Everywhere, and more groups swung into action to support a repeal of Prop 8 with commercials, slogans, websites, boycotts, marches, candlelight vigils, and a LGBT Equality Conference that was organized by young people.
In the film, there's also a young man who acted alone and organized a protest beyond LA, in the more conservative Pasadena.
Boycotts against small businesses and large corporations that had given money to support Prop 8 were discussed for their relatively low impact, and Asian, Latino, black and white gay marriage proponents recounted the dissonance between their separate action groups. How aggressive should the demands in the street get? What do people gain by blocking the streets and defying law enforcement?
It seemed that through all they went through, the new activists gained stronger voices and community organizing skills. With direct actions they changed, and their movement grew. They kept the issue in the news and on the minds of the judges.
Though the California Supreme Court had ruled in May 2009 that yes, the people have the right to change the constitution, a federal district judge ruled in 2010 that the change was unconstitutional.
There was no rational or legal basis for the change to the constitution, and it stripped a minority of its rights for no reason. This opinion was upheld by a US Appeals Court ruling in early 2012. Can the majority vote to remove any rights from any group?
This is the larger issue, and as it awaits a higher court, the marriage restrictions remain in California.
Today, Minnesotans United for All Families is present at the film festival and in a neighborhood near you. They are counting votes door-to-door and glad for the support of 420 other organizations. To win on this issue, it will take a very large effort beyond the Twin Cities, beyond our comfort zones, cooperation between organizations, and a steadily cool & reasoned approach rather than aggressive tactics.
Thursday, May 31, 2012
1 year after Activist's Death, Dayton's Signature means Stricter Penalties for Caregivers
John Schotzbarger was kind, quick, thoughtful and very active in Minneapolis' progressive community. He was an eager educator, even outside the classroom. Besides working as a massage therapist, and then as a substitute math teacher for decades, he volunteered with the Universal Health Care Action Network, Communities United Against Police Brutality, the People of Faith Peacemakers, and weekly donated food to poor families he knew. He would happily talk with you knowledgably about the Constitution, our rigged banking system, or strategic planning.
He passed on in March 2011, despite frequent attention to alternative healing modalities and the best efforts of his caregivers.
A year later, his caregivers, Miski and Shawn, faced very publicized charges of neglect. As if his death were their fault.
See: http://www.kare11.com/news/article/972207/0/Caregivers-charged-in-death-of-vulnerable-adult-
Caregivers, or Direct Support Professionals, often come under fire in the news because there are some very bad ones out there. But most of us work hard and give our hearts for our clients. The media feeds a general distrust for low-income working people like us. Last July the state cut our pay-- a deeper cut for those caregivers who work for their family members.
See: http://www.twincities.com/legislature/ci_20284754/house-unlikely-restore-pay-cuts-personal-care-assistants
Now it's like you need insurance on your care of a client, in order to help out even in those impossible situations!
John's death was used as fuel for a bill in the Minnesota legislature that would make Miski & Shawn's inactions a felony, not a misdemeanor.
In April, Governor Dayton was signing bills left and right, trying to make Minnesota a safe & productive place despite budget gridlock. One such bill had been a hope of Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman for years.
See:
23 Arrested this Week as Occupy Our Homes Reclaim Cruz Home in Foreclosure
Since Bobby Hull and family made the news in January,
homeowners have been speaking out against the all-too-common & unethical foreclosure & eviction process-- and getting strong, diverse support.
In the Twin Cities, the Occupy movement began in Liberty Plaza (by the Hennepin county government center) in October, moved around to Loring Park and the St Paul capitol and other public locales, and then showed up for homeowners facing foreclosure crises.
Occupy Our Homes has grown to be a well-organized movement in itself, meeting weekly & addressing the concerns of more than 50 homeowners who have asked for help. They have had notable success, standing up for Monique White's home in Minneapolis:
Last night 14 activists were arrested as they formed a human chain around the Cruz Family home, after 30 days of successful nonviolent defense of this home in foreclosure. That brings the total arrests this week to 23, according to the Occupy Our Homes story.
