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(05/22/06 2:50pm)
Community members chewed through 5,000 gobs of whipped cream atop piles of strawberry-laden sponge cakes Thursday afternoon as part of the 20th Annual Bloomington Strawberry Shortcake Festival on the lawn of the Monroe County Courthouse. \nDozens of community organizations donated their time, money, supplies and other edible goods to the event sponsored by the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington Auxiliary. According to Auxiliary volunteers, about $15,000 in Bloomington Strawberry Shortcake Festival proceeds will benefit the local branch of the Boys and Girls Club that serves community children ages six to 18 in need of fostering and guidance.\n"It definitely opens your eyes when you go into the Boys and Girls Club and see the faces of the kids," said Bloomington resident and Auxiliary member Carol Stanton. "Auxiliary members work at different club events and when you see the kids you see their need. When we go home and see our own kids we are thankful because at least they have us in their lives."\nThe Auxiliary is composed of 55 female community members who serve five-year terms that include volunteering at fund raising events for the Boys and Girls Club of Bloomington, according to Auxiliary members. Stanton said 500 strawberry shortcakes were sold during the first city festival but this year they dished out an easy 5,000 cakes by the close of the event with only minutes to spare. \n"A lot of people come just for the shortcakes because they are so buttery and moist," Stanton said. "When the juice from the strawberries hits the cake and sinks in, it's to die for."\nMartinsville resident and retired second-grade teacher Leslie Modesitt said she stopped by the Strawberry Shortcake Festival, an event she has attended numerous times, to munch on the dessert between errands that included a trip to College Mall. She said Martinsville does not yet have a citywide Boys and Girls Club so the only community fundraising event she looks forward to is the city's annual fish fry in June that benefits the Senior Citizen and Men's Club.\n"I wouldn't pay four dollars for a strawberry shortcake every day, but the money goes for a good cause," Modesitt said while seated alone on the southwest courthouse steps. "During my teaching career I noticed the students in most need often came from split families where there is often no one left to care for the child. Raising a child is often difficult for single parents and grandparents, although most do a great job."\nAuxiliary members thanked the Hoosier Hills Career Center for donating the shortcakes, Bruster's for offering the ice cream, Beasley Produce for sharing the strawberries, Jiffy Treet and Dairy Queen for passing on the whipped cream, McDonald's and Town and Country Realty for gas money and the Chocolate Moose for bagging the cost of ice, among other donating community businesses and organizations. \nAll the Boys and Girls Club programs are designed to help youth develop valuable skills needed to make wise life decisions, according to the organization's Web site. The club strives to instill a sense of belonging, competence, usefulness and power so members feel they are part of something worthwhile.\nBloomington resident and local magician for 40 years running Jon Saint-Germain, director of amazement for New Millennium Entertainment, was on-hand Thursday to offer more than money for the Strawberry Shortcake Festival visitors. He offered community members young and old the balloon-figure of their choice and other magic tricks for free before and after folks ate. \n"I came to the festival last year and I saw a lot of people waiting in line so I thought I would donate my time this year so people have something to do, and I could make new friends," Saint-Germain said. "I like to give back to the community and volunteer for fund-raisers like this. Very few people get to do what they want as their dream. I get satisfaction out of the look in peoples' eyes when I do some amazing magic or make an amazing balloon animal."\nBy the end of the festival Saint-Germain made hundreds of balloon zoo animals, Disney characters and other cartoon-like shapes. The last strawberry shortcake was sold moments before a brief hail-riddled rain shower cleared the courthouse lawn of the festive atmosphere.\nStanton said she had read several media reports that claim Martinsville and Mooresville children in need might soon have a Boys and Girls Club of their own to call a safe place when times are tough at home, and they need positive role models in their life who can help them seek positive activities void of peer pressure. She encouraged local responsible community members to lend a hand in volunteering their time or money to provide an example for children that might set them off on a better course of behavior that will last their lifetime.\n"Being a positive role model for children is important," she said. "They need to see other lifestyles that are positive. Children often seek guidance from positive role models and answers to questions they might not get otherwise like at home"
(05/22/06 12:26am)
The film based on Dan Brown's 2003 fictional religious thriller novel "The Da Vinci Code" premiered May 19, enraging many Catholics around the world and prompting the Vatican to call for an international boycott. \nThe film, like the book, focuses on a supposed centuries-old Catholic Church conspiracy to suppress and destroy documentation about the marriage of Jesus Christ to Mary Magdalene and the child they produced, along with New Testament chapters like the gospel of Peter and the "true" nature of the Holy Grail. Similar to the resentment felt by Jews before the release of Mel Gibson's 2004 film "The Passion of the Christ," and the Islamic uproar over the Danish editorial cartoons depicting the prophet Mohammed this year, many Catholics have labeled Brown's book, and the film it inspired, as "historically inaccurate," "anti-Christian" and "sacrilegious."\nFather Bob Keller, a pastor of St. Paul Catholic Center, 1413 E. 17th St., said his congregation is neither for nor against an international ban of the movie. St. Paul's is instead sending a young-adult group of parishioners to view the film this weekend before returning back to the church for a spiritual question and answer session and a faith-based discussion.\n"The Da Vinci Code is wonderful fiction and any good fiction has something that has a whisper of history and some probability there, like Tom Clancy talking about the CIA or the Cold War," Keller said. "I think the pulse goes up for a Christian because you are talking about a sacred figure -- Jesus -- in the same way as if a movie were made about Mohammed, King David or Buddha. Brown used ideas from the book 'Holy Blood Holy Grail' and other connections are the license of the author. Writing an actual history of the Catholic Church and verifying it would be a whole other thing."\nArchbishop Angelo Amato, the Vatican's second highest-ranking leader behind Pope Benedict XVI, told a conference of his peers that Brown's fiction novel is packed with theological offenses and historical errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Catholic Church, according to various media reports. Catholic communities from the Philippines to India to Jordan have either asked or demanded that "The Da Vinci Code" be banned from public movie screens.\nRabbi Sue Shifron of the Bloomington's Hillel Foundation said she could relate to the Catholic Church's uproar considering the international Jewish community feeling of anti-Semitic undertones broadcast around the globe from "The Passion of the Christ." She stopped short of supporting any community ban of the film and instead suggested Catholic congregations and communities invite "The Da Vinci Code" into their lives as an opportunity to reaffirm their faith in Jesus Christ, belief in the gospel and support for the Catholic Church.\n"I think even a book like 'The Da Vinci Code' that tries to tear down the basis of Christianity is really not relevant. The essence of faith is to connect with something that is much bigger than ourselves, something that helps us live better lives as individuals and as a community, something that makes the world a better place," Shifron said. "Attacking pieces of the foundation of that tradition is just not helpful; it doesn't speak to what the Catholic tradition is really about and what that tradition is trying to do. It is speaking about something that no one can fully describe or understand anyway."\n"The Da Vinci Code" is published in more than 40 languages and Brown's fiction novel has sold more than 50 million copies worldwide since its 2003 debut. The most mysterious aspect of the story involves a Catholic Church conspiracy and cover-up that can neither be confirmed, nor denied, due to the very nature of claiming certain documents were suppressed or destroyed.\nIn other words, there is no way for Brown to present an accurate and academic discussion of his claims because the only documentation available to theologians and scholars presents a very different Catholic Church reality than the author presents for audiences in his book.\nIU Classical Studies graduate student Josh Congrovesaid "The Da Vinci Code" attempts to convince people that the story is fictional based upon credible historical research, but he said the story is best described as a fictional work with the slightest shreds of fact and pseudo-fact. Congrove also did not support an outright ban of the either the book or the film, and instead called for students to view Brown's fictional art with their eyes wide open.\n"There has always been, even throughout the Middle Ages, discussions of the Catholic Church's teachings. The Protestant Reformation was an attempt to discuss doctrinal issues and texts that Martin Luther and John Calvin thought were being misinterpreted by the Church," Congrove said. "On a basic level 'The Da Vinci Code' doesn't even pretend to be scholarship expect for the layman ... Someone can say 'perhaps Jesus married Mary Magdalene' but you have to work with the evidence at hand. You are dealing with a phenomenon, the Christian faith spread over the western world, so it's unlikely someone could have suppressed all the evidence."\nSimilar to the 1963 assassination of President John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas, and documentary filmmaker Michael Moore's 2004 "Fahrenheit 9/11," conspiracy theorists concerned with the early happenings of the Catholic Church assert the nature of a shadowy selection, revision and organization of the New Testament will have to continue to search for compelling academic evidence found only in a few sources.\nKeller likened the Catholic Church furor over "The Da Vinci Code" possible anti-Christian message to any work of fiction or art that challenges or attacks preconceived notions of what America is. He said the film should encourage students of all religious faiths and spiritual denominations to search for the truth beyond the limits of Google search tools.