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(07/24/06 12:08am)
Americans breed rabbits for cash, raise rabbits as pets, eat rabbit meat in stews, wear rabbit fur and dangle rabbit feet as good luck charms, but Lynchburg, Ohio, resident Terry Fender spends his time examining rabbits to make a living, as a certified American Rabbit Breeders Association judge.\nFender's 16-year ability to gauge the best floppy-eared and four-legged mammal-like rodent was on display Saturday and continued through Sunday at 51st Monroe County Fair. His task: find the "best of show" from about 200 rabbits representing a dozen classes among more than 30 different breeds.\n"I turned a hobby into a living," Fender said while trying to wipe the rabbit fur from his contact lens with his finger. "I work on the side, and I am not making as much money as before I became a rabbit judge but I'm a hell of a lot happier."\nVisiting about 70 rabbit shows per year at county and state fairs across the country, Fender said he judges between 200 and 300 rabbits per show -- an estimated 17,500 rabbits per year. He said the difference between rabbits is often not noticeable by appearance alone because each class and breed has different expectations about what constitutes a "winning" rabbit.\n"Most of it's black and white but some of its objective, because you as a judge have a personal standard, like what does a 'medium-length' body mean? It's a hands-on job where you have to get a feel for their condition," Fender said. "Some rabbits just stand out -- they have a flash about them -- and their overall finish is the icing on the cake. Some rabbits pose well, as if they're posing themselves, besides their coat and collar finish having good gloss."\nTraveling between 12 and 15 states per year in search of rabbits to judge may not suit the average American, but Fender said his duty to define the "best of show" among hundreds of otherwise winning rabbits and interacting with the rabbit-owning 4-H kids is enough to keep him going one day to the next despite progressive stomach troubles.\n"I live on the road a lot of the time, I sleep in a lot of motels and I eat a lot of Chinese buffet," he said. \nAccording to the ARBA, there are about 50 different breeds of rabbits including the American Fuzzy Lop, English Angora, Jersey Wooly, Netherland Dwarf and Silver Fox. Rabbit owners paid $1 to enter each rabbit into one of 12 classes depending on age, sex and weight. \nRibbons were awarded for the first three places in each class, "Best of Breed" and "Best Opposite." Rosette ribbons were also awarded for "Reserve Grand Champion" and "Grand Champion."\nFender was spotted rubbing his hand along each rabbit's back, rubbing the pads on each rabbit's foot, checking the rabbit's genitals and teeth. Depending on the breed, he also allowed some rabbits to hop along the judging table to expose the body shape beneath the furry fluff.\nFender said participant feedback often separates a good judge from the next because most of the participants are children, and everybody deserves to be treated with respect for taking the time to raise and care for rabbits. He also said a judge should raise rabbits for themselves so they understand the work ethic and human spirit needed to care for some of God's smallest creatures.\n"The main thing for a judge is to explain themselves and to answer any questions about why they made the decisions they did," Fender said. "If you're going to be a good judge, you should raise rabbits yourself -- I have 300 at home. If I'm going to spend my life critiquing rabbits, I feel like I should step up and put some on the table myself"
(07/23/06 3:12pm)
A free comedy show is one thing, but a chance to win $50 for not laughing is another.\nStudents and guests have the chance to do both tonight. \nIU Union Board and Kramer Entertainment are hosting the "We Can Make You Laugh" Comedy Game Show at 8 p.m. in the Frangipani Room, located on the Mezzanine level of the IMU. The free, two-hour comedy show features comedians Joe Anderson, Scott Piebenga and Adam Mollhager.\nAfter the main event, four to six audience members, chosen at random, will compete in the "One Minute Challenge" to win $50 each if they can last 60 seconds without laughing. The comedy troupe toured through college campuses in 35 states last school year, and claims to be one of the best national comedy tours around "you've never heard of."\nAnderson, a two-year member of Second City Theatre in Chicago and a MTV stand-up comedy competition winner, said audience members can expect a "super fun, straight-up comedy show."\n"It's really diverse, fast pace stand-up comedy and improv with musical bits in there," he said. "It's medically proven laughter actually heals the body. It's like an escape, and equally safe to hugging a tree -- but no matter how hard you hug a tree fifty bucks will not come of it."\nPiebenga has performed professional comedy for five years and he is also a member of the Spontaneous Combustion and Crawlspace Eviction comedy groups, according to Kramer Entertainment. Mollhager has performed professional comedy for more than five years and he is also a member of Spontaneous Combustion comedy group and the River City Improv troupe.\nThe "We Can Make You Laugh" Comedy Game Show is billed as an one-hour "comedy concert," followed by a fast-paced, one-hour "Hollywood Style" game show where the group will pay you if don't laugh. Audience members can also win free T-shirts besides the $50 in cash.\nSimilar to other professional comedians and national comedy acts, Anderson said his troupe rehearses its act to the last comma and extended pause beforehand for maximum effect. He said audience members have no chance to act passive during the show because good comedy brings the show to the crowd.\n"We want to put an end to the cycle of grumpiness," Anderson said. "Come out of the darkness and into a room full of goofy, laughing people. If you're not along for the ride, you will be left behind somewhere at one stop or another."\nUp to 12 audience members are needed to participate in various improv sketches throughout the show, he said, and at least one person usually forces a frown for one minute or more to win $50 during the "One Minute Challenge."\nAccording to Kramer Entertainment, the only rule to the "We Can Make You Laugh" Comedy Game Show is "uncontrollable laughter" from a standing-room-only crowd.
(07/20/06 3:46pm)
Just when peace in the Middle East between Israel and Palestine seemed far-fetched and out of sight ... now life in the Gaza Strip has become an international humanitarian crisis. Bravo!\nThe Hamas-led Palestinians are continuing international war crimes, while the Israelis are continuing their decades-long genocide of the Palestinian people. According to the international watch-dog organization Human Rights Watch, the Palestinians have resorted to using human beings as "bargaining chips," while Israel has continued acts of military intimidation and aggression -- all in violation of established international law.\nThis newest human rights mess was sparked June 9, when eight Palestinian civilians were killed by an explosion while picnicking on the beach. Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert called the event an "accident," a claim that never resonated with either the Palestinians or most international human rights organizations.\nFast forward to June 22, and all seemed for the better -- Olmert, for a change, apologized to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas for the recent deaths of at least another 13 Palestinian civilians, caused when the Israeli army conducted military strikes against suspected Hamas terrorists. Meanwhile, Palestinian militants have conducted regular rocket attacks on Israeli civilian populations since Israel's 2005 withdrawal from the Gaza Strip. This indiscriminate targeting has murdered only a few Israeli civilians, but a few is still too many. \nNevertheless, despite the reality that more than 1.4 million Palestinians live in a Gaza Strip that occupies a space about twice the size of Washington, D.C., Olmert was quoted by the Associated Press June 23 as having said: "Israel will continue to carry out targeted attacks against terrorists and those who try to harm Israeli citizens." \nRing around the civilian rosy we go, with a pocket full of death and destruction.\nAshes, ashes, humanity falls down.\nFast forward to June 25, and all hell broke loose. Palestinian militants attacked an Israeli military post, killing two soldiers and kidnapping a third: 19-year-old Cpl. Gilad Shalit. Since that time, Israel has embarked on a campaign of mass destruction that has included sending thousands of soldiers and military equipment into the Gaza Strip, and using aircraft to create "sonic booms" to intimidate the Palestinian people. \nAs if Israeli, American and European isolation of their democratic Palestinian neighbors was not human rights violation enough, Israel destroyed the Gaza Strip's only power plant -- necessary for running water, lights, sanitation and medical services. Hamas' radical wing has called for an exchange of Cpl. Shalit for 1,000 imprisoned Palestinian men, women and children held in Israeli jails. Israel rightly refuses, because terrorism has no place in the democratic process, not that they should hold Palestinian civilians hostage.\nHuman Rights Watch has reminded Israel that it is responsible for the basic welfare of the Palestinian people because they still occupy Palestine, and they have reminded Hamas that taking prisoners -- not to mention executing them -- is a war crime.\nMight both Olmert and Abbas ever realize that their terrorist acts only breed increased terrorism?