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Trumped Up Criminal Charges against Caregivers of Elderly
Some months ago police visited a Minneapolis home on West River Parkway and took pictures regarding the investigation of the death of John Shotzburger. Yesterday the result was presented through local TV news. According to Kare11 News:
I knew the man who died; I spent almost 6 months cleaning his house after he died. The problems of clutter & mice indeed built up over the years that he was sick; he didn't want to live that way. Trust me when I say that it was an overwhelming problem, much more than any caregiver could be expected to do with their limited hours. I know because I'm a caregiver, a caregiver for the widow, and I did much more than I was paid to do and STILL could not solve the problems of the house after working on it for months!!! Shawn is innocent of neglect. The deceased appreciated his caregivers and WOULD NOT want them to face charges. Shawn & other caregivers took care of his physical needs & the smell, clutter, & mice of the house were not their fault; even if they had tried to solve these problems they couldn't have made a dent in that house packed with decades' worth of stuff. The landlord never came to fix the house's problems like bad plumbing & windows that don't open. They rented the house, & the smell, clutter & mice are a result of their lifestyle choices, (hoarding) and the landlord's neglect, NOT the caregivers' neglect. The deceased would not want this attention or legal trouble.
"MINNEAPOLIS - Two home health care workers are criminally charged in connection with the death of a vulnerable adult in Mid-March.
Shawn James Gigrich, age 48, was charged with a gross misdemeanor count of criminal neglect and one count of failing to report the maltreatment of a vulnerable adult, which is a misdemeanor.
Miski Mohamed-Ali, age 25, was charged with one misdemeanor charge of criminal neglect.
The charges follow the death of an elderly man who died March 20, 2011 from circumstances Minneapolis Police attribute to substandard care.
Investigators say Gigrich was responsible for caring for the victim in his home on West River Parkway from May 2010 to March 11, 2011, when they maintain he visited the victim for the last time.
On March 17, Best Care Home Health, Inc., the company that employed Gigrich, received a call from the victim requesting an emergency visit because he was experiencing pain and believed his urinary catheter was plugged.
Miski Mohamed-Ali, the company's on-call nurse, went to the victim's residence at 12:30 a.m. on March 18 and stayed there for two hours, during which time she changed his catheter.
A neighbor called 911 one day later reporting that the victim was not alert. Police say paramedics arrived at approximately 9:30 a.m. and observed the victim to be in poor medical heath, dirty and uncared for. Additionally, they described the residence being extremely cluttered, the smell of urine was present and there were mouse feces on the floor.
The elderly victim was transported to an area hospital where staff had to cut off his clothes and cleaned both human and rodent waste from the victim. He was admitted to the hospital in critical condition and died March 20. The man's cause of death was listed as sepsis from a urinary tract infection with poor nutrition and pancreatic cancer as contributing factors.
Investigators determined that both home health care nurses were aware of the victim's poor condition and his residence, and did nothing about it.
Hennepin County Attorney Mike Freeman maintains that this case shows the need for felony level charging when vulnerable adults are neglected."
I knew the man who died; I spent almost 6 months cleaning his house after he died. The problems of clutter & mice indeed built up over the years that he was sick; he didn't want to live that way. Trust me when I say that it was an overwhelming problem, much more than any caregiver could be expected to do with their limited hours. I know because I'm a caregiver, a caregiver for the widow, and I did much more than I was paid to do and STILL could not solve the problems of the house after working on it for months!!! Shawn is innocent of neglect. The deceased appreciated his caregivers and WOULD NOT want them to face charges. Shawn & other caregivers took care of his physical needs & the smell, clutter, & mice of the house were not their fault; even if they had tried to solve these problems they couldn't have made a dent in that house packed with decades' worth of stuff. The landlord never came to fix the house's problems like bad plumbing & windows that don't open. They rented the house, & the smell, clutter & mice are a result of their lifestyle choices, (hoarding) and the landlord's neglect, NOT the caregivers' neglect. The deceased would not want this attention or legal trouble.
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Arun Ghandi Spreading Message of Peace
I have seen
Arun Gandhi & heard him speak at Augsburg College. I asked him what he learned from his grandfather, Mohatmas Ghandi. This is worth going to; please attend & hear of the many efforts for Peace Studies in India & around the world.
The Ely Memorial High School Student Council presents
Peace Project Gandhi
Dr. Arun Gandhi, grandson of India’s legendary peace activist Mahatma Gandhi, will share his grandfather’s strategies for pursuing social justice and global peace through nonviolence.
7 p.m.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Washington Elementary Auditorium
600 E Harvey St. Ely, MN 55731
Donations Accepted
(A $20 donation is recommended)
Congressional Districts have New Shapes, New Threats of War
Minnesota's Congressional districts have changed for the 2012 election; every 10 years they are redistricting to suit population changes. The state tries to avoid gerrymandering but inevitable conflicts arise: I find myself now in the 4th Congressional district where 2 incumbents, Democrat Betty McCollum and Republican Michelle Bachmann will fight for the seat.