\n"There is no objective history. All of us in the human sciences realize there is a human capacity of mind, spirit and soul that has made the world in some ways what it is today," Keller said. "I don't think 'The Da Vinci Code' will change the Catholic Church or the need for church teachings. In fact, for a lot of people, it may squiggle the forehead. It's like saying 'so what, I still believe.'"\nInternational rumor has accused the Vatican of various conspiracies to suppress certain gospels throughout the centuries. Catholic Church murmur has always squelched such discussion, so calls to ban the film from public movie screens might receive no reply throughout the western world, except for American community bans like that in Utah of the 2005 gay-cowboy film "Brokeback Mountain."\nRabbi Sue said any community or country ban of "The Da Vinci Code" would only serve to further market the film to worldwide audiences, and that international viewings of "The Passion of the Christ," perceived as anti-Semitic, served to unite Jewish feelings of friendship, fellowship and community, and the film provided great discussions with colleagues and the greater Jewish community at-large.\n"You can't stop people from thinking or questioning, and when you respond to what you see that opens up critical thinking and every religion can stand up to that if it's founded on truth -- what is right for many people," Shifron said. "Part of it is putting the film into perspective because it is just one person's opinion. Even if it were true, Catholicism isn't necessarily that today because the Church is about uniting people and connecting them to a power greater than themselves. One book, one movie, is not going to change history as it is today, but it can help shape the future"
(05/18/06 1:19am)
A new city playground at Cascades Park was born this week in a citywide effort to allow kids the freedom to act like kids.\nCommunity families often struggle to find child friendly and other safe places for their youngsters to run amok, but Bloomington has opened a new carnival-like playground complete with slides, swings and a giant rope pyramid. City of Bloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan, Parks Commissioner President Mary Catherine Carmichael, city of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department officials and community members of all ages held a two-hour ceremony Tuesday that involved more child-like celebration than ribbon-cutting politics.\n"Our goals were to have the community discover and rediscover Cascades Park, the first park in the city of Bloomington park system," said Mickk Renneisen, director of the city of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department. "Cascades Park has for many years held fond memories and we needed a destination and attraction to bring a younger set of community members and families. What better way then to build a destination style playground?"\nThe Cascades Park playground includes five slides -- two that are 18 feet high - two plastic disc swings designed after the backyard-style tires hung from tree limbs, a typical swing set, a rope-climbing pyramid, a play area for younger children, a playhouse, rock chairs among other benches, several picnic tables and two canopy-covered areas for picnicking among other family dining areas. A boardwalk ramp is connected to the main play area so all types of disabled community members can access the slides, and the playground area includes pedestrian bridges to other park facilities, pedestrian walking zones, reduced speed limits and a myriad of safety features like wooden guardrails, limestone blocks to stop errant traffic, physical barriers to allow safe play and bonded rubber mats underneath the primary play areas to prevent and reduce injuries from falls from the apparatuses. \nRenneisen said the new play area was built from scratch at a cost of $917,368 as part of a five-year capital plan, and a significant portion of the 58 full-time and 300 seasonal Parks and Recreation Department staff helped construct the playground from design to landscaping, from customer service to hands-on building. \n"It's truly a team effort in this department, and we are only as good as the members of our team. I'm very proud of our team and the passion they have for their jobs," Renneisen said. "When you see your constituents, in this case the kids, smiling, utilizing the playground and enjoying themselves that is the ultimate in satisfaction and proof in the pudding. We hoped for that exact response: kids using the playground, families enjoying the facility, everyone taking time to be with each other and parents putting time aside to be in the moment with their kids."\nBloomington resident and grandparent Vicki Hargrave, who was spotted hand-in-hand with her three-year-old grandson Austin as they navigated their way along the staircase to the top of the 18-foot slides, said she loved Bloomington's new playground and thought the facility was "impressive." \n"I think Bloomington has the most wonderful parks and recreation department. This playground is just awesome and Austin really likes it," she said before escorting Austin back down the stairs because the slides seemed too high for the moment. "You can watch your kids play from the shade so you they're safe. I live in town nearby and it's great to buzz over here on a nice afternoon."\nThe Cascades playground also includes several built-in games to entertain children and adults like tic-tac-toe and a wooden box maze inside the main play area. According to city officials, Cascades Park was built in 1924 and the landscape provides visitors a small waterfall, a golf course, several barbecuing and picnicking areas among drinking fountains, public bathrooms and several walking trails.\nBloomington resident Kathy Wisley, who helped celebrate her four-year-old son Brayden's birthday Tuesday, said they also loved the new city playground and she was planning on hosting her son's official birthday there Saturday.\n"What is your favorite slide?" Kathy asked her son.\n"The orange one," Brayden said. \n"It's nice to just get him out of the house, let him climb to release all that energy and interact with other kids," Kathy said. "This is by far the biggest playground, but there are other nice parks in town."\nBloomington offers families and their children 27 playgrounds in 34 city parks, and Renneisen said the Parks and Recreation Department's goal is to replace or upgrade one play area per year until all the playgrounds are modified with more modern safety equipment and more creative playground attractions so kids can do more than just play.\nBloomington resident Julie Grindle, who was seated on a bench to observe her five-year-old son Tom climb the rope-climbing pyramid, said the new Cascades Park playground is a "welcome addition to our community."\n"It's got new and fun things for the kids to do and it's in a great location with lots of shady areas. A lot of people can be here at once doing lots of age-appropriate things," she said. "It's a great environment for families with kids of any age. It's a great place for people to get together to meet up."\nJulie then asked her son: "Do you have any friends here today?"\n"Yes, Henry," Tom said as he pointed across the playground to another child running amok with a parent-acting adult.\n"Kids are such a valuable part of our community. There are place were adults would rather be at and parks like this is where kids are welcome to play," Grindle said. "When you create public spaces for people specific for one age group, all age groups benefit. City officials and the University do a good job requiring and providing green spaces that are important to the growth of children."\nRenneisen said the Parks and Recreation Department is hoping to add a few bathroom facilities near the playground to satisfy any remaining community member needs. He said playtime is often a fundamental opportunity for children to learn how to get along with one another because they have to negotiate space and learn to share the playground facilities.\n"I think we learn more about ourselves when we play then any other time because we are free from many other stress factors in life and from other elements that block our creativity," Renneisen said. \n"When you are at play, that's when you are at your creative best. We all have to work and we work to enjoy our leisure time. Think about your own recreation: what do you learn about yourself"
(05/14/06 11:03pm)
Throughout the last century, American farming, once a Hoosier family and community-supported endeavor, has become an agro-industrialized system of mega-farms run by a few corporate entities or organizations to feed many bellies across the country and globe.\nMass production of fruits and vegetables has flourished due to the use of improved fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides, although the heart of sustainable community living is often transplanted by the need for petroleum-based products to grow, distribute and consume the food. Community family farms, local organic farmers and Bloomington retailers are challenging the American dietary preference of mega-farm decreased cost and corporate grocery store convenience by growing local organic produce for community consumption.\n"Probably the most important thing you can do is support local small farms," said local farmer Andy Hamilton, owner of Bloomington-based Musgrave Orchard and Core Farms CSA. "Produce shipping from one side of the country to another is one of the largest industries in the world. Supporting local farmers reduces the impact of farming on the environment and there are a lot of farmers out there that need support just to stay in business."\nSupport for local farming, in which the produce travels only a few miles at most, decreases America's dependence and admitted-addiction to fossil fuels because national and international produce shipping often involves the use of petroleum-powered vehicles from trackers to cargo-carrying ships and petroleum-based chemical treatments. \nHamilton said the mega-farm use of petroleum-based fertilizers, herbicides and pesticides makes business sense because they better adhere to the plants and tend to last longer than plant-based chemicals that otherwise define an organic farm, but he said the trade-off of local organic farming for American consumers is priceless due to improved taste of fresh produce and the lack of otherwise toxic chemicals on and within the produce. \n"The obvious benefit of organic farming is eating food that is not grown with dangerous chemicals," Hamilton said. "Organic-based chemicals are usually plant or water-based, although not all plant-based chemicals are safe. Organic farming costs a little more the first couple of years but there is an eventual payoff. One of the goals of organic farming is to create a natural balance in the garden and farm where good bugs and bad bugs compete and the good bugs win out over time."