(07/20/06 3:44pm)
Hundreds of southern Indiana job seekers flocked to the 2006 Bloomington Job Fair Monday in the hope of securing a living wage or the chance to climb the American socioeconomic ladder.\nRep. Mike Sodrel, R-9th, and Rep. Steve Buyer, R-4th, co-sponsored the event with the WorkOne Bloomington office, a division of Indiana's workforce development program, the second such job fair in two years. About 1,000 Hoosiers browsed more than 70 local, regional, statewide and national employers stationed in the Bloomington High School North gymnasium to offer community members hundreds of jobs immediately, toward the end of summer or sometime in the fall.\n"This is a marvelous opportunity for businesses that are hiring to get hooked up face to face with people seeking employment and new opportunities," said Jim Huston, Congressman Buyer's district director. "We have received a lot of positive feedback from employers and job seekers -- people saying they got two or three leads out of the job fair. We are hoping folks can get together and help build a better future."\nHuston said Sodrel and Buyer were on-hand at the beginning of the job fair to welcome the participating businesses and encourage the job seeking crowd because, he said, there are positive signs of hope in town despite the national economy wavering from time to time. \nAccording to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Congressman Sodrel's 9th District has about five unemployed Hoosiers per 100 residents, and Congressman Buyer's 4th District has about the same percent of unemployed Hoosiers as of May 2006. \nTo the chagrin of some community member job seekers, not all employers attending the 2006 Bloomington Job Fair were hiring, despite the presumption more than 1,600 jobs were readily available for the taking.\nBloomington resident Kelly McGlothlin, a twelve-year civil servant and an administrative assistant for the Bloomington Employee Services Department, said the city's Parks and Recreation Department is not hiring as of now even though the 2006 Hoosier Job Fair Business Listing handout given to job seekers indicated that proposition.\n"We don't really hire during a certain time, besides the Parks and Recreation Department during the spring, but new positions are sometimes budgeted at the beginning of the year," she said. "Sometimes people leave or change positions so don't give up and keep coming back. Working for the city of Bloomington is not a cushy job -- we do work there and put taxpayers' money to good use."\nAlthough Bloomington receives about 50 applications per job opening, McGlothlin said community members can scope out future positions as they become available at www.bloomington.in.gov or by calling 349-3539.\nOther businesses represented at the job fair included fast food chains like Arby's, retail stores like Target, manufacturing industries like Toyota, life science companies like BioConvergence, employment agencies like Labor Ready, telecommunication operations like Finelight Strategic Marketing, public service organizations like Ivy Tech State College and military branches like the Indiana Army National Guard, among other business fields. Some businesses claimed to have hundreds of openings, while others advertised a few positions not available until an unspecified date, and about one-third of the businesses left more than one and a half hours before the end of the event.\nBloomington resident Gene Hilger, branch manager for Orkin Pest Control and first-time job fair attendee, said he attended the job fair to seek out "outside sale employees" for termite and pest control. He said he talked with about 30 job seekers, and he scheduled about 12 follow-up appointments to discuss one to two current job openings.\n"I haven't had much success with newspapers so I am hoping one-on-one meetings will do a little better," said Hilger, a 15-year pest control specialist. "I am looking for someone who is friendly, outgoing and has an ability to deal with a wide variety of folks because they are going to customers on their turf. ... Overall I've had a very good candidate flow, and this job fair has exposed them to a job category that probably never crossed their mind before. Pest control is an important part of people's lives -- it helps protect property and the health of the community."\nSome job seekers seemed overjoyed at the face-to-face interaction with possible employers the job fair provided, as reflected in hearty handshakes after a resume and application were exchanged for an employer business card and follow-up interview. On the other hand, some job seekers left the event dismayed after discovering few opportunities were available immediately if at all, and some employers seemed content to fill their entry-level employment needs without regard for past individual skills or training. \nMartinsville resident Nathan Shipley, who is currently employed and attended the job fair to seek out improved opportunities, said the event was great but he was looking for a job that he would enjoy while finding increased financial independence for himself. On both accounts, he said he left somewhat empty-handed even though he dished out three resumes and received information about other companies to check out online.\n"I think it's a matter of the employers finding a person like me than a person like me finding the right employer. There were a couple companies I came here to find because I knew they would be here, and other companies I found I didn't know much about," Shipley said. "You can easily take a job and it turns into an expensive hobby -- you don't make much money and you end up going nowhere. All too often you walk into a business and the employees are all crabby because they don't want to be there, and that's a pretty good sign you don't want to be there either"
(07/20/06 3:42pm)
In times of neighbor-to-neighbor dispute or community member conflict the human tendency sometimes is to draw a line in the sand that neither person can cross.\nHelping to bridge that interpersonal gap is the Bloomington-based Community Justice and Mediation Center, which promotes a civil and just community through mediation, education and restorative justice.\n"We would meet with both parties separately to determine the issues involved and to determine if mediation makes sense," said Amy Dowell, executive director of CJMC, 120 W. Seventh St, Suite 310. "We then sit down for a face-to-face mediation session and mediators would help discuss the situation and hopefully come up with some kind of agreement. We get a wide range of cases."\nDisputes can be mediated between neighbors, landlords and tenants, merchants and customers, professionals and clients, adults and youth, and any other who wish to resolve conflict voluntarily and foster constructive relationships, according to a CJMC pamphlet. \nCJMC offers educational workshops and training to individuals and organizations about managing conflict; they facilitate the group decision-making process for businesses and organizations facing change, conflict or policy issues; they help courts, probation and the prosecutor's office hold offenders directly accountable to the people they harmed; they provide telephone support for individuals involved in a dispute and assist the caller about possible peaceful choices for how to proceed; they offer offense-specific programs that help participants identify the feelings, thoughts and actions which let them to commit a crime and how to make better choices in the future; they help youths and adults understand the broader effects of criminal behavior on friends, family, businesses and the community as a whole; and they visit inmates, keep record of jail conditions and work to maximize the rehabilitative focus of the local justice system among other community functions.\nDowell said the most difficult challenge the CJMC faces is getting both parties to agree to mediation, and then getting both parties to the negotiating table. She said some community members reject the notion of mediation outright, while others think mediation will not work because the two parties involved are too far from the middle. \n"We take each case individually. When we talk to the first person we try to get a feel for what's going on and figure out what has worked and what hasn't," Dowell said. "We don't try to solve the situation immediately. We send a letter and follow up with a phone call to try to get the people involved together."\nMediation can work whenever the parties are willing and able to negotiate freely, according to a CJMC pamphlet. But mediation is often not possible if there is a fear of imminent violence or an extensive history of abuse; a party is under constraints or instructions which prevents him or her from coming to an agreement; a party lacks the power or ability to negotiate on his or her own behalf; ongoing issues that require significant counseling or treatment; or there is a significant public interest in the outcome of the dispute.\nDowell said about half of the cases reported to her office are mediated -- that is both parties agree to sit down face-to-face at the table. Of those cases that are mediated, she said most are successful in the sense an agreement is reached or a conclusion about how best to proceed is decided.\n"It is very difficult to mediate, but avoiding a conflict really doesn't make it go away. The dispute will come back because we live with people, we're in relationships with people and we're in a community with people," Dowell said. "If it's a situation where you need an ongoing relationship with somebody -- whether business or personal -- try mediation. Even if it doesn't work out, you get a better understanding of what went wrong. Trying mediation isn't going to hurt your chances in the future; it can only help them."\nShe said people can get a lot of benefits from meeting the person who has offended them, and expressing how that incident impacted them.\n"A person can request certain things from the other person like 'I want you to write a paper about this' or 'volunteer at Middle Way House so you can learn more about how violence traumatizes someone,'" Dowell said. "One classic situation is a group of kids who damages some neighbors' property -- they think they were only having fun, but when they sit down with those people they realize there were many different impacts on those homeowners. So they pay money for the damage and maybe they do a presentation to their peers so they don't make the same mistake."\nCJMC also operates the Victim Offender Reconciliation Program that can serve as a diversion from prosecution, a condition of informal adjustment or pretrial agreement, a part of a sentence or after-sentencing program at the request of the victim or offender, according to a CJMC pamphlet. \nCJMC is seeking applications for Victim Offender Conferencing training through the Friday, in which community members will focus on the theory and practice of restorative justice: practice and research; screening and referring cases; victim and offender issues; how mediation works and its itsrole of the mediator and communication skills and techniques. Community members wishing to volunteer can contact the CJMC office for more information including fees, as training runs July 27 through July 30. \nDowell said a good mediator is a good listener, someone who has experience working among diverse populations and a person with a compassionate attitude.\n"I don't think we as Americans and citizens of the world realize the impact of our behavior on other people," she said. "Even if it's not intentional, if somebody is going through something, our behavior can have much more impact then we think, and we wouldn't know that until we sit down and talk with them that what we did was wrong. We could then discuss ways to fix the situation."\nFor mediation services contact 812-336-8677 or visit www.bloomington.in.us/~mediate for more information.