There are also 15 open seats for state & federal Congresspeople-- a sure sign of population growth, and new opportunities for new leadership. People have often told me I should run...
For now, my drive is just to meet with both Betty & Michelle, about the looming cloud of
war against Iran. Obviously the threat there isn't new, but the governments of the US & Israel are pushing for war anew.
I want anyone running for office to hear out these facts below. Take a stand against war with Iran-- after all we could be so close to peace with them instead! Peace takes effort but less effort & cost than war. I'm not the only one insisting on this-- I'll definitely be bringing friends with me. It always helps to have signatures & a good number of people with you to meet with your Congressperson.
---
see below: "5 year old Samar and her dazed brother after US military opened fire on their family car killing both her parents in 2005. Getty Photographer Chris HondrosThe Undersigned Urge Our U.S. Representative to Support:
A bill supporting diplomacy, not war, with Iran, has recently been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Barbara Lee. The bill, HR 4173, is entitled the Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons and Stop War Through Diplomacy Act. We need as many Representatives as possible to co-sponsor this bill, since it is an important counterweight to Congressional pressure on President Obama to abandon diplomacy.
Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later
There are also 15 open seats for state & federal Congresspeople-- a sure sign of population growth, and new opportunities for new leadership. People have often told me I should run...
For now, my drive is just to meet with both Betty & Michelle, about the looming cloud of
war against Iran. Obviously the threat there isn't new, but the governments of the US & Israel are pushing for war anew.
I want anyone running for office to hear out these facts below. Take a stand against war with Iran-- after all we could be so close to peace with them instead! Peace takes effort but less effort & cost than war. I'm not the only one insisting on this-- I'll definitely be bringing friends with me. It always helps to have signatures & a good number of people with you to meet with your Congressperson.
---
see below: "5 year old Samar and her dazed brother after US military opened fire on their family car killing both her parents in 2005. Getty Photographer Chris Hondros
was himself later killed on the front lines in Misurata, Libya (see attached NYT story). There are over 16 million kids under the age of 14 who live in Iran
who don’t want to suffer like Samar’s family and hundreds of thousands of other Iraqis.
DON’T IRAQ IRAN
The Undersigned Urge Our U.S. Representative to Support:
Diplomacy, Not War, With Iran! 
Support HR 4173!
A bill supporting diplomacy, not war, with Iran, has recently been introduced in the House of Representatives by Rep. Barbara Lee. The bill, HR 4173, is entitled the Prevent Iran from Acquiring Nuclear Weapons and Stop War Through Diplomacy Act. We need as many Representatives as possible to co-sponsor this bill, since it is an important counterweight to Congressional pressure on President Obama to abandon diplomacy.
In addition to the diplomacy bill above, there are two ill-informed and ill-motivated bills in Congress that could bring us closer to a war with Iran: House Resolution 568, and Senate Resolution 380. Both of these resolutions pressure the Obama administration to abandon diplomacy with Iran and support Israel's red line for attacking Iran, which is nuclear weapons capability rather than actual possession of a nuclear weapon. Currently, President Obama's red line for attacking Iran is possession of a nuclear weapon, so these bills pressure him to take a more militaristic stance. Not only would this action bring us closer to war with Iran, it would also make enemies of numerous countries around the world who have nuclear weapons capability but have not manufactured a nuclear warhead.
Face That Screamed War’s Pain Looks Back, 6 Hard Years Later 
MOSUL, Iraq — Until the past week, Samar Hassan had never glimpsed the photograph of her that millions had seen, never knew it had become one of the most famous images of the Iraq war.
“My brother was sick, and we were taking him to the hospital and on the way back, this happened,” Samar said. “We just heard bullets.
“My mother and father were killed, just like that.”
The image of Samar, then 5 years old, screaming and splattered in blood after American soldiers opened fire on her family’s car in the northern town of Tal Afar in January 2005, illuminated the horror of civilian casualties and has been one of the few images from this conflict to rise to the pantheon of classic war photography. The picture has gained renewed attention as part of a large body of work by Chris Hondros, the Getty Images photographer recently killed on the front lines in Misurata, Libya.
The photograph of Samar is frozen in history, but her life moved on, across a trajectory that is emblematic of what so many Iraqis have endured. In a country whose health care system has almost no ability to treat the psychological aspects of trauma, thousands of Iraqis are left alone with their torment.