\nCommunity members unable to attend the City of Bloomington Farmers' Market each week, a one-stop shop for local organic produce, can purchase fresh fruits and vegetables during the summer by acquiring one-half or more shares of Core Farms CSA, a local farming cooperative. One share equals 24 weeks of a mixed diet consisting of a seven-day supply of fresh vegetables from a core group of Central Indiana farmers to feed two adults. The vegetables are picked up each Wednesday or Saturday from May through October.\nBloomington resident Pete Russo, an assistant manager for Bloomingfoods East, 3220 E. Third St., said his community member-owned grocery store promotes healthy and environment friendly local grown and organically produced foods to better serve the dietary needs of Southern Indiana Hoosiers. He said the Bloomingfoods produce section consists of 98 percent or more organic offerings at any given time of the year. \n"One of the major benefits of local produce is keeping community member dollars in the local community by supporting local agriculture," Russo said. "Generally, most people say organic and locally grown produce has a better taste because it's picked at a better time in the growing cycle and it's not shipped across the country. Buying locally grown produce means you're supporting smaller farmers and a cleaner Earth."\nRusso also said Bloomingfoods East offers community members an organic salad bar, which is often a favorite of health food loving students who often cannot afford the space and tools needed to dabble in bulk produce.\nBesides local farming cooperatives and local retail stores that support organic-minded consumers, community members with backyard organic gardens can put on the hat of "local farmer" by planting an extra row of vegetables to help feed the hungry and provide food that will better serve their bodies and not just fill their bellies. The City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department hosts a program called "Plant a Row for the Hungry," in which community members can contribute fruits, herbs and vegetables to either the Hoosier Hills Food Bank or Mother Hubbard's Cupboard each week.\n"Plant a Row for the Hungry" is rooted in the gardeners' tradition of sharing bountiful harvests with others, according to a program pamphlet. Hoosier Hills provides more than 83 local non-profit organizations with food donations, and Mother Hubbard's serves an average of 892 community members in 330 local Hoosier households each week.
(05/11/06 12:33am)
Hoosier race fans have less than three weeks to wait until the 90th running of the Indianapolis 500, but "Danica Mania" has already swept through town.\nIndy car driver Danica Patrick, the first woman to ever lead laps during "The Greatest Spectacle in Racing" and the 2005 Indy 500 Rookie of the Year, swung through Indianapolis May 8 to sign copies of her autobiography "Danica: Crossing the Line," coauthored by Laura Morton, at Borders Bookstore at Keystone at the Crossing. Hundreds of frenzied Danica fans formed a single file line from the center of the store to the back edge for a brief opportunity to meet Patrick face-to-face while she penned her name on the first page of her book.\n"It's not a story about how to live your life," Patrick said. "(My autobiography) is a story about how I've lived mine. I don't really think about racing when I'm not at the track. I mean I think about it but I don't let it run my life. I like to travel, watch TV, get pedicures, shop -- normal stuff."\nBehind the glare of local television lights and the flashbulbs of ecstatic fans wielding disposable cameras, Danica paused for a moment after signing copies of her book to autograph other "Danica Mania" racing memorabilia and to stand side-by-side with willing fans for a quick snapshot. \nPatrick's husband, Paul Hospenthal, was on-hand to support his racing-superstar wife and said Danica has a great fan base that started after last year's Indy 500, where Patrick finished fourth out of 33 cars and led 19 laps in the closing circuits.\n"I've never known her to do anything else but drive a race car," Hospenthal said. "Every role is what you make of it, and it is up to everyone to decide what role is best for them. Not everyone can drive a race car, even though on TV it looks like the driver is only turning the wheel a little bit. It's extremely demanding physically because of the increased heart rate and sheer strength needed to react with all the G-forces."\nHospenthal said his "Danica Mania" consists of loving and supporting his partner, and he said their relationship is typical of other married couples they know: she helps him iron his clothes and sees him off to work in the morning, he helps support her racing career and book writing and they both enjoy spending time at home barbecuing with friends on weekends.\nHoosiers of all ages swarmed the bookstore Sunday evening for a chance to see and meet their racing idol. The crowd consisted of mostly women despite the long-held tradition of racing as a male-dominated sport.\nDanica Scott, a 76 year-old Indianapolis resident, said she attended the book signing for the chance to gain a glimpse of her favorite American idol, even though she has never been to the Indianapolis 500 before because the race cars make too much noise.\n"I read an article last year about Danica before the race in Homestead and I thought 'ok, that's how it all started,'" Scott said while rubbing her fingers along the spine of two freshly signed Danica autobiographies in her bag. "I watched (the Indianapolis 500) last year on TV. I live alone with my cats and they were staring at me because I was cheering for her the entire time."\nScott said she has collected any kind of clipping of Danica she can find from the newspaper and magazines, including the June 6, 2005 Sports Illustrated with Danica on the cover, two rookie cards, large collector cars, small collector cars, two T-shirts -- one of which is signed -- and one hat.\n"Danica: Crossing the Line," published by Simon & Schuster, offers readers the chance to learn about Patrick's life on and off the racetrack, as well as a photo album, race diary from March 2005 through March 2006 and a glossary of racing terms.\nIndianapolis resident Sharon Williams, who attended the event with her 12-year-old daughter Kelly, said she is anxious to see Patrick drive during this year's Indy 500, which will be her 34th consecutive trip to the race. She said she believes Patrick is the "perfect" role model for her daughter and women of all ages.\n"I have seen all of the great ones since 1973, and Danica has absolutely caught everyone's imagination," Sharon Williams said, adorned in a Patrick T-shirt. "She is the only driver who has brought all 350,000 to their feet in 15 years. For one year of racing in the IRL she drives like a veteran. She has this state of mind in; she is so focused. I have no doubt in my mind she will be the first woman to win the Indy 500."\nThanks in part to her recent book tour and the media attention focused on Patrick, "Danica Mania" may only grow more rabid as the days tick down toward the 2006 Indy 500, but a trip down victory lane is anything but guaranteed.\nDanica said she hopes readers relate to her book in the same way as music, movies and other inspirational stories.\n"When it takes so long to achieve a goal, you begin to understand that the journey is the goal," Patrick wrote in Chapter 12 titled "Rock What You've Got," page 171. "In life, there is no guaranteed destination"
(05/08/06 1:22am)
The city of Bloomington and the Monroe County Community School Corporation Adult Education Program have announced an initiative to increase the number Latinos and other non-English speakers receiving GEDs.\nBloomington Mayor Mark Kruzan announced a community collaboration during the city's Cinco de Mayo celebration Friday morning, his second of six within a 60-day period as part of his City Vision 2006 pledge. City Vision unites several community agencies toward the goal of attracting Latino community members toward GED preparation, which is expected to enhance Latino employment opportunities and encourage more Latino students to pursue post-secondary education. \nThe City of Bloomington Community Family Resources Department, MCCSC Adult Education Program and the local United Way Workforce Preparation Network are involved in the ongoing citywide collaboration.\n"One thing we want to do is increase the high school graduation rate in our community and across the state, prepare citizens to go into post-secondary education, and underlying everything we do is workforce preparation and contributing to the economy," said Sherry Dick, director of MCCSC Adult Education. "The Latinos and other non-native English speakers who live in this community put in a tremendous amount of work in the community. I think Bloomington would find itself a much different city in terms of businesses without their work, not only as consumers but employees."\nThe Latino GED Outreach program is supported by the financial contributions of a Lilly Endowment grant, with $6,600 of the financial aid coming from the United Way Workforce Preparation Network as matching funds to the city of Bloomington's $6,600 contribution. According to city officials, the program will provide and fund Spanish language GED-preparation classes that include Spanish language coursework, the GED pre-test, final test and other class materials so students can have access to a free education.\n"This is another example of how local government can collaborate with other community organization, all working together on a common project aimed at the betterment of our community," said Bloomington City Council Member At-large and local attorney Chris Gaal, who followed Kruzan at the podium in City Hall Friday. "This is another example of what I like to call community-based leadership."\nGaal said the Latino GED Outreach program is an example of not what the city is going to do but what all Hoosiers can do working together as a community to solve city and statewide problems. \n"As a practicing attorney, I've seen how Latinos often face barriers that make it difficult for them to meet those goals," he said. "Cultural barriers and language barriers make it difficult for them to feel as part of the community. Improving opportunities for education and employment for Latino members of our community is good ultimately for the whole community."\nMCCSC Adult Education served more than 400 English as a Second Language, or ESL, students in 2005, and Dick said GED classes are now offered to any community member regardless of origin, gender, nationality, skill level and other language or cultural barriers. \n"We are not just a GED program. We are about adult basic education like reading, literacy skills and workforce preparation," she said. "We individualize the program for every student who comes through the door. Latinos and other non-native speakers provide some of the tapestry that makes Bloomington a unique and thriving community."\nFor more information on registered for the Latino GED Outreach program or other MCCSC Adult Education opportunities, contact Teresa Velez at 349-3465.