(07/20/06 1:30am)
Three-year-old Spencer, Ind., resident Heather Dutt was not tall enough to hang her head over the side of a 1929 Travel Air biplane to let her hair blow in the summer breeze, but she proved she had the right stuff by displaying no fear while flying 1,000 feet above the earth. \n"She was real low in the seat so she couldn't see past the wing," said Heather's father, Kirk Dutt, Tuesday afternoon, after the pair joined barnstormer Stuart "Cap'n Mac" MacPherson on a 10-minute air cruise in the western sky of Bloomington. "It was very smooth up there. The pilot made a 360-degree turn to the left so she could see the ground. I think the experience opened her eyes a little bit."\nThe Dutt family joined about 4,000 community members for the 2006 American Barnstormers Tour at the Monroe County Airport to revisit about 20 biplanes from the 1920s through 1940s, a period that defined America's "Golden Age of Aviation." Pilots conversed with visitors about their airplanes' history and restoration efforts, and their open-cockpit view of America from thousands of miles above the ground.\n"We came out to see the aircraft because there aren't too many left and to let my son see vintage planes flying," said Bloomington resident Tom Alford, standing next to his wife, Nelda, and his 7-year-old son, Matthew. "And there are even two Model A Fords here."\nNelda Alford was also excited about the opportunity for her son to see a rare piece of history.\n"He's a science buff and we wanted to let him hear the sounds and smell the smells," she said. "He's very mechanically inclined."\nBarnstorming was popular in America at the end of World War I, as returning fighter aces sought employment above the ground and left-over biplanes were inexpensive and plentiful. Pilots banded together in "Flying Circuses," as they were often called, to cruise the country in search of paying riders.\nBarnstormers were known to blanket a town with leaflets offering rides from 75 cents to $5, and their stops in nearby farmers' fields would shut down the community so people could ride the carnival-like flying rides. Biplanes, or any airplanes for that matter, were not a usual sight because public transportation and automobile travel were both practical and affordable at the time considering no commercial airline service was in operation.\nRex Hinkle, president and general manager of Cook Aviation, who helped host the event in Bloomington, said the 2006 American Barnstormers Tour is the first of its kind in recent history at the Monroe County Airport, although they have hosted air shows in the past and they showcased two vintage World War II planes last summer.\n"We're very satisfied with the event and very happy with the turnout," he said. "The event has really helped educate people about the facilities at Monroe County Airport and stimulate aviation in Indiana ... People really seem like they enjoy these types of airplanes in Bloomington."\nAbout 300 community members took a 10-minute ride in one of four vintage biplanes for $45 per person to help the barnstormers pay for fuel, food and lodging as they sweep through nine cities in five states as part of their 2006 summer tour. The open-air cockpit enabled participants to feel the effects of wind on their faces, to hear the wooden propellers twirling in the breeze and to smell the gasoline puttering from the front engine.\nAlthough traditional barnstorming is often associated with daredevil stunts and other death-defying aerial tricks, the most flying-by-the-seat-of-the pants fun riders enjoyed was quick dips and hard turns before the pilots coasted their crafts at between 40 and 60 miles per hour back to the airport. Organizers said next year's adventure is planned farther west in states like Missouri and Kansas, the rural heartland of America that made barnstorming during the "Golden Age of Aviation" such a popular spectacle. \nKirk Dutt, who took a biplane ride with his daughter while his wife, Becky, snapped photos, said his interest in aviation began when he was a small child some 40 years ago. He said his family's love for aviation is reflected in thought and deed, and Heather enjoys the flight even more than riding her horses at home.\n"I've gone to air shows on and off since I was a small child and I'm just kind of continuing that tradition," he said. "We try to get her out to see and do new things when we can. I've always been fascinated with aviation, whether general aviation or historical World War I or World War II planes."\nThe Alford family said they visited the Monroe County Airport last summer to see two or three destroyed or scrapped vintage World War II planes, but they shared a similar reason as the Dutts for attending the 2006 American Barnstormers Tour Tuesday.\n"It is different than playing with toys," Nelda Alford said of her seven-year-old son. "It's more of an educational experience"
(07/20/06 1:05am)
The "War on Terror" is alive and well and living in the Middle East.\nUprooting terrorism from the face of the globe is a noble cause, but -- similar to America's Iraq misadventure and Israel's history of violence -- destroying nations to "eradicate" the terrorists only further emboldens terrorism as a military tool because of the collateral damage in dismantled infrastructures and murdered humans.\nPolitical analysts, from Newt Gingrich to diplomats, like the Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, have declared in the last week-to-months that the international community's "War on Terror" is akin to "World War III" -- a new kind of battle against a very different kind of enemy.\nIf so, 20th century military tactics (i.e. transforming once "stable" countries like Lebanon and democratic public bodies like Hamas to rubble) have no place in humanity's first 21st-century war.\n"World War III" requires nations to win the hearts and minds of their global neighbors using every last diplomatic tool in the negotiating shed because terrorism is not a country, but a way of life, and wars are never "won" in the hearts and minds of humanity.\nIsrael might not respect the democratic process or the end result of its neighbor's national elections, but isolation and methodical destruction of its neighbor's quality of life as "diplomatic" tools further instigates its neighbors' willingness to support terrorist-like retaliation, and to applaud terrorism as a tool of national defense. \nAs democratic governments, the Palestinian Authority and Lebanon need to utilize the international press, United Nations and anyone else who will listen to address their continued grievances with Israel -- like the imprisonment of about 10,000 Palestinians, including about 500 women and children.\nIsrael, unless it truly seeks to inflame "World War III," needs to withdraw from Lebanon and the Gaza Strip before helping the international community rebuild its neighbors' property, national esteem and sense of value within the world. \nIran and Syria, unless they truly seek to destroy their own land and murder their own people, need to pressure themselves, Hamas and Hezbollah to recognize Israel's right to exist.\nContinued biting of thumbs at one another is as sexy as a nuclear holocaust.\nMight our international leaders demonstrate restraint, patience and determination to solve their global neighbor-to-neighbor conflict that they themselves perpetuate?
(07/20/06 12:41am)
About 20 barnstormers flew over the Bloomington skies Tuesday, but each pilot and each biplane had a story to share if willing ears stood nearby to listen. \nThe 2006 American Barnstormers Tour provided community members an all-day visual feast and other "Golden Age of Aviation" fun at the Monroe County Airport. Both children and adults flocked to the airport to get a glimpse of living history from the 1920s through the 1940s.\nCalifornia resident Alan Buchner, a member of the American Barnstormers Tour, landed his 1929 Waco QDC closed-cockpit biplane on the runway sometime Tuesday morning to share his love of aviation with about 4,000 community members who attended the event. \nHe camped underneath one wing all day to avoid the heat waves and to mingle with people interested in either the history of the aircraft or his personal attachment to the biplane.\n"(A friend of mine and I) were looking at a Waco and I said 'someday I would like to have a Waco Cabin,' and he said, 'well, there's one in a barn down the street here,'" Buchner said as he stood next to a photo album stuffed with restoration pictures and other Waco memorabilia. "There it was, sitting in the corner with its wings off. They had put it in the barn for the winter."\nHe said the plane stood on its nose in the corner for about 15 years before a friend purchased the plane in 1969 and sold it to him in 1972. Upon joining the Waco Club in the hope of restoring the plane, Buchner said he learned from the history of ownership that he was the 17th owner and the fifth owner was his father, Les, in 1938.\nBuchner said the 1929 Waco QDC was one of the first closed-cockpit biplanes manufactured, and his plane was one of only 37 of its kind built. He said his is only one of two of that model remaining -- the other can still fly, but it was restored in the 1950s so it's in "pretty sad shape."\n"It says you can now fly in the comfort of a cabin and still see out all the way around, even to the rear. So that's why they had the back windows in it," he said, reading from the original 1929 sales brochure. "It's just a neat little airplane. It'll take off and land in less than 60 yards, which is really good for most airplanes." \nSimilar to professional race car drivers who have tinkered on cars since childhood, Buchner said his professional flying career began at the age of 14 when he worked for his father's charter airplane service. \nHe said he earned his license to fly in 1950, and he owns his own charter business in which he shuttles about 50 people across California and the country for a fee.\nConsidering he has spent most of his life high above the earth, Buchner said America looks a "whole lot better" from the air.\nAlthough the drive from California to Indiana by automobile might take 14 hours or more, Buchner said it took about nine hours to fly here in his biplane. \nHe said he followed the ground traffic on Highway 80 for most of the route, which resembled a "freight train going down the highway" because of all the cars and trucks, and because he saw only one other airplane in the sky during his trip.\n"I fly around California all the time, and when you fly across the farm country and the backyards you've got all kinds of farm equipment and old cars. Even downtown, in the backyards of houses there's old cars and all kinds of junk and stuff," Buchner said. "Around here it looks like a painting because every yard is just clean as a whistle. It looks like it's been mowed -- I mean it's just beautiful"
(07/17/06 2:35am)