Now a striking 12-year-old, Samar lives on the outskirts of Mosul in a two-story house with four other families, mostly relatives.
The household is a cramped bustle of activity as women cook and clean and children scramble about. Samar’s older sister, Intisar, and her husband, an unemployed former police officer, care for her. Two of his sons are policemen, and their salaries support the extended family.
The pains of war have been visited on thousands of Iraqis, but even here Samar’s story stands apart. Three years after her parents were killed, her brother Rakan died when an insurgent attack badly damaged the house where she lives now. Rakan had been seriously wounded in the shooting that killed their parents, and he was sent to Boston for treatment after Mr. Hondros’s photos were published. An American aid worker, Marla Ruzicka, who helped arrange for Rakan’s treatment, was herself later killed in a car bomb in Baghdad.
Intisar’s husband, Nathir Bashir Ali, suspects his house was bombed by insurgents as retribution for sending Rakan to the United States. “When Rakan came back from America, everyone thought I was a spy,” he said.
Samar left school last year because she was too shy and not doing well, Mr. Ali said, although Samar said she would like to return and hoped to be a doctor when she grew up. She leaves the house only on infrequent family excursions and has two friends who visit to play with dolls and chat. She spends her days cleaning, listening to music on her purple MP3 player and watching episodes of her favorite television show, the Turkish soap opera “Forbidden Love,” about lovers named Mohanad and Samar.
“I am Samar,” she said, wearing a long red dress and sitting on the couch next to Mr. Ali. Two of her siblings, also in the car when their parents were killed, sat nearby.
“I’ve taken them many times to the hospital, where they get pills” for emotional problems, Mr. Ali said. “All of them take pills.”
He says Samar’s 8-year-old brother, Muhammad, talks to himself when he is alone. “When we go out and see a family, they get sad,” he said. Sometimes he finds the children in a room together, crying. “When they remember the accident, it’s like they just died.”
The photo of Samar had far-reaching impact, for it was visual testimony to a particular scourge of this war: the shooting of innocent civilians as they approached American checkpoints or foot patrols, killings made possible by liberal rules of engagement aiming to protect soldiers from suicide car bombers. The image was a point of discussion at the highest reaches of the Pentagon as it considered ways to reduce civilian casualties.
The Iraq war delivered few singular images for the popular imagination, partly because the country was too dangerous for photographers to move around freely, but also because in an age of saturated media coverage and short attention spans, it may be more difficult for news images to take root in the collective memory.
The military also set strict rules for embedded journalists that kept many graphic images from the public eye; the military asked Mr. Hondros to leave his embed assignment after he shot the pictures of Samar.
Liam Kennedy, a professor at University College Dublin, researches conflict photography and uses Mr. Hondros’s image of Samar in his class as one of the few photos from the Iraq war that could stand out in history, comparing it to the famous Vietnam image by the Associated Press photographer Nick Ut of a young girl running from a napalm attack.
“It really seems to say something of what’s going on at the time,” Professor Kennedy said. “All the arbitrariness of the violence that was going on at that time is summed up by that girl.”
Sarah Leah Whitson, director of the Middle East and North Africa division for Human Rights Watch, keeps a copy of the photo on a bulletin board in her office in New York. She remembers crying when she first saw the photo in a newspaper, and having to explain the image to her children.
“At the time, I thought it captured perfectly the horrors of the war that was not really understood by Americans,” she said. “Everything in that girl’s face symbolized what I felt all Iraqis must feel.”
She added, “I kept thinking, ‘I wonder what life will be like for this girl?’ ”
Mr. Hondros spoke about the photograph in a 2007 interview with the syndicated news program “Democracy Now.”
“I think one of the reasons the photo had this sort of resonance that it does is because it has a sort of empty feeling,” he said. “You know, the poor girl, all alone in the world now, just standing there in the dark.”
This week Samar, hugging a pillow to her chest, recalled: “He was taking pictures of me, I remember. Then he stopped, and they brought me a jacket and put me in the truck and treated the wound on my hand. And they gave me some toys.”
She had never seen the picture until this week, but she said she understood that it showed the world “the sad thing that is happening in Iraq.”
Near the end of the interview, she pointed to a family photograph on the wall. “I always dream about my father and mother and brother,” she said.
By Tim Arango, New York Times. Duraid Adnan contributed reporting.
Resolving the Iran situation peacefully
1. Economic Sanction is an act of war. The current sanctions on Iran are the strongest ever practiced on a nation. The victims of sanctions are people not their government.