(05/08/06 12:47am)
Between the aisles of tables packed full of fresh and organic produce at the city of Bloomington Farmers Market, community members were serenaded by the sweet sounds of local musicians and they were dazzled by the twinkle of sunlight reflecting off of local artwork dangling in the breeze Saturday morning. \nBeginning with American tunes of the Bloomington Brass Band and concluding with the British body movements of the Bloomington Quarry Morris Dancers near the footsteps of City Hall, market participants also heard folk sounds of rural China, Scottish bagpipes, Irish toe-tapping and solo guitarists within and around Hoosier farmers offering everything from green onions to honey.\nBloomington resident and IU alumni James Min-Ching Yang teamed up with two of his students, residents Nick Venstr and IU Cyclotron Facility staff member and IU employee Sarah Pedersen, on the south side of the market for an Asian chorus of tunes played on a two-stringed musical instrument called an er-hu. Yang said the er-hu is the equivalent to the Western violin, and he feels his role at the market is to promote Chinese culture and to share his and his wife's Chinese calligraphy that is on-sale at their market stand with community members. \n"The er-hu has charm. When you feel happy you want to play it and when you feel sad you want to play it. It has a human singing tone," Yang said. "When you play it's almost like you're singing. If you want to play well, first you have to sing the tune."\nDating from the Tang Dynasty, 618 to 907 A.D., the er-hu is made of wood with a piece of snake skin fixed on one end of an octagonal resonant box with two metal strings stretched and supported by a wooden bridge. The instrument is played by sliding a bamboo-stick bow with horse tail in between the strings.\nThe er-hu is now a key component in Asian operas, orchestras and symphonies instead of acting as vocal accompaniment. In between Yang's er-hu trio and the Big Band sounds coming from the north side of the market, market-goers were also entertained by the Irish toe-tapping of the "Fiddle 'N' Feet" posse of two dancers and three \nmusicians. \nBesides the feeling of an instrumental breeze of music whipping through the air, market attendees often gazed, and even more often bought, artistic wares from jewelry to rugs to baskets.\nBrown County artist and flower farmer Annie Barlow offered community members dozens of unique recycled tin ornament mobiles in addition to annuals, perennials and shrubs commonplace among market vendors. She said her mobiles consist of cut strips of tin, decorated with car paint and beads strung together with wire, that can serve as Christmas tree decorations, are used to spruce up kitchen windows or are beautiful pieces of art to hang from car rear-view mirrors. \n"My mom had this philosophy that if you are busy doing something creative you don't have a chance to get into trouble," she said before helping a mother and her two-year-old child choose an ornament. "I'm compelled to make art because it gives me a certain sense of peace and pleasure. I was a craftsman before I became a flower farmer as an alternative lifestyle. What can I say? I also knit and I do beadwork"
(05/05/06 4:09am)
Whether camping out in the Indiana Memorial Union hotel or sleeping at the Super 9 Motel, families wishing to find some post-commencement food and fun need not look any farther than campus, Kirkwood and downtown Bloomington. Numerous IU beer-guzzling traditions and stomach-filling fare are found in local taverns, restaurants and even the Union.\n"The food is wonderful now and 'Sink the Biz' has been voted the best IU tradition the last couple years so students and parents can round out their IU experience here," said Bloomington resident Ryan Keen, night manager of Nick's English Hut, 423 E. Kirkwood. "Get here as soon as possible after commencement because we don't really take reservations ahead of time. I would even send someone ahead to scout out a table."\nBased on last year's graduation crowd, Keen said the line at the door might form around 9:30 p.m. Saturday night after folks have meandered around town window shopping for IU apparel, and the line is expected to remain somewhat constant well into the early Sunday morning. He also said the "Sink the Biz" kits are popular graduation gifts, considering many students spend a lot of time at Nick's throughout their school years.\n"Graduation weekend is a lot more tame and better behaved than, say, Little 500 weekend because people haven't been drinking all day or all week," Keen said. "Parents like to cut loose every once in a while too but overall the weekend is not quite as hysterical as usual. Parents should be prepared to see and hear things they don't usually encounter in their professional lives."\nBefore the binge drinking begins, students can also pluck a few dollars from their parents' wallets for the last time for a meal fit for a king.\nBloomington resident Rod Yandt, manager of Little Zagreb Jankos, 223 W. 6th St., said his restaurant is an IU carnivore tradition and wine-gulping feast worth experiencing that a lot of students often cannot afford while they are undergraduates. He said Little Zagreb has fed just about every IU athlete at one time or another on their 1950s pizza-shop like red and white checkered tables, and the restaurant walls are decorated floor to ceiling with IU memorabilia.\n"If you like meat I would come here before you leave town because all our steaks are great, our barbecue ribs are incredible and this weekend we are offering a bone-in 18 ounce pork chop porterhouse," Yandt said. "If the smell doesn't get you walking around the neighborhood, the food definitely will get you hooked and we probably have the best wine selection in town." \nYandt said Little Zagreb is opening at 3 p.m. Saturday, one hour and a half earlier than usual, to accommodate the influx of graduate-loving patrons, although most reservation spots are already filled. He recommended hungry Hoosiers swing through for walk-in seating with the expectation they might have to wait an hour or more after 5 p.m. for a table.\nIf adult food and drink leaves under-21 family members with little in the way of Saturday night fun, the Indiana Memorial Union offers family entertainment for all ages in the form of bowling and sugary snacks.\nBack Alley employee and junior Jamie Minick said the IMU bowling alley offers family time together in the way of rolling rocks and a different kind of graduation night atmosphere on campus.\n"Get out and enjoy some time with family you may not see again for awhile," she said. "It's in walking distance and sometimes kids want to get away from their parents to relax, play video games or some pool."\nKeen said the line outside Nick's can only inch forward as fast as customers leave because his tavern can only accommodate a certain number people, but the fun will be found by those who are willing to wait a little longer after four years of anticipating graduation. \n"It's as important a weekend for parents as it is for students because they know their kids will finally get a job and be out on their own so they won't have to support them anymore," he said.
(05/05/06 3:14am)
TIPS ON FRUITS AND VEGETABLES:\n1. Buy fresh fruits and vegetables in season because they cost less and have peak flavor.\n2. Keep a bowl of whole fruit on your kitchen table, countertop or inside the refrigerator.\n3. Buy vegetables that are easy to prepare, and try adding baby carrots and grape tomatoes to spice up a side salad.