Community members wishing to relive the "Golden Age of Aviation" between World War I and World War II can step back in time this week on a modern-day flying time machine.\nThe 2006 American Barnstormers Tour, consisting of about 20 vintage biplanes from the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s, is scheduled to land at 9 a.m. Tuesday at Monroe County Airport on the westside of Bloomington to showcase planes and provide brief trips above town.\n"After World War I there was a large surplus of planes -- often called Jennys -- and a lot of pilots with experience flying that didn't want to go back to their jobs," said Sarah Wilson, one of three ABT organizers and the pilot of a 1943 Boeing Steerman -- the plane used to train American pilots before World War II. "Early barnstormers would paint 'ride' under their wings and fly above towns. Most people hadn't heard of or ridden in planes so they would follow the barnstormers out to a farmer's field to pay 75 cents to one dollar for a quick ride."\nAlso known as "flying circuses," the barnstormers offered the first major form of civil aviation in the history of flight, according to the U.S. Centennial of Flight Commission. Each "Jenny," or Curtiss JN-4 used to train most World War I pilots, cost as little as $200 -- about $4,800 less than the sticker price -- due to federal government surplus after the war. \nWith no federal regulations governing aviation at the time and no significant commercial flight industry, barnstorming fast became a method of income for many aviators, and the skies above the United States became the playground to showcase their aviation talents, according to the USCFC. Barnstormers would "buzz" a town and drop handbills offering "joy rides" for a nominal fee up to $5, and the sudden appearance of a barnstorming aerial troop would shut down a town so folks could watch the show and ride the biplane rides. \nWilson said the 2006 American Barnstorming Tour will offer community members an opportunity to step back into the 1920s because the pilots will wear period aviation costumes, and the open cockpit vintage biplanes will showcase the beginning of aviation through their aesthetic cockpit dials and meters.\n"Aviation has become pretty complex, somewhat distasteful, and most of us have forgotten the thrill of flight. Our show will take you back to being a kid," Wilson said. "It's like the first time you rode a bicycle down a hill or rode in a convertible on a summer night. We don't put that thrill with an airplane anymore because we're crammed into a seat going somewhere as opposed to enjoying the flying experience -- the smells, actual quietness of it, wind in your face, feel of the air. Flying can be a special experience."\nCovering more than 1,000 miles throughout five Midwest states, the 2006 American Barnstorming Tour begins at 11 a.m. and concludes at 6 p.m. Tuesday. Weather depending, the 20 or so vintage biplanes will fly overhead Bloomington before landing at around 9 a.m. at the Monroe County Airport.\nCommunity members can attend the event for free, which might include observing the spectacle, browsing the exterior and interior of the vintage aircraft or chitchatting with the pilots about their experience barnstorming and the history of their personal planes. Similar to antique and vintage automobile restoration, biplane maintenance and upkeep can cost hundreds of thousands of dollars and take decades to complete a flyable ride.\nWilson said the neat thing about biplanes is that they hold two people, so those wishing to take about a 10-minute ride about 1,000 feet above Bloomington can ride with their children, spouses, parents, neighbors or friends. \n"As opposed to standing in a crowd and watching something happen in front of you, you can spend all day talking to people and hearing about their planes. You'll come away with something that is very personal, and you will fall in love with these planes," she said. "You can ride alone but if you ride with someone else it makes it that much more special. The open air, it's like you're on an adventure. We call them biplanes but really it is a biplane adventure."\nOnly four planes of the 20 are offering rides, and community members can choose their plane and pilot from top-notch and experienced barnstormers like Clay "Pork Chop" Adams, Rob "Waldo" Lock, Gary "Pop" Lust and Stuart "Cap'n Mac" MacPherson. Tickets cost $45 per person for each ride with no age limitations, and most of the cost is absorbed by the pilots' need to pay for fuel, food and lodging while on tour. \nSmith said a ride with the 2006 American Barnstormers Tour will make for a life-long memory, even if community members only swing by the airport during their lunch break to scope out the biplanes and for some one-on-one time with the pilots.\n"In the 1930s you got a shorter ride -- they took you up and put you right back down. We will give you a good thrill and it is better than any amusement park ride even though there is no daredevil stuff -- only a fun, old fashioned ride," she said. "Fears disappear when you see the smiles on people's faces. Come out and see the planes because it appeals to kids, adults, seniors and disabled folks with equal enthusiasm"
(07/13/06 5:31pm)
American slavery is thought to have ended when President Lincoln announced the Emancipation Proclamation Jan. 1 1863, but slavery continued in much of the South until June 19, 1865 when Texas slaves were the last to hear word of their law-abiding freedom.\nLess than 150 years later hundreds of community members from all walks of life convened Saturday at Bryan Park to pay homage to black forefathers who helped build the U.S. from the ground up, despite shackles around their ankles and whip marks lashed into their backs. \nBloomington's Juneteenth Freedom Celebration, a day to memoralize the June 19, 1865 end to slavery and the beginning of realized democracy despite continued segregation in America, offered Hoosiers booths of African attire, foot-stomping music, spoken word poetry and soul food from local vendors. \nIU microbiology graduate student Adrian Land, who is also a member of the historic black fraternity Omega Psi Phi, said he attended the Juneteenth Freedom Celebration with his fraternity brothers to help promote campus unity, not just for black people, but for everybody. He said he is from Mississippi and he attended Alcorn State University, a small historic black college where everybody lives on campus.\n"IU is so huge of a university it's easy to get lost in the crowd," Land said. "One of the major challenges for myself is it's sometimes hard because I'm seen as the exception and not the rule because of my background, and I'm in a field of science where black people are underrepresented. Most people are surprised when I tell them what I do but education balances out a lot of inequality."\nBloomington resident Gary Cushinberry, owner of the Worlds Fare, 342 S. Walnut St., said he attended the Bloomington Juneteenth Freedom Celebration for the third time in as many years to share "soul food" with freedom-loving community members. His menu included African curry goat with fufu, fried chicken, jambalaya, beans and rice, macaroni and cheese with cornbread and a chocolate fondue fountain.\n"Soul food is indicative of African traditions and because our restaurant is a world store we serve the purpose of the Juneteenth Freedom Celebration everyday," Cushinberry said in front of a wok-like deep fryer. "We thought we would give a home-cooked meal with flavors that will excite you and make you warm inside. The flavors really capture your imagination and that is pretty important. If your imagination gets the flow it makes you think about other cultures because of the food."\nHe said he dished out more than 100 pounds of chicken wings, 25 pounds of goat curry and 25 pounds of rice and beans to about 400 guests.\n"I totally believe in my heart I have African roots and my ancestors were slaves brought to America on slave ships," he said while a chorus of vocal chords and drum thumps energized the festival audience into a gyrating frenzy. "Through language, music and food we are able to subliminally understand our roots. For example, do you hear those drum beats? If you feel some pulse then it opens your spirit, opens your intellect to more ideas."\nVanessa F. McClary, lt. governor of the Kiwanis Hoosier Division whose business card says "one can make a difference," said she attended the Bloomington Juneteenth Freedom Celebration to get the word about Kiwanis International, a global organization of volunteers dedicated to changing the world one child and one community at a time.\n"We help the children of our community develop leadership skills through service," she said. "They are learning how to function as leaders in our community."\nMcClary said a local group of Kiwanis middle school kids raised $2,491 for Hurricane Katrina relief from two car washes and accompanying bake sales. She said wants to start a high school Kiwanis Key Club so teenage Hoosiers can obtain college scholarships to IU, Purdue, Ball State and the University of Arizona among others community members have missed out on thus far. \n"Our philosophy is our kids in our community need our help I don't have much time to volunteer but I make time because it's our job as parents and community members," McClary said. "If we don't do it who will, and if we don't do it now when will we? We don't have the time to sit around and think about it because our kids face choices everyday. To help the children of the world we need to start in this community"
(07/12/06 11:19pm)
As humanity strives for 21st century diplomacy within a world governed by 20th century tools of destruction, let all our global neighbors make no mistake: Threats of aggression backed by nuclear, chemical and biological weapons have no place or use in any civilized -- yet alone democratic -- world whatsoever. Weapons of mass destruction do not deter but instigate.\nWhen will our international leaders awake to the real challenges of peacemaking, arise from the nightmare of saber rattling, and realize humanity's dream of global well-being -- thus saving our children and grandchildren from the innate human fallibilities that lead to war? \nTo the world, we demand Iran cease its uranium enrichment for fear they intend to make nuclear bombs -- but we do not seem to understand the consequences of our belligerent rhetoric and strong-arm international tactics.\nMight President Bush respect the right of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty "signee" Iranians to research and develop peaceful nuclear fuel - despite the fact that America's best buddies and NPT "shunees" Israel, Pakistan and India aim nuclear weapons at the backs of their Middle Eastern neighbors? Besides, the United States and England have promoted nuclear power as the savior to energy independence. \nBilateral face-to-face talks with North Korea within a multilateral international framework -- despite its test firing of seven mid-range ballistic missiles -- are also needed now to prevent an Asian arms race, because India reported its own long-range ballistic missile test July 9, and Japan is beginning to grease its already itchy trigger-fingers.\nReform-minded diplomacy may take months to years, but consider the alternative -- further demoralizing humanity by "nation-building" countries again and again regardless of the weaponry used or measures undertaken to spare civilians. \nLook at the Israel and Palestine dilemma -- two countries seemingly destined to destroy one another in order to "save" themselves from each other. Might Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas stand-up for the Palestinian people by insisting Hamas militants stop firing indiscriminate rockets into Israel? Might he, at the very least, stand-up to groups such as Islamic Jihad and Fatah -- because Israel has a right to exist, and the continued terror assault on its neighbor will only perpetuate Palestine's genocide of itself?\n"We have 70 suicide bombers in a new brigade awaiting orders to strike Israel," Abu Ahmed, spokesman for the Islamic Jihad's military wing, said Monday in the New York Times. "All of historic Palestine is ours, and we don't distinguish between (the Israeli) 1948 or 1967 (borders)."\nOn the other side of the wall, might Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert refrain from further demolishing already destroyed Palestinian land -- and further decimating an already dehumanized Palestinian populace?\nThe difference between the 1948 and 1967 border has become a thin line between life and death between Palestine and Israel. The world is plagued with such misunderstandings and cycles of violence, and continued WMD proliferation - whether a missile or human suicide bomber - can only aggravate the continued genocide of humanity.\nMight our international leaders try to break the cycle of hostility? \nMight they prevent another generation of human beings from dying in order to kill their neighbors?