2. Economic and military attacks on Iran threaten to cause an explosive regional conflict, disrupt the global economy, and undermine the efforts of the democratic opposition by strengthening the Iranian government which will be seen as “under foreign siege”.
3. Iran does not pose a military threat to the United States and, as our own intelligence community states, it is far from developing a nuclear weapon at this time.
4. Lately Israeli officials have admitted that Iran does not pose a nuclear threat to its security either, but that the real issue is a change in the regional balance of power if Iran should develop nuclear weapons capability.
5. Iran feels threatened already by US presence in the region: The US military in Afghanistan and Iraq barricades Iran. The US also has military bases in Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirate, Kuwait and Bahrain, effectively surrounding Iran. Bahrain also hosts the U.S. 5th fleet. In fact, the Persian Gulf currently hosts 2 US Carrier Groups, and a third is on the way for ‘special ops’.
6. Instead of military threats and crippling sanctions that cause collective suffering among the people of Iran, the US needs to engage in diplomatic negotiations with Iran without pre-conditions. Pre-conditions are based on inequality of the parties in a negotiation. They are a coercive measure that undermines negotiations by assuming that the party on whom they fall is unworthy, and in many cases, by putting the desired result ahead of the negotiation process.
7. Now that Iran and Afghanistan have signed a mutual support treaty, the US can benefit from Iranian help with regional negotiations to end the war in Afghanistan. Iran is also well positioned to extend diplomatic support to help stabilize Iraq.
8. We believe there is a policy alternative concerning development of nuclear weapons. It is in the interest of the US, Iran, and Israel to create a Nuclear Weapons Free Zone in the Middle East. A regional ban on all nuclear weapons — Not only weapons that Iran or other nations might develop in the future, but also the nuclear weapons already held by Israel. We believe the US should promote this option, which is already favored by majorities of Israeli Jews, and of Iranians.
Fact Sheet
Fact: Iran does not possess a nuclear weapon.
Fact: Iran has the right, according to international law, to develop nuclear energy for civilian use.
Fact: Iran’s nuclear energy program is regularly monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Fact: In past 200 years Iran has never started a war.
Fact: The United States possesses 10,600 nuclear warheads in its stockpile, 7,982 of which are deployed and 2,700 of which are in a contingency stockpile. The total number of nuclear warheads that have been built from 1951 to present is 67,500.
Fact: The United States is the only country to have ever used nuclear weapons. It did so when it incinerated hundreds of thousands of Japanese people living in the cities of Nagasaki and Hiroshima. Neither city had any military significance.
Fact: The United States has spent $7 trillion on nuclear weapons. The U.S. military budget for 2012alone is about equal to Iran’s entire Gross National Product.
Fact: Israel, the largest recipient of U.S. foreign aid (about $3 billion in 2011), unlike Iran, possesses hundreds of nuclear weapons.
Fact: Israel, unlike Iran, refuses to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, or allow the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) into Israel to monitor its nuclear program.
Fact: There is active discussion in the Israeli media about whether Israel will carry out military strikes against Iran’s nuclear energy facilities. Israel bombed similar nuclear civilian energy facilities in Iraq in 1981 (“Operation Babylon”) and in Syria in 2007 (“Operation Orchard”).
Fact: The United States and Britain used severe economic sanctions and CIA covert operatives to overthrow the democratically elected government of Iran led by Dr. MohammadMosaddegh in 1953. The Iranian government under Mosaddegh had nationalized the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC), which became known as British Petroleum (BP), in a campaign to use oil profits to eradicate widespread poverty within Iran. The successful CIA and British Intelligence coup d’état put the Shah of Iran (King) back in power.
Fact: The United States broke diplomatic relations with Iran and has pursued a policy of economic sanctions against the country since the Revolution of 1979.
Fact: Iran’s oil reserves are the fourth largest in the world—it has 12.7 percent of the world’s known oil reserves. That makes Iran’s oil reserves second only to Saudi Arabia in the Middle East, greater than those of Iraq.
Fact: The new economic sanctions against Iran include a ban on the import, sale and trade of Iranian oil, which constitutes half of Iran’s Gross National Product. It forbids any company in the world that does any business with Iran or its Central Bank from having any trade or economic transaction with a U.S. bank or corporation.
Fact: The economic sanctions are an effort to create economic suffering in Iran and to deprive the country of the goods and services to sustain life. According to international law, these economic sanctions constitute a blockade or an act of war against Iran even though Iran poses no threat to the people of the United States or Europe."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)