(05/05/06 3:11am)
IU students and Bloomington residents have the upper hand in the battle to maintain a healthy diet, thanks to the Bloomington Farmers' Market, offering an array of fresh fruits and vegetables grown by Hoosier farmers. Community members can stock up on cabbage, potatoes, tomatoes and a plethora of palatable treats from 7 a.m. to noon every Saturday from now until September at the Showers Plaza in downtown Bloomington, 401 N. Morton St..\nLeslie Kaiser, Community Events Coordinator for the City of Bloomington Parks and Recreation Department, said the Farmers' Market also offers fresh and organic meats, cheeses, flowers and prepared foods like egg sandwiches and tamales. There are also tables piled full of fresh greens and other colorful produce-minded goodies.\n"The purpose of the Bloomington Farmers' Market is providing a place for residents and visitors to come together in a festive atmosphere to buy local produce from the farmers and gardeners who produce it," said Kaiser, reading from the market's mission statement. "It provides an opportunity for the community to get fresh produce typically picked that day or the day before and it invites local farmers and gardeners to get their stuff out to the community as well. The Farmers' Market provides a great atmosphere to be at even if someone isn't shopping for specific things because it is a great place to meet friends and listen to music."\nCommunity members attending the market tomorrow will be swooned by the musical beats of the Bloomington Brass Band from 8:30 to 9:45 a.m. and the toe-stomping rhythm of the Bloomington Quarry Morris Dancers from 10 to 11:30 a.m. \nThe Farmers Market first opened July 26, 1975 and city officials estimated between 2,000 and 5,000 community members wander the aisles each Saturday. Kaiser recommends market attendees bring a picnic basket and a bag to bring fresh fruits and vegetables home.\nVictoria Getty is a nutrition instructor, and director of the applied health sciences dietetics program at IU.\nGetty said the per-meal cost of adding a plentiful heaping of fruits and vegetables to a person's diet is cheaper in the long run than a cheeseburger and accompanying french fries.\n"If the only food you know is bought in a grocery store it can't be that fresh by the time they get it there, then you don't know how good food can taste," Getty said. "If you go to the Farmers' Market you are supporting your local community as opposed to a national chain. By buying organic and buying local you are actually protecting the environment and you may be getting some nutritional advantage." \nNational grocery store chains often ship produce and other goods across the country, and the transit time of fruits and vegetables often results in loss of freshness.\nGetty said the student dietary preference for fast food, pizza, potato chips and soda pop often depletes their bodies of vitamins, minerals and fiber found in fresh, frozen and canned fruits and vegetables. She also said the typical dietary recommendation is five or more servings of fruits and vegetables each day, although eight or more servings offers increased protection for the human body against cancer and heart disease -- the top killer of Americans each year. \n"There are so many different fruits and vegetables and so many different ways to prepare them, but if a student chooses not to eat them no one can force them because it's their health," Getty said. "You can't force fruit and vegetables down someone's throat." \nBloomington's very own "Chile Woman", local gardener Susan Welsand said her 12-year old chili pepper stand at the Farmers' Market offers community members more than 1,100 different kinds of chilies out of the more than 3,000 varieties worldwide. Welsand said she will not have any single chilies for sell Saturday because they are not in season but folks can acquire a $3 chili pepper bedding plant in a two-and-a-half inch pot to grow their own chilies in the comfort of their own home gardens, or even living rooms.\n"I love how chili peppers look, I love how they smell and most of all I love how they taste. Each chili has its own unique taste to me," Welsand said. "I eat a lot of peppers because they are good for you and a good part of a healthy diet. They are a little addictive."\nWelsand said the Bloomington Farmers' Market is not just a place to shop but a social atmosphere to meet friends and make new friends. Welsand said the benefits of the local farmers market are invaluable to the sustenance of the Bloomington community.\n"It's really easy to make dinner when all you have to do is walk outside and pick it. I like knowing where my food comes from," she said. "If I don't grow something myself, I know I can find it from other growers. I also like to support other local farmers and we have a nice variety of farmers at the market."\nLibby Yarnelle, director of Mother Hubbard, a Bloomington social service agency offering free food to community members in need, said her organization attempts to offer as much fresh and organic foods as possible to help build the health of the individual -- not just fill their bellies. She said the produce at the Farmers Market often tastes better because of the peak freshness gained from picking fruits and vegetables that morning.\n"A lot of the foods you see at the market are the same you see in mainstream supermarkets but the local farmers offer a bit more interesting variety and are better tasting because the produce was grown locally in Indiana," Yarnelle said. "Try fruits and vegetables that are familiar and then branch out to a variety of produce. The farmers are very knowledgeable about their products and they are very helpful in determining what you might want to eat."\nAfter the summer market ends in September, the fall Farmers' Market runs from 8:30 to noon in October and November.
(05/04/06 9:41pm)
About 200 IU students, faculty and guests witnessed a glimpse of the children's plight of daily fear during a viewing of "Invisible Children: Rough Cut," a documentary which chronicles the stories of Northern Ugandan children seeking evening shelter from the genocidal storm raging each night across their country.\nThe film followed three "ignorant" young adult Americans as they journeyed into Darfur, Sudan to document the genocidal civil war that has cost the lives of an estimated 200,000 to 400,000 global citizens and displaced millions more into refugee camps splattered across the countryside in neighboring countries like Uganda and Chad. Finding empty Darfur villages and following fleeing Sudanese villagers, the filmmakers end up in refugee camps in Northern Uganda. \nOne overarching question posed by the documentary to illicit international response to save the Northern Ugandan children from their everyday torture was left unresolved: What would you do if you knew the Jewish Holocaust of World War II was occurring at this moment?\nStudents for Uganda committee member and senior Renee Tetrick said students can help the children of Northern Uganda beginning today, carrying through this weekend and followed by the days to come.\n"I hope students become inspired and motivated, and from motivation they move forward to action, and with that action they spend their time and talents toward a better global community," she said.\nAbducted Northern Uganda children are forced to participate in Kony's tyrannical rule, which includes a campaign of mass rape, mutilation and murder, according to the film. They are often forced to turn their weapons on one another, and all surviving Lord's Resistance Army child soldiers have witnessed a lifetime's worth of blood and brutal carnage by the time they become teenagers. \nHao Yin, an IU visiting scholar from China, said he attended the documentary to see for himself some of the genocidal-fearing faces he had only read about in newspaper stories. His wife, Linda Mao, said she was drawn to the story of human tragedy, and she wanted to know what she could do to save the Northern Ugandan children. \nSophomore Dash Voorhees, the film director for the Union Board, said the film is a good tool to bridge the gap between a student's lack of knowledge about the daily suffering of children in Northern Uganda and a student's desire to truly make a difference in the lives of hundreds to thousands of children.\nThe Gumboot Dance Troupe entertained the audience before the film, and most audience members were reduced to tears by the end of the program. Some students left before the show was finished.\nRepresentatives from Invisible Children, the group responsible for the documentary and an international campaign to save the Northern Ugandan children, asked students and other film attendees to donate their time, creativity and money to help better the lives and secure the future of children dying every day from terror, torture, poverty and disease. The group is hosting a Global Night Commute at 8 p.m. Saturday at the intersection of North Jordan and Fee Lane, in which participants will walk to the city of Bloomington center to sleep under the stars in remembrance and solidarity of the Northern Ugandan children hiking to safe places every night of the week.\nAbout 60 IU students have signed a pledge to participate this weekend, and caring community members attending the event will write letters to their politicians demanding the United States pressure the United Nations to pressure the Uganda government to broker a peace deal with the LRA in the name of the children.