(07/10/06 5:15am)
Half-a-world away the Tibetan people and their culture are facing near extinction due to Chinese occupation and colonization, but the Tibetan people have established a safe place in Bloomington, which was re-opened to the public yesterday.\nThe Tibetan Cultural Center, in honor of His Holiness the Dalai Lama's 71st birthday, hosted a Tibet Fest Sunday to educate Hoosiers about the continued plight of the Tibetan people and to welcome the American public into the realms of traditional Tibetan culture. About 400 community members attended the event, which included traditional Tibetan food, handicrafts and Tibetan art like a butter sculpture and sand mandala.\n"How many places can you have Tibetan culture and Hoosier hospitality all in one?" Elaine Irwin Mellencamp, Chamtse Ling Temple board member and wife of local Hoosier rockstar John Mellencamp, asked the crowd during the ribbon cutting ceremony.\nIn all, seven ribbons were cut by retired professor Thubten Norbu, eldest brother of His Holiness the Dalai Lama and founder of the TCC; Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, Patrick O'Meara, IU dean of international programs; Brother Benedict, TCC's Dominican Brother from St. Paul Catholic Center in Bloomington; Tasha Daugherty, communications director from the Bloomington Convention and Visitors Bureau; Elaine Irwin Mellencamp and TCC Director Venerable Arjia Rinpoche.\nSeveral Tibetan rituals were performed to honor the Dalai Lama and to celebrate his birthday, including the recitation of the prayer for the long life of the Dalai Lama and an offering of a traditional Tibetan scarf called a Khata to His Holiness's image. Hoosier guests were also entertained by Tibetan song, dance and music throughout the day. There were also children's activities and a film about His Holiness after the ribbon cutting ceremony.\nAlthough Tibetan history dates back more than 1,500 years, the current plight of the Tibetan people began after the 1949 Chinese invasion of an independent Tibet. The Dalai Lama was forced into exile in India after China completed its occupation in 1959, according to the International Tibet Independence Movement, and more than 1.2 million Tibetan men, women and children have been slaughtered since that time -- including about 350,000 human beings from starvation, about 175,000 held hostage in prison/labor camps and more than 150,000 from execution.\nGraduate student Mary Kate, a representative from the Bloomington chapter of Students for a Free Tibet, said the main focus of her organization is to raise awareness about the continued plight of the Tibetan people under the rule of Communist China.\n"With the world watching Bejing because they are hosting the 2008 Olympics, it's a good time to educate people about the Tibet issue," she said as she offered Hoosiers yellow "I Love Tibet" T-shirts for $5 each. "We'll know Tibet is free when all the Tibetans can return to Tibet and live as they did before China's 1949 occupation -- with their own government, language, money and postal stamps." \nKate said she has seen firsthand the human rights violations, environmental devastation and military wrath of Chinese occupation on the Tibetan people when she visited Tibet two years ago. Besides the destruction of about 6,000 Tibetan monasteries, endangerment of 81 animal species native to Tibet and loss of more than 40 percent of Tibetan forests because of Chinese clear-cutting efforts, she said China has insisted on denying the Tibetan people their human rights to freedom of speech, assembly, press and religion. Tibetans are considered political prisoners and often face death if they display the Tibetan flag, images of His Holiness, protest Chinese occupation or speak the words "free Tibet."\n"I feel really lucky we have Tibetan culture here in Bloomington to expose everyone to," Kate said. "They have a rich religious culture of Tibetan Buddhism, a rich artistic and musical culture, all of which feeds into daily life. Their language is also actively dying in Tibet as Mandarin Chinese begins to dominate. ... The Tibetan people are becoming minorities in their own country." \nAccording to an information display at Tibet Fest, in the Tibetan culture Dalai Lamas are considered "manifestations of the Buddha of Compassion" that chose a path of rebirth to serve other human beings. Tibetan Buddhism is open to people of all faiths and denominations because it is a religion of "enlightenment."\nDespite the 1989 awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to His Holiness the Dalai Lama for his "opposition to violence" and "forward looking" solutions regarding the betterment of humanity and Mother Earth, Communist leaders of the People's Republic of China have labeled His Holiness a "terrorist."\nRinpoche said he fled Tibet in 1998 before settling in California. He said he is hopeful the United Nations and Western countries like the United States can unite to save Tibet before most of Tibetan culture disappears, but that a future "free Tibet" depends on a present day "free China."\n"Tibet is still an independent country but now it belongs to China." Rinpoche said. "Chinese people are great but the problem is the government -- too narrow. If you have freedom in China, you have freedom in Tibet."\nMellencamp said the Tibetan Cultural Center offers people a different aspect of Bloomington that further promotes peace and compassion -- two qualities, she said, Hoosiers can never have enough of. She said she enjoys hearing the Tibetan story from monks and learning about their journey toward enlightenment.\n"I think there is a long way to go for a free Tibet but this is a good place to start because there are plenty of Tibetan people in Bloomington," Mellencamp said. "Teachings about compassion and the hardship of others are important lessons to learn"
(07/06/06 12:07am)
Tens of thousands of Hoosiers flocked to the IU Memorial Stadium Tuesday night for Bloomington's annual Fourth of July firework spectacular, a raucous firework display that gave viewers on lawns, in cars and trucks and in the streets a reason to gaze at the sky on Independence Day. \nBloomington resident David Cobb, chairman of the local AMVETS 2000 fireworks committee, said they raised about $30,000 to offer those flocking community members the best firework show Monroe County and all of Indiana has ever witnessed. He said his organization raised $5,000 more than last year, and AMVETS 2000 has a goal of one day competing with Washington, D.C.\nEven if they never match the U.S. capital's funding, Cobb said the annual Bloomington firework show may someday soon rival or outmatch other Midwest Fourth of July celebrations.\n"This year's show is better than 'ooh, ahh, ooh, ahh.' There won't be enough time in between bursts for that," he said about 10 minutes before show time. "There is one right after the other ... We're celebrating our nation's birthday, and we're having fun doing it."\nCobb said community members appreciative of the firework display should thank Nathon Kaiser and his Sky Magic Productions from Brazil, Ind., because the AMVETS 2000 only take credit for orchastrating the show - and nothing more. He said more than 120 volunteers helped put the spectacle together, thanks in large part to individual donors and other community support.\n"I hope people say 'this is the best firework show' they've ever seen in their life," Cobb said. "Nothing in Indiana will compare to this intensity and quality of shells. This is not our show. This is Bloomington's show ... We were concerned about the weather, but God was smiling on us today."\nSpencer, Ind. residents Joe Lacivita and Amanda Spinks attended the Bloomington firework show with their 4-month-old baby Blake, and they both agreed the 20 minute nighttime display was "awesome." They said they especially enjoyed the finale.\n"That was definitely better than the fireworks in Indianapolis last year," Spinks said. "Here you are a lot closer than in Indy and that makes it 10 times better. I was actually sitting straight up to see them."\nLacivita said they arrived at the IU Memorial Stadium at 7:30 p.m. for the 10:00 p.m. display to find a prime location to set up their lawn chairs because two hours early to the show in Indianapolis results in firework views miles away from the action.\n"It was fun getting here early because there are so many here and we got to enjoy the music," he said. "And we were sitting so close you could smell the food." \nBoth Lacivita and Spinks agreed the AMVETS 2000 did a "wonderful" job putting together Bloomington's annual firework show, and Spinks asked for the "same effort next year" if not more because the travel and wait was worth every firework bang, boom and pop. \nUnlike the safe distance community members sat from their comfort of their lawn chairs with sparklers in hand to witness the Bloomington firework show in celebration of U.S. independence Tuesday night, Bloomington resident Jenny Tracy said tens of thousands of U.S. soldiers face less colored explosions with the real possibility of carnage every time they step foot into a combat zone to help defend the exact U.S. freedom on display July 4.\nShe would know. Her husband is one of 50 Indiana National Guard soldiers from Monroe County serving in Iraq. \nFor the night, Tracy was stationed in the limestone gravel with her son parking lot south of the stadium, wedged somewhere between the music stage and the corndog vendor in a Family Readiness Group booth, to share word that "the Iraq War is still going on" and to seek community member support for the 152 Hoosier National Guard soldiers serving overseas. \n"When someone gets injured or killed, that's a struggle in the sense wives, mothers, husbands and fathers often do not know where to go for help," Tracy said. "There is a lot of red tape in understanding the military and the avenues you have to take."\nAlso known as the Indiana National Guard Family Program, the Family Readiness Group provides information, referrals, outreach and follow-up for family members of U.S. soldiers from financial management to psychological strains to tools for coping with separation and reunion issues.\nTracy's booth offered community members U.S. flags of all shapes and sizes in exchange for donations to pay for care packages and she said Hoosiers can "adopt-an-Indiana soldier" for $15 to help brighten their darkest of days. An adoption package sends one Hoosier serving overseas a "Hurry Home" bear and map of Iraq, among other artifacts. \n"There is a big difference between the traditional weekend warrior -- one weekend per month and two weeks per year -- to 18 months of Army only combat," she said. "I, like other military families, worry about my husband getting killed. Will he come home? Will my son get to know his daddy?"\nTracy said community members should utilize celebrations of U.S. independence to remember U.S. soldiers are still fighting in Iraq and they seek support both financial and public support because they are human beings too. She said she supports the military and their efforts but she wishes community members would offer more support for military families.\n"I think you pretend to get used to it. Sometimes, in my mind, I forget he's at war and doing his job," Tracy said. "If I lived my life worrying about him I couldn't function ... When he comes home we want to be the best family we can be."\nMeanwhile, Bloomington's annual firework show offered Tracy and tens of thousands of other Hoosiers free parking, free live music and a safe place for Independence Day fun.
(07/05/06 10:48pm)
Fourth of July in Bloomington was celebrated with a parade and Pride Picnic before the town's annual firework spectacle at the IU Memorial Stadium.\nThousands of Hoosiers and guests lined the downtown square streets Tuesday afternoon to watch more than 130 local politician caravans, business roving billboards and community member floats parade south along College Avenue from 11th Street before motoring north along Walnut Street and back to the beginning. Parade entries, most draped in holiday red, white and blue décor, included everything from politicians pedaling tractors to painted poodles to floats.\nBeanpole, a national freedom-loving group of local folks describing itself as the "god of pointless behavior," built a float consisting of 32 chairs tied together to resemble a pyramid for its 11th straight year of Bloomington/Monroe County Fourth of July Parade participation. \n"I think pointlessness is a hallmark of American freedom," said Beanpole High Priest and Pasadena, Calif., resident Nathan Cambridge before the start of the parade. "It's important to define your freedom the way you like and make it your own ... I see the pile of chairs as being as patriotic as anything out here."\nCambridge said he calls Bloomington home in his Beanpole heart because he was born at Bloomington Hospital and he lived here for most of life before moving to California to pursue an acting career. He said the 10 or so Beanpole members who weathered the near-rainstorm clouds to march along with the float traveled into town from as far away as Seattle and China.\n"A lot of people were confused at first but now there is an expectation to see what we've done," Cambridge said while adorned in a white priest robe and a blue "CIA" hat. "We are a different card in the middle of the deck ... People can think whatever they want when they see us. Back to freedom, we don't have an agenda." \nCambridge said the average Beanpole member has participated in the parade for about eight years straight, and he was heard spouting "axioms of the day" like "mustard is the Tyrannosaurus of your nightmares" through a bullhorn along the parade route. Besides the pyramid of folding chairs, the Beanpole float also consisted of random elements like rubber chicken heads, a large green axe of injustice, a large blue axe of justice and signs that said, among other things, "woman is supermonkey."\n"When you confuse people they have no room to judge you," Cambridge said, "which opens up room for free thinking."\nBloomington Community Band members entertained the freedom-loving crowd with patriotic tunes on the Monroe County Courthouse lawn before the start of the main event, and community members were treated to their fair share of waving hands, candy tossing and U.S. flag-showcasing, all common of most Fourth of July parades.\nFeeling frustrated with increased roving advertising and decreased child-friendly entries, resident Sioux Hill, a rental specialist from www.Bloomington.net, said she entered her own "float" called \n"Poodles on Parade" based on a de facto social committee she formed called "Mothers for Better Floats." Her float consisted of about six decorated poodles, in either red, white and blue hair-spray paint or doggy outfits with military caps, which they walked along the parade route.\n"I am hoping to make little kids smile," Hill said, while painting a poodle named Clifford red before the show. "We are handing out doggy bones instead of candy."\nOther parade floats included a sleuth of local emergency vehicles blaring their sirens, both incumbent and challenging Democratic and Republican politicians representing every office from U.S. Congress to Monroe County sheriff and judge, Bloomington United Gymnastics School, Shriners driving mini motorcycles, a "Bio Bug" 1960s Volkswagen Beatle powered by vegetable oil, local realtors, local construction companies, local churches, a blue minivan with a sign that read "people with no agenda and nothing 4-sale" and Hoosiers for a Commonsense Health Plan reminding parade attendees about 800,000 Indiana residents have no health care coverage whatsoever.\nAfter the Bloomington/Monroe County Fourth of July Parade concluded, several hundred Hoosiers wandered to Third Street Park for the Third Annual Pride Picnic for free food by donation, live music, children's activities and information booths regarding gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues. A consortium of local and statewide social service agencies and restaurants co-sponsored including Indiana Equality, Bloomington Beacon, Inc., Unitarian Universalist Church "Civil Marriage is a Civil Right" Task Force, BloomingOut radio show on WFHB Community Radio, Bloomington Bagel Company and both the Bloomington and Spencer chapters of Parents and Friends of Lesbian and Gays. \nBloomington resident and IU professor Carol Wiethoff, regional coordinator for Indiana Equality, said the Fourth of July is an ideal holiday to celebrate the contributions of freedom-loving GLBT community members and their allies because most other days of the year they are an "invisible minority" due to continued social ignorance and discrimination.\n"GLBT people are a very vulnerable population subject to discrimination," she said. "The more comfortable we become with people not like us the less discrimination there is all-around. There is a certain amount of ignorance, a lack of understanding, regarding our GLBT friends and neighbors because there are still people who think it's a choice."\nWiethoff said most states allow employers to fire GLBT Americans and landlords can deny GLBT people rental opportunities even in Indiana if they only suspect they are gay, lesbian, bisexual or transgender. She said corporate America is ahead of most politicians and religious institutions in its protection of GLBT community members in their human right to make a living free of workplace or other discrimination.\n"The more we can be open about who human beings are, the better we will all become as a society. With this Fourth of July picnic we're getting there but we're not there yet," Wiethoff said. "People would not choose the discrimination GLBT people face -- the verbal and nonverbal harassment, sneers at the other side of the street. You can choose your own religious beliefs but you wouldn't want someone else inflicting their own religious belief on you. That's why we're celebrating today. Freedom, independence and 'we the people' means everyone"
(07/03/06 2:37am)
U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Hoosier Sgt. Sammy L. Davis swung through Bloomington during the 10th Annual "Picnic with the POPS" Orchestra and Chorus Saturday evening, a Fourth of July celebration to honor America's independence and to memorialize the continued American struggle for freedom, liberty and justice for all.\n"No matter what you're faced with -- problems, studies at school, mom and dad -- you don't lose until you quit trying," Davis said off-stage before he addressed about 3,000 community members picnicking in a sea of red, white and blue. "On the Fourth of July think of the soldiers that earned it because freedom is not free. If we forget those who gave us that freedom we will truly deserve what we get."\nAlso known as the "real-life Forrest Gump" and a Private First Class during the Vietnam War, Davis distinguished himself for "conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity in action at the risk of his life and beyond the call of duty," and he was presented the medal Nov. 18, 1967, according to his award citation presented in the "Picnic with the POPS" program. About 40 million Americans have served their country in times of conflict and war, although only about 3,500 -- or less than one-ten thousandth of a percent -- have served with "such uncommon valor and extraordinary courage" to earn the Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military award. \n"Enjoy life because that is what life is for, but always remember the debt that we owe those who have served their country, honoring and respecting them," he said while holding his grandson Ruben's hand, who was wearing a black "POW/MIA" t-shirt and holding a folded U.S. flag. "In honoring and respecting them we will be able to pass freedom down to these young men and women. By remembering yesterday we can take care of tomorrow." \nYesterday for Davis includes a one-year tour of Vietnam, for which he enlisted directly out of high school to follow in the footsteps of his father who served in World War II and his grandfather who served in World War I. According to a short bio by Peter Collier supplied in the "POPS" program, his unit of 11 artillery guns and 42 supporting soldiers was transported Nov. 18, 1967 into an area west of Cai Lay to establish a forward fire-support base in the form of 105 mm howitzers for American infantrymen operating in the surrounding jungle. \nAbout 2 a.m. the following morning, a reinforced Viet Cong battalion launched a fierce ground assault with heavy mortar, and about 1,500 soldiers swarmed Davis and his fellow Americans. He took control of a machine gun and provided covering fire for his gun crew before their howitzer was knocked out, according to both the bio and citation.\n"The enemy thought, because of our age -- the average being 19 -- and our numbers, that when they ran at us we would leave," Davis said. "But we stood our ground and took care of each other. That's what soldiers do. It's our job."\nDavis returned to the burning howitzer and fired a shell point blank into the Viet Cong battalion charging at him five-deep directly in front of the weapon. Despite being hit with metal fragments from an enemy mortar round that seriously wounded him, Davis fired at least four more rounds before retreating to an air mattress to help rescue three wounded comrades on the other side of a deep river, according to both the bio and citation.\nDavis gave three of his injured comrades morphine, and he provided cover fire as another soldier helped the most seriously injured to safety. Davis then pulled two other injured soldiers to safety, and he resumed the fight with another American howitzer crew -- refusing medical attention for his own injuries.\nAs the fight wore down sometime before dawn, Davis was seriously wounded in the back and buttocks by friendly fire. He petitioned Gen. William Westmoreland to stay with his unit instead of being sent home despite his injuries, and he was taken off the line and made a cook throughout the rest of his tour, according to both the bio and citation.\nDavis entertained the "Picnic with the POPS" crowd with a short story of his learning to play the harmonica as a method of to ease his brethren's mind, including his hero Sgt. Dunlap, during idle time in between battles. He said his captain was upset with his unit because more than 70 of his brothers had not yet written home, so he began to write his mother everyday with pictures of clouds and bugs, and she sent him a harmonica in return because she thought he was bored.\nDavis said he liked to play "Shenandoah" so his brothers and sisters could rest, but the habit took on a new meaning after Sgt. Dunlap was killed and he found his name on the Vietnam War Memorial Nov. 11, 1982 in Washington, D.C. He said 25 veterans stopped to listen to him play that morning but 300 were standing next to him when he was done, and he dedicated Saturday night's performance to all American service men and women stationed overseas.\n"I hope what's in our hearts they will feel and this will give them a little bit of rest," Davis said before playing "Shenandoah" on his harmonica to the crowd.