(04/20/06 3:49pm)
Is a ton of Iraqi flesh and marrow worth more than 100 pounds of American skin and bones? \nWhile thousands of IU students flocked to the sunny skies and soft-sand beaches of the East Coast and Gulf shores for spring break last week, about 100 students and Bloomington residents marched along Kirkwood Avenue March 15 to protest the third anniversary of the U.S. invasion and occupation of Iraq. \nA reasonable American might have expected to hear the staple statements of the four-year long nonviolent Bloomington peace movement: "Mr. Bush, what do you say, how many Iraqis have you killed today?" But no American could have prepared for another installment of the War on Terror theater of the absurd.\nMembers of the Bloomington Peace Action Coalition, among other protest groups, participated in a dramatic "die-in," in which community members laid on Kirkwood Avenue in front of the National Guard recruitment office until their bodies were outlined in chalk. "It is unspeakably appalling that more than 37,754 Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered," BPAC Organizer Timothy Baer said in a press release before the protest show. "The children of Iraq have been gunned down and blown up in their own streets, so we, in solidarity with them, will enter our streets and lie down."\nThe difference between the staged "die-in" March 15 and continuing child carnage that is the collateral damage of liberating Iraq is a matter of luxurious life versus premature death. As America embarks upon its fourth tour of duty spreading freedom and democracy in Iraq on the backs of 3,000 post-9/11 dead Americans, one constant has become increasingly clear: One dead-but-innocent American life is worth more than 10 dead-but-innocent Iraqis.\n"No president wants war ... My attitude changed on September the 11th -- when we got attacked," President Bush said Tuesday after a White House reporter challenged his decision to invade Iraq because of the "lifetime wounds" for both Iraqis and Americans. "We used to think we were secure because of oceans and previous diplomacy. But we realized on September the 11th, 2001, that killers could destroy innocent life."\nApparently the president missed the terrorist-like killer memo floating through the world before that day that spelled out the destruction of 17 dead American sailors aboard the U.S.S. Cole in October, 2000, 12 innocent U.S. citizens within the U.S. Embassy in Nairobi, Kenya, in August, 1998, 166 innocent Americans working in the Oklahoma City Federal Building in April 1995 and six innocent folks in the World Trade Center's underground garage in February 1993. \nWhile America waits to realize the fruits of democratic labor and Middle East freedom in Iraq, thousands of Iraqis will continue to perish because their home streets are now our central front for the War on Terror. Picturesque purple-fingered peace signs are not proof that the current course of democracy is taking root in Iraq. \nWhy not civil war since America has yet to adequately arm the three-years-in-the-making Iraqi national forces so they can handle their brotherly insurgency?
(04/20/06 3:48pm)
With around 30 guns pointed as his head, half-Hutu/half-Tutsi former Mille Collines Hotel General Manager Paul Rusesabagina refused to accept a weapon to murder his wife, four children and 26 of his Rwandan neighbors at the start of the 1994 Rwandan genocide. \nHe responded instead, "Listen, sir. Myself, I don't know how to use guns, and I don't see any reason why to kill that many people."\nOne-hundred days of conflict cost the lives of more than one million Tutsis as the Hutus stampeded through the Rwandan countryside, hacking off limbs with machetes, clubbing civilians to death and executing their Tutsi neighbors by tossing grenades into their homes. Rusesabagina survived the remainder of genocide, and his ability to use words as weapons helped save the lives of 1,268 Tutsis and Hutu moderates hiding within the Mille Collines Hotel.\nRuseasbagina shared that story and more during a lecture and book signing at Franklin College Tuesday evening that was attended by a standing-room-only crowd of more than 300 students, faculty and other guests. The content of his presentation more or less followed the action of "Hotel Rwanda," a film based on the same story, although Rusesabagina's chit-chat with a Hoosier audience strayed slightly from the direct quotes scripted in his autobiography "An Ordinary Man."\n"In my life I never give up, I never give up, I never give up, and I don't think I will; I've always come up with a solution," Rusesabagina said after he signed about 100 copies of his book. "I have my hope, and my morale is very much up because today at least people are willing to do something."\nAfter the assassination of Rwandan President Juvenal Habyarimana and neighboring Burundi President Cyprien Ntaryamira the morning of April 6, 1994, the only barrier between the military, armed Hutu militias and the Rwandan people were 2,700 United Nations peacekeepers from Belgium instructed \nnot to intervene in the conflict. America and other Western superpowers refrained from stopping what became a genocide at its onset because of a recent incident where U.S. military Blackhawk Helicopters were shot down in the Somali capitol of Mogadishu and 18 supporting U.S. Army Rangers were killed by mobs in the streets.\nRusesabagina said the withdrawal of U.N. peacekeepers from Rwandan schools and churches, the few institutions able to spare large groups of Tutsi refugees from day one of the genocide, resulted in the beginning of a mass slaughter that the world acknowledged but turned its back to. He said Hutu militia men established check-points across Rwanda on the backs of butchered civilians and the Rwandan Army served only to regulate the carnage to a more manageable level.\n"I think being apathetic means that you do not care about what is going on around you," Rusesabagina said. "And in saying that you don't care, remember one thing: Whatever happens to your neighbor might also end up happening to you because you're not excluded."\nFranklin College Campus Minister David Weatherspoon said he believes the happenings within Africa are important stories for Americans to hear because "all people in general" matter. He called Rusesabagina a hero for not folding up his tent when forced to make life or death decisions, and he called on all college students to expand their learning beyond the classroom.\n"I hope our students would be able to see that these classes (they're) studying and the purpose behind their degree isn't just to get an 'A,' but it's to make a real difference in the world," Weatherspoon said. "We can only aspire to ever be the kind of hero he has been and hopefully never have to live through those kinds of conditions. Realize what life is worth, and then go out there and try to make a difference in other people's lives."\nRusesabagina stressed to the audience the importance of understanding the thin boundary between Tutu and Hutsi was nonexistent due to a proud national Rwandan identity, intermarriage and the close-knit living conditions of the two cultural groups that often placed one next door to the other. Tutsis were referred to as "cockroaches" by the Hutus during their bloodbath, and the genocide was considered the social "extermination" of an ethnic "infestation." \nIndianapolis resident and nurse Peggy Geis said she traveled to Franklin College to hear Rusesabagina speak about people, humanity and those that were killed. She said she believes America is responsible for the Rwandan genocide to a certain extent because U.S. leaders knew of the carnage but did nothing to prevent the deaths of a million and the displacement of millions more.\n"We could ignore something terrible that is happening, and the next thing you know, it is out of hand, which is what happened there," Geis said. "It snowballed, and the next thing you know it was a national and international horror that we all ignored. It could happen in any country, even ours, if we listen to people telling us lies or making us bigoted or bias"
(04/20/06 4:00am)
The United Nations, an institution birthed from the idea of global freedom from oppression and tyranny for all, is often perceived as dysfunctional at best and impotent at worst in preventing and intervening in genocidal neighbor-to-neighbor disputes and other ideological-driven wars. Loose talk about U.N. reform has centered on the removal of specific deceitful characters and the revision of other paper shuffling commonplace among so-called democratic bodies. \n"America will never seek a permission slip to defend the security of our people," President Bush once said. Never mind the 20th-century America known worldwide for battling and defeating Japanese Tojoism, Nazism, Marxism and Chinese Maoism abroad; 21st-century America is now known around the globe as a tyrant in the form of pre-emptive invasions of sovereign nations under the banner of liberation, uranium-depleted weapons that cause human genetic mutations and environmental degradation, "ghost detentions," torture allegations acknowledged in some cases and the continued stripping of prized American civil \nliberties. \nAll of that in the name of waging a "War on Terror" against an "Axis of Evil," which has caused North Korea and Iran to pursue nuclear weapons in the hope of deterring an America attack after witnessing the violent thrashing of Baghdad and gutting of Iraq. Meanwhile, an estimated 10,000 of our global Sudanese neighbors are butchered by militiamen every month, while U.N. Ambassador John Bolton presses for international sanctions against Sudan and the Security Council twiddles its thumbs over what to do with Iran.\nAnd so the United Nations story unfolds: Genuine reform is stalled, and direct action to save the global neighborhood from ourselves might never occur because America is not on board the U.N. ship toward the freedom of all global peoples at all.\nBolton himself spearheaded U.N. reform through the international body's dismantling of the U.N. Human Rights Commission, an eventually watered-down group of human rights-dodging nations, in order to form an improved and more modern Human Rights Council in the hope of producing "different" international "outcomes."\n"We want a butterfly," Bolton said during a Jan. 25 press conference in Washington. "We don't intend to put lipstick on a caterpillar and call it a success."\nBolton has since denied the validity of the new U.N. Human Rights Council, and America was one of four nations to vote "no" for the resolution. More than 170 countries favored the proposal, and 96 of the 191 General Assembly members must now approve council candidates.\nElections to the council are slated for May 9, and the United Nations' ship to genuine human rights reform is set for departure June 19. \nHuman Rights Watch, an international watch-dog agency, has decried Bolton's move as undermining America's claim to 21st-century leadership in battling global human rights.\n"We hope that the U.S. will make a serious effort to address its own rights abuses so that it can be in a stronger position to present itself for election to the council next year," HRW Executive Director Kenneth Roth said April 6.\nMight America pocket its pride while metamorphosing into a human rights butterfly?