(07/03/06 2:20am)
Hoosiers celebrating the American Fourth of July holiday tomorrow are allowed to perform their own backyard fireworks spectacle legally but local officials say "safety is the key" to great freedom-loving festivities.\nFrom commonsense fire safety to the protection of small children and pets, community members wishing to bang, boom, snap and pop their way to Fourth of July fun are encouraged to abide by simple safety tips and look out for those community members more vulnerable to loud noises.\n"With relaxed access more people are willing to get (fireworks), and with increased use comes increased risk," said Bloomington Fire Department Chief Jeff Barlow. "We ask community members to use their head and not only follow the law, but to use some commonsense."\nBarlow said the first item of firework safety business community members should consider is that they are dealing with an "ignition source." Similar to not playing with matches or leaving lit candles unattended, he said that any time you light a firework you are lighting a fuse, so extra precaution is necessary to prevent burns or unintended explosions.\nBarlow recommended community members wishing to perform their own backyard Fourth of July firework spectacle clear some space away from visitors and property preferably on concrete or dirt, make sure all combustibles are removed from the backyard, use a metal bucket filled with sand or dirt to launch bottle rockets, shoot the fireworks off into a wide area, discard used and still hot fireworks into a metal bucket and keep a hose or bucket of water nearby to prevent any small fires from spreading. He also recommended community members wet down the area where the fireworks were shot off before retiring for the night. \n"If something goes awry don't hesitate to call the fire department. We exist to serve the community," Barlow said. "Some people are embarrassed, but if there is any doubt call 911. We would much rather have you be safe than sorry. People have to remember these are small-scale explosives."\nBarlow said bottle rockets can lead to face injuries and body burns because they often fly in directions unintended by the user. He also said community members should make every effort not to shoot fireworks onto their neighbor's property as per Indiana law.\nBesides community member commonsense in terms of firework safety, young children and pets are often vulnerable to thunderous explosions and constant popping of backyard Fourth of July celebrations.\nHeather Reynolds, a licensed practical nurse from Bloomington Pediatrics, 719 W. First St., said parents should consider plugging their infant or young child's ear with soft-tipped plugs to spare them from professional or backyard Fourth of July bangs and booms. She also recommended that parents do not offer sparklers to children younger than five years old and that they monitor the firework use of children into their preteens so they do not risk eye injuries or other burns.\n"If a baby is startled and that is followed by crying, that can be a scared response to the loud noise," Reynolds said. "The parents can still enjoy the fireworks show if they go to the car, put the baby in the child seat and sit in the car with them."\nReynolds said parents should also keep all fireworks out of reach from their children. If children seem scared by the backyard Fourth of July merrymaking, she said they can offer their youngsters a safe view through inside windows.\n"Parents definitely need to consider the child's age and not let them have access until they can understand the safety issues behind the fireworks," Reynolds said. "A lot of what happens when mistakes occur is that children get too close to where fireworks are being let off and burns and misfires happen. A safe distance is extremely important when you are letting off fireworks, and use good judgment with children"
(07/03/06 2:19am)
Spectators in need of their annual dose of patriotism flocked to a citywide Fourth of July fireworks show Friday night on the grounds of the Ivy Tech campus.\nAbout 3,000 people tapped their toes, clapped their hands and waved old glory through the summer breeze to patriotic and "distinctly" American tunes provided by the Bloomington POPS Orchestra and Chorus during a six hour plus festival that included picnic baskets, lawn chairs and red, white and blue everything from face paint to beer can cozies. Local AM 1370 WGCL "Bloomington Morning Show" personality Don Pratt hosted the event via the microphone, and "Picnic with the POPS" also featured fiddler and guest conductor John Clair Canfield, soprano Sedalia Brown, harmonicist Mike Runyan, the Rise & Shine Cloggers and U.S. Congressional Medal of Honor recipient and Hoosier Vietnam Veteran Sammy L. Davis. \n"I just love to sing with a good group like this because Fourth of July means freedom for the United States," said Jackson County resident Bettye Lou Coller, a POPS Orchestra and Chorus member as her group rehearsed "Battle Hymn of the Republic" before the show. "I wear my American flag pin whenever I can. It's great living in this country."\nPOPS Orchestra and Chorus members led community members in a three hour sing-along that included freedom favorites like "America, My Country Tis of Thee," "God Bless America," "Stars and Stripes Forever" and "America the Beautiful" after a picnic welcome by festival chair Lynn Coyne and Bloomington POPS President Kevin Halloran. \nMonroe County Board of Commissioners President Joyce Poling and City of Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan greeted the crowd after a "Children's Parade" to the organ music performed by Paul Dyer of Dyer Organ Works. Mayor Kruzan inserted a bit of partisan humor during his picnic greeting that resulted in few chuckles.\n"Are you hot enough?" Kruzan asked before leading the crowd in the "Pledge of Allegiance." "The democrats will you (the humidity and heat) is because of the global warming. The republicans will tell you it's because the mayor talks too much." \nFollowing "Presentation of the Colors" by the Indiana National Guard Second Battalion, 150th Artillery Color Guard and a local Boy Scouts troop, POPS Orchestra and Chorus members entertained community members to American folk tunes like "Waitin' for the Robert E. Lee," "Flintstones Meets the Jetsons," "Turkey in the Straw" and "Summertime" by George Gershwin. \nHalloran announced the awards for table decorations during "Star Spangled Spectacular," which included "one stripes section table for eight for the 2007 Picnic with the POPS" prize for the categories of "Best Use of Theme," "Most Patriotic Table" and "Most Neat and Unusual."\n"Most Neat and Unusual" award winner and Bloomington resident Chris Smith, who was joined at table "J17" with friends and family, said his table centerpieces included a 120-layer Lego Statue of Liberty using "onesies and twosies" pieces, and two 3-D puzzles: one of the Chrysler Building and the other of the Empire State Building -- all atop poster-size images of the New Yorker Hotel and Manhattan Island, among others. \nSmith said the Statue of Liberty took 40 to 60 hours to construct using a 120 page manual, the Empire State Building took eight hours per day for 10 days over this past Christmas break and Chrysler Building was "much easier" than both of the above.\nAct two began with "A Tribute to Those Serving and Have Served," in which community members clapped the loudest to the Army theme, followed by an equal hum to the Air Force, Marines and Navy, with the Coast Guard representing the fewest service members. "Picnic with the POPS" concluded with excerpts from the "Overture Solonelle 1812" by Tchaikovsky, with drum beats blasted from Indiana National Guard Artillery Cannons nearby, and community members packed up their picnic baskets after a brief firework display illuminated the Southern Indiana sky.
(06/29/06 2:09am)
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers face increasing challenges to their Constitutional rights as American citizens, but the battle toward recognized statewide GLBT human rights continues.\nIndiana Equality and the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination co-sponsored a three-part forum June 24 titled "Journey to Justice: Promoting a Welcoming Society for GLBT People in Your Faith Community and Beyond" to introduce the idea all Hoosiers are made in God's image regardless of their sexual orientation. About 60 community members attended the event at First United Church Bloomington, and the agenda included a presentation by ICON Executive Director Dan Funk, a panel discussion and small group dialogue about what local congregation members can do to provide a welcoming and inclusive faith-based home to the local GLBT community.\n"Homosexuals and heterosexuals both have sacred worth," said panelist and St. Marks Methodist Church representative Tom Shafer. "We say 'you can be homosexual but don't practice it.' We have a real conflict in the Methodist Church."\nOther panelists included IU GLBT Center Director and St. Thomas Lutheran Church representative Doug Bauder, St. Mary Catholic Center in Evansville representative Pam Thoren and Christian Church Disciples of Christ representative Kerry Armstrong.\n"We have a 'love the sinner and hate the sin kind of thing,'" Thoren said. "The Catholic Church is conflicted and our congregation doesn't know how to feel about it."\nBauder said the three Catholic churches in Bloomington exemplify the plight GLBT community members often face when attempting to find a welcoming or inclusive place of worship: each has their own unique stance on political and GLBT issues. \n"Congregations sometimes act different than their denominations," Bauder said. "The Lutheran Church is not conflicted but schizophrenic. Our stance is 'don't ask, don't tell, and if you do tell don't tell too many people.'"\nThoren said she has had great difficulty all her life attempting to rationalize her faith in God and love for Jesus with her lesbianism because other churches she belonged to condemned her lifestyle as an abomination.\n"How do I rationalize those two issues and come up with some kind of sanity?" she said she asked herself before finding a Catholic Church in Evansville willing to sympathize with her human plight and to empathize with her need for a welcoming or inclusive faith-based congregation.\nArmstrong said about 30 percent of his congregation consists of GLBT community members, but he said his church's process of acceptance took several years of congregation member conversations. He said his church first formed small groups to discuss the issue before debating the topic as an entire congregation.\n"Our most affirming congregation members were older persons and the few detractors tended to be gays and lesbians," Armstrong said. "One voice of concern can drag everyone down. We might have several years of positive dialogue but if one GLBT congregation member becomes a detractor, the congregation might say 'that one person doesn't care so why should we?'"\nHe said the most important thing GLBT congregation members can do is "come out" to their faith-based community, but he recognized the difficulty GLBT community members face doing so because many work hard to conceal their true sexuality for fear of community retribution, like word spreading to the point of job loss.\nShafer said congregation members willing to welcome their GLBT neighbors into their faith-based hearts should consider advertising themselves as an "inclusive community with Christ-like love" so GLBT community members know where to turn for a safe place to practice their faith in God.\n"As long as there are not gays and lesbians in the community who are not out openly, they can easily be demonized by people hate or are afraid," he said. "If one person is but alone, he or she often thinks 'I've got to find a congregation that is more like me.'"\n Audience member feedback to the panel ranged from questions about the difference between a "welcoming" and an "inclusive" congregation to community members admitting their church or congregation remains biased in their interpretations of God's true will and the limitless compassion of Jesus Christ.\n"When I read and listen to things on this issue, I always have in the back of my head: 'look at what churches are denying themselves,'" a forum attendee named Sharon said in regards to her congregation's spiritual contradictions. "It's a loss on both sides, really."\nOne audience member told the audience a story about how his Quaker congregation debated about whether or not to perform a gay wedding even though Indiana does not recognize such an event as legally binding. He said the main concern for church members at first was the fear of an onslaught of GLBT community members flooding to the congregation if they found out they were a welcoming or inclusive congregation.\n"No church needs to worry about an invasion of gay people," Peter, a self-identified gay Quaker said. "Every church deals with this as an issue. If there is a split in your denomination, there is a split in all denominations." \nOne audience member addressed the need for congregations willing to become welcoming or inclusive GLBT safe places to stand by their pastor during the church's time of transition.\n"It's clear GLBT people need allies in our churches to make things happen. We also need to be allies to our pastors," a community member named Ross said. "They need support and help so they don't lose a number of people from their congregation."\nBauder responded that his experience working at the GLBT Center on the IU campus demonstrates young adult congregation members are often more open to ideas of change and are often more willing to work toward GLBT inclusion despite long-held human habits of discrimination.\n"Not all, but many young people wonder why we are still fighting about this issue," he said. "When I ask the question in classes, 'How many of you know a GLBT person?', about every hand is raised. Almost everyone has GLBT family members, neighbors or friends."\nAfterwards, community members packed into the First United Church pews for a moment of outward reflection and a small prayer of thanksgiving led by Bauder. Words from the gospel Matthew XXIII scrolled next to the wooden crucifix on the wall above the Christian altar seemed to sum up the tone and dialogue of the day's forum: "One is your Master -- The Christ -- And you are all brothers"
(06/29/06 1:45am)
When will humanity realize that a war is never won?\nAs if we are missing pages from our American history books, a significant portion of the U.S. Congress and the Bush Administration believe "victory" is within reach in Iraq. Just look at the recent formation of a "new" Iraqi government, and the video-game-esque assassination of that one guy named Abu-something or another.\nProgress in Iraq is spelled "d-e-m-o-c-r-a-z-y," after all -- and America has only 19,999 insurgents left to "capture" (i.e. murder) before more are bred, considering no terrorists were in Iraq before we invaded and occupied their country. Other sign posts of freedom's light in the modern day human-meat grinder of Baghdad include: U.S. soldiers only kill an average of one Iraqi civilian per day, only about one ordinary Iraqi is kidnapped per day, only about two U.S. soldiers are killed per day, only about three insurgent attacks occur per day and only about 50 ordinary Iraqis are murdered by their neighbors each day in what is, still, not considered a civil war by many Western \nobservers.\nIn the case of the Iraq War, it seems that the price of American aggression has further destabilized the Middle East; transformed the once-brutal, Saddam-controlled Iraqi streets into an international training ground for terrorists; ruined the once-proud American image as a beacon of liberty and justice; cost the American taxpayers billions of dollars better used for social spending and continues the stripping of the freedoms our forefathers fought a revolution to preserve.\nNone of that mentions the expense of human capital in the form of murdered, maimed and mutilated American and Iraqi human life. All that at the expense of combating al-Qaeda around the world, including its newest stronghold in Somalia, and its resurgence in \nAfghanistan. \nNo nation can ever "win" a war because the cost of war in human life and environmental degradation is too great. We also continue to disgrace the very idea of democracy if we persist in believing that honoring the will of the Iraq people means teaching them that democracy is only achieved by the barrel of a gun, and that violence is the only recourse to peace. \n"What about America's building of Iraqi schools, hospitals and other key infrastructure, like electrical grids" you ask? I say we are only breaking even from the damage caused by the flexing of our military might. \nRegardless of what the so-called "new era" in Iraq brings forth, death and destruction are all the Iraqi people will ever know -- so long as America continues to lead the world by rebuilding a nation we have destroyed. Might America realize that the Iraqis can only stand up when America stands down, and not the other way around?\nThe discussion of "War Love" continues at www.idsnews.com.
(06/27/06 5:50pm)
Gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Hoosiers face increasing challenges to their U.S. Constitutional rights as American citizens but the battle toward recognized statewide GLBT human rights continues.\nCommunity members representing the local chapter of the Parents and Friends of Lesbians And Gays hosted a three-part forum Saturday morning titled "Journey to Justice: Promoting a Welcoming Society for GLBT People in your Faith Community and Beyond," co-sponsored by Indiana Equality and the Interfaith Coalition on Nondiscrimination, to educate community members about how they might approach their clergy and congregation in regards to the American dream of increased inclusion and their demonstrated support for GLBT human rights. \nAbout 60 Hoosiers from across the state attended the faith-based discussion at First United Church Bloomington, representing 10 denominations and 14 congregations from southern Indiana and northern Kentucky, to learn among other topics how community members might incorporate GLBT Hoosiers into their Christian ministry and what congregation members can do to ensure no Hoosier is left behind at the Christian pew regardless of their God-given gender or sexual preferences.\n"If you think there are no gay people in your congregation, you are wrong," said Dan Funk, executive director of ICON, during his lecture leading the day's three-part series. "You don't know they're there because they are not allowed to live with integrity in your congregation."\nConsidering homosexual orientations among other gender issues have existed since the birth of humanity, Funk told the crowd that GLBT God-loving and Jesus-worshiping community members are often afraid to admit their sexual orientation and sexual preferences to other congregation members based on the fear of condemnation from their Hoosier neighbors. He said the current proposed Hoosier congressional amendment to the Indiana Constitution dictating a "union consists only of the union of one man and one woman" violates the "equal protection" clause of the Eighth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution among other American civil liberties.\n"I ask 'what is a marriage?'" Funk said. "Is it just a piece of paper or a covenant you and your partner make in front of God, family and friends that you will forever love and honor each other?"\nFunk said the first line of the so-called "Marriage Protection Act," called SJR 0007 in Indiana and now legislated in more than 20 states, is not as problematic as the second line which states "this Constitution or any other Indiana law may not be construed to require that marital status or the legal incidents of marriage be conferred upon unmarried couples or groups." \nHe highlighted what GLBT Hoosiers and all other nontraditional community members like older folks and divorced Catholics unable to remarry will lose if prejudice, discrimination and hate are legislated into the Indiana Constitution in the form of GLBT exclusion: loss of co-partner insurance rights, loss of adoption rights, loss of inheritance rights, loss of hospital visitation rights, loss of housing options, loss of employment options, loss of educational opportunities, loss of other tax benefits of "marriage," diluting of hate crime legislation and loss of domestic violence protection. \nNot a single forum attendee challenged the idea that marriage is the root of community life and the likening of same-sex unions to pedophilia, polygamy and bestiality were left outside the church doors so the participants could focus their attention to the topic at-hand: uniting congregations across the state under the banner of "inclusion" because all Christians are part of the body of Christ and are the children of God made in his image according to scripture.\n"In Indiana, a worker can be fired because of the assumption that employee is gay or transgender," Funk said. "What can we do to change this in the state of Indiana? Homosexual couples face the same issues as heterosexual couples: they pay taxes, they work, they have children and they worry about paying bills and getting the car fixed."\nGLBT community members received some relief in April as the Common Council added "gender identity" as a protected subgroup of the community human rights ordinance, but GLBT Hoosiers statewide face continued challenges to their U.S. Constitutional rights from Eric Miller's "Advance America" among other organizations.\nAdvance America claims to include 45,000 families, 1,500 businesses and more than 3,700 churches from across the state to advocate "pro-family, pro-church, pro-private and home school, and pro-tax reform" agendas. Miller, who is known for busing Hoosiers young and old to the statehouse to support his fiery anti-GLBT rhetoric, has pledged to raise more then $3 million to ensure Indiana's constitutional amendment SJR 0007 becomes a 21st century reality.\nFaith-based forum participants, including many heterosexual community members, pledged to counter Miller's so-called "hate debate" messages with Jesus-like love and tolerance for all Hoosiers regardless of their God-given gender identity and sexual preferences. Considering about 500,000 American couples were identified as same-sex during the 2000 census, including more than 10,000 Hoosiers, participants said "loving the sinner but hating the sin" does not apply because no one chooses to lead a "sinful" GLBT lifestyle that will result in a lifetime of social stigma and neighbor-to-neighbor discrimination.\nFunk said community members of faith can no longer sit on the sideline while their GLBT neighbors are threatened with discriminatory legislation because one moral obligation of Christianity is to stand up for equality and justice for all.\n"A welcoming congregation opens its door to all and welcomes GLBT people in. No matter what walk of life you are from, you are welcome to come worship with us," he said. "Open and affirming congregations act out and speak out for GLBT people as a matter of faith. They don't believe homosexuality is an abomination that should be condemned and they allow GLBT persons to participate in active roles in the church."\nSimilar to national legislation that once forbid African Americans from marrying whites, participants said SJR 0007, if legislated into the Indiana Constitution, will write discrimination into a national document historically modified only to legalize American rights and not to strip them for any segment of the American population for religious reasons.