(04/06/06 4:40am)
Now that the Florida Gators have chomped their way to a 2006 NCAA victory, America can snap back to reality and honor its international obligations toward global security. The struggle to combat tyranny, oppression and genocide took a monumental step forward this week as former Liberian President Charles Taylor faced a war tribunal for numerous crimes against humanity.\nTaylor, the first former African president to face responsibility for war crimes committed during an otherwise tyrannical rule, pleaded not guilty to 11 counts of international war crimes Monday, stemming from his 1997 to 2003 democratic presidency. He is reported to have campaigned on the slogan: "He killed my ma, he killed my pa, but I will vote for him." \nTaylor is accused of orchestrating terror during Sierra Leone's 1991 to 2002 civil war and for destabilizing the west African region through his financial support and arming of so-called revolutionary rebels internationally known for maiming civilians by decapitation, rape and torture, kidnapping children for sex slavery and using children as soldiers. \n"Most definitely, your honor, I did not and could not have committed those acts against the sister republic of Sierra Leone," Taylor told Justice Richard Lussick, according to The Associated Press.\nDuring Taylor's bloody reign, more than 500,000 Sierra Leoneans were raped, maimed, mutilated or murdered, more than 2.5 million of our global neighbors were forced from their homes and Liberia was violently shredded to political shambles. He is also accused of offering a Liberian safe haven for al-Qaida suicide bombers who murdered 12 Americans and more than 200 Africans at two U.S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998. \nLiberia stands as Africa's first republic among a continent of impoverished and developing nations. Now that Taylor is in international custody, the global community is still seeking justice against other dictators and tyrants accused of some of the most heinous crimes imaginable. \nFormer Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was charged with genocide Tuesday for a 1980s extermination campaign of the Kurds that murdered an estimated 50,000 Iraqis, but the following Final Four of Evil are still free to roam the globe:\nFormer Indonesian dictator Suharto is accused of wiping out more than 500,000 of our global neighbors from countries like West Papua and East Timor during a brutal 30-year campaign. Ethiopian "Red Terror" rouser Mengistu Haile Mariam and former Chile dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet are also accused of terrorizing their fair share of the world's population. \nWorst of all, no Khmer Rouge official was ever charged for the genocide of 1.7 million Cambodians in the late 1970s. \nAll the above one-time global terrorists are either living free, living in exile or have died of otherwise natural causes.\nPresident Bush and Congress helped facilitate Taylor's fall in 2003, and America helped pave the international path toward justice for Sierra Leone. Might America make another giant leap forward for humanity by increasing international pressure to indict, arrest and convict other global terrorist-like dictators?
(02/23/06 5:32am)
Often times, human role reinventions involve pulling other people close during times of vulnerability, only to push them away as the transformation toward self-efficacy is fulfilled. \nIn that sense, Massachusetts Institute of Technology Professor Alan Brody's kitchen environment of 1944 working-class Brooklyn, as portrayed in his play "The Housewives of Mannheim," is similar to many American home scenes reflected throughout popular culture during the last 50 years.\nPlaying through Saturday at the Bloomington Playwrights Project, 107 West Ninth St., "The Housewives of Mannheim," directed by Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh Artistic Director Jonathan Rest, provides the audience with characters who are self-conscious, lonely, loving and giving, and whose relationships fluctuate with their needs and desires of any given moment. \nEvolving from a typical 1940s housewife to an independent woman pursuing her own tastes and interests is the character May, performed by junior Hillary Hittner. May unites with her new Jewish neighbor, Sophie, who recently fled the Nazis in Europe. Bloomington resident Kate Braun performs as this neighbor.\nHittner takes the audience on a ride of spectacular proportions as her character identifies the box she feels locked inside and discovers "art" as her key to personal salvation.\nReminiscent of film superstar Ingrid Bergman, Hittner dazzles the audience with her grace and tempts their sensibilities with her vulnerability.\nBraun offers the audience a reflective calm in the character of Sophie, and her performance as a traveled and worn-down older woman complements May's projected exuberance and idealism throughout the show. \nIn one particular scene, Braun's public display of emotion sends shock waves through the audience and chills down audience members' backs as her suddenly enraged character smashed records during a disagreement with her friend.\nThe character Billie, performed by senior Sarah Feldman, provided the show's antagonism, although her character was guilty of nothing more than pushing May to rip free from the skin that once was her life as a former stay-at-home wife. \nBillie, a self-identified lesbian who was also married to a soldier fighting Fascism abroad, encourages May to test the limits of her sexual identity by leading her to the bedroom for sex one drunken night.\nFeldman's portrayal of Billie is both rugged and temperamental, but her presence often results in May progressing forward despite her friend's usual attempt at retreat. \nFeldman and Hittner's relationship provides the audience with a make-believe example of the complexities of modern life as the labels of "man" and "woman" were replaced in the show with "loving person" of all people regardless of a person's gender role identity. \nOne of May's revelations, after a trip to the art museum and a careful study of the painting "Housewives of Mannheim," leads her to conclude life encompasses nothing "good" or "bad."\nInstead, May reveals to Billie, in the one of the play's most inspiring moments, that interpreting life is like viewing a human hand: everyone in the room observes a different view even though all eyes are examining the same five fingers and palm.\nThe stage presence of May's other neighbor, Alice, performed by junior and BPP Ensemble of Artists member Joanne Dubach, encourages audience members to break free from their emotional slumber that was created during many moments of depressed thought and disabled action. \nLoose talk during intermission included a critique of the actors' Brooklyn accents, but this reviewer did not pay much attention because the play asked audience members to question our prejudices of "good" and "bad" when projecting our moral and ethical quandaries onto all our neighbors.\n"Housewives of Mannheim" explored the themes of independent womanhood at the expense of domestic servitude during a time of significant reinvention of American women's role while the men were off fighting a war. \nAll of the characters lamented on what life might have involved if none of their husbands returned from battle, and May, in particular, often ponders if time is better spent by "not thinking at all."\nBy the end of the show, one main theme seemed to over arch the action: an American woman can find her own place in the world despite the stereotypical role of 1940s housewife.
(02/22/06 4:28am)
Bloomington neighbors know to dial 911 when faced with emergency situations, but many might feel wary about contacting the police when their quality of life is violated within their neighborhoods. \nThe Bloomington Police Department has scheduled a Neighborhood Watch Community Workshop for Thursday evening to unite neighbors, neighborhood representatives and members of the police department to establish community watch priorities and other goals for 2006.\n"The workshop is going to be on an interactive basis. We are going to make a couple of presentations and we encourage community members to come prepared with potential issues to discuss," said BPD Sgt. Scott Oldham. "We ask the audience to keep an open mind on how we might solve neighborhood problems. If community members know of a problem or what a solution might be, we need to discuss if that problem or solution is viable for the community."\nBloomington's Neighborhood Watch program is designed to assist community members by enhancing neighborhood security, according to BPD resource brochure. Neighborhood Watch is designed to help heighten the power of observation and encourage mutual assistance among neighbors.\nOldham said the primary focus of the workshop is to examine the current neighborhood watch reporting system and to chart a path needed to address community problems and other quality of life issues before major problems arise within neighborhoods. He said common neighbor concerns often involve parking issues, rabble- rousers and other illegal activity.\nAccording to a pamphlet entitled "Living Off Campus: Be a Good Neighbor" on the IU-Bloomington Web site, a student's awareness of his or her neighbors is as important as paying utility bills and buying groceries.\nThe pamphlet encourages students to find information about trash pick-up, recycling, parking permits and alcohol laws and to learn about the city's Quiet Nights Initiative, which promotes peaceful neighborhood environments. \nStudents and residents not involved in a neighborhood association are also invited to participate in the discussion, which will include information on how community members can form their own neighborhood watch groups.\nVickie Provine, a program manager for the City of Bloomington's Housing and Neighborhood Development, said current neighborhood associations consist of a few people living on a couple blocks to several hundred people living in large subdivisions.\n"Our neighborhoods in Bloomington have been living with students for years, and students have reached out and worked with the city to become better neighbors," she said. "Often times a good neighbor does something special for their neighbor like shoveling their walkway or helps out where they can by picking up litter. That kind of behavior creates a ripple effect throughout the neighborhood and puts a face on the community for many students."
(02/16/06 5:03am)
Public concern and conversation following President Bush's State of the Union Address Jan. 31 has focused on the methodology of how we might save ourselves from our fossil fuel lifeline, but the president also said America needs to "act confidently in pursuing the enemies of freedom." He was, of course, referring to Islamic terrorists, Iraqi insurgents and the government of Iran. \n"The only way to protect our people, the only way to secure the peace, the only way to control our destiny is by our leadership," Bush said. "Abroad, our nation is committed to an historic, long-term goal: We seek the end of tyranny in our world."\nOne down -- former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein -- with an entire world of tyrannical individuals and groups still left to conquer. Thank God America doesn't have to look far. We can continue our "end to tyranny" campaign by supporting United Nations efforts with both money and American peacekeepers to stop the daily genocide of our global neighbors in Darfur, Sudan, by the government-supported Janjaweed militias.\nInternational activists like the Human Rights Watch and New York Times columnist Nicholas D. Kristof have documented the rape, mutilation, torture and murder of millions of Sudanese at the hands of the \nJanjaweed.\n"President Bush should make it clear that the U.S. will provide the necessary support for a U.N. mission in Darfur. And he should call on other countries to do the same," Africa Human Rights Watch director Peter Takirambudde said in a Feb. 10 release. "The United States should push for the strongest possible U.N. mandate to disarm the Janjaweed militias and protect civilians, using deadly force if necessary."\nKristof has even asked readers to conjure the image of babies being thrown into bon fires. Hussein, if one were to compare the amount of murderous "tyranny," is on trial for ordering the killing of 150 Shiites among other international crimes like the murder of thousands more Iraqis following a 1982 assassination attempt. \nBesides the liberation of dozens of concentration camps strewn across Europe during World War II, the United States' record on defeating genocide is dismal if not down right pathetic. America sat with her hands in her lap as the government of Bosnia ordered the Bosnian military to murder thousands of Muslims in 1992. We also did not intervene in 1994 as the Hutus systematically slaughtered more than 800,000 Tutsis in Rwanda.\nAnd in Congo, more than 3 million of our global neighbors have died, many by mass murder, in a brutal three-year civil war. These genocidal conflicts are but the tip of the international mass murder iceberg. \nThank God that Bush said America is willing to truly battle tyranny abroad in the hope of spreading liberty, freedom and democracy, because the road map of genocide is already covered in the blood of millions of broken dreams.\nThe president declared: "In this decisive year, you and I will make choices that determine both the future and the character of our country."\nMight America choose to roll up its sleeves to defeat global genocide?
(02/09/06 6:37am)
Many American women embraced one another for comfort and support while their husbands were fighting fascism abroad during World War II.\n"The Housewives of Mannheim," written by Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Alan Brody and guest directed by Jewish Theatre of Pittsburgh Artistic Director Jonathan Rest, confronts the themes of racism, anti-Semitism, homophobia and gender roles during a time more than 50 years past: 1944. \nBrody's script is the Bloomington Playwrights Project's 2005/2006 Reva Shiner Award-winning play, chosen from more than 300 entries.\n"One of the nice things about this play is that it's very much a period piece with period characters, attitudes and movements," Rest said. "It's set in a very nostalgic period but people's attitudes about gender and racial roles were terribly oppressive. The play is pretty much realism so watching the characters on stage is like looking through a time machine."\nThe action takes place in character May Black's kitchen, in a middle class two bedroom apartment in Brooklyn, that resembles any American kitchen of the last 100 years. According to a BPP press release, the drama "delves into the world of female friendships and the stresses of wartime on the families of soldiers."\nMay, played by junior Hillary Hittner, joins the characters Alice, played by junior and BPP Ensemble of Artists member Joanne Dubach, and Billie, played by senior Sarah Feldman. Bloomington\nresident Kate Braun rounds out the ensemble as Sophie. \nFeldman said audience members should not expect a "chick flick" because the show deals with issues that are important and interesting to a broader audience, despite the casting of four female characters in a kitchen setting.\n"Getting into the mindset of a woman in 1944 is pretty interesting because of the physical aspects, like using (American film star) Donna Reed-kind of movements: draping your body over furniture and such," she said. \n"Audience members can look forward to what happens to women when their men are off to war," she said. "I hope the audience takes away the sense of what life was like back then, even though life hasn't changed that much."\n"The Housewives of Mannheim" is intended to take the audience on an informative journey, Rest said. \n"We all have a common brother and sisterhood so it's important to look beyond people's categories," he said. "Categorization drives people apart. We are all here on a common journey and we all have more in common than not. Commonality brings people together."\nBraun, who was born in 1949 and is the eldest of the four actors, said the cast hopes to share what they learned about the year 1944, war and women with the audience. \n"I hope the audience takes away the need for compassion and increased tolerance for the differences in all kinds of people," she said.\n"The Housewives of Mannheim" is intended for mature teen and adult audiences.
(02/07/06 5:40am)
As the clock ticked to zero during the Super Bowl XL Sunday evening, some fans shrugged their shoulders and sighed in disbelief, wondering what competitive activities might occupy their Sundays for the next five months. \nA variety of games and competitions around town offer competitive or recreational play. From bowling to fishing to board games, people can get their professional football fix from other, less violent sports.\nJulie D'Argent, a graduate student and Back Alley employee, said bowling and billiards offer both fun and competition. \n"Bowling is not a contact sport, but you have to throw the ball accurately to knock all the pins down. You also have to (have) accuracy to put all the balls into the pockets in billiards," she said. "Most of the time people don't really care about the score, but you can tell who is a serious bowler by the way they stand and throw the ball."\nIf bowling doesn't satisfy the competitive spirit of those used to football, local politics might offer an arena of competition. \nFormer Bloomington City Council President and current council member at-large Andy Ruff said the debate of topics affecting the campus community is worthy of family entertainment.\n"All these fascinating public discussions and debates about the smoking ban, living wage, tax abatements and historical designations make for dramatic, real reality television. In the process, people become more educated and informed citizens," he said. "I say a city council meeting is not only good sport, but it is also much more important than the Super Bowl or sports entertainment because it affects (people's lives) directly."\nComparing it to battles of professional football, Ruff said plenty of debates unfold at each meeting.\n"These debates get played out in a dramatic fashion with strong statements and other oratory from community leaders and regular citizens," Ruff said. "It's always a colorful, dramatic environment when people feel passionate about some issue."\nCity Council meetings are broadcast to the public at 7 p.m. every Wednesday by Bloomington Community Access Television. Reruns, as well as most other city and county government boards and commission meetings, are played throughout the week.\nAnyone yearning for a more traditional approach to competitive sports can turn to fishing.\nBloomington resident Amanda Vaughn, an employee at the Fishin' Shedd, 4855 S. State Rd. 446, said her bait and tackle shop advertises several fishing tournaments held at Lake Monroe each summer. She said community members wishing to fish should not expect the same instant gratification as those watching a professional football game, but hooking a big fish is often worth the time.\n"With the Super Bowl, there are millions of people watching, tons of money is put into it. It's a very intense contact sport with very much adrenaline and a lot of people get hyped up watching it," Vaughn said. "Fishing is more relaxing ... You have to be patient, and sometimes you can feel like a loser if you get your line tangled or you don't catch anything. The winner is often the person who catches the biggest fish of the day."\nFor those who prefer to participate in competitive action from the comfort of their couch, traditional board game play might offer an outlet.\nBloomington resident Justin McNeely, an employee at The Game Preserve, 101 W. Kirkwood Ave., said his game shop offers competitive play for all ages.\n"There are so many types of board games made that every interest is filled by at least one board game. In playing a board game, you have that sense of sitting down with buddies or family and actually interacting with one another," he said. \nMcNeely said two main types of board game players seem to exist: the competitive player who lies, cheats, steals, sabotages or breaks deals with other players, and the fun-seeking player who is satisfied whether winning or losing. He said the goal of any game is to win, but the difference in most players is the extent of their effort to win. \n"With board games, you are still sitting around the living room, but instead of watching a game on television you are actively engaged in a game of your own," McNeely said. "So board games are a bit more exciting that way"
