Tuesday, June 17, 2008
Monthly Archives: June 2008
ARAB NEWS: DOES BARACK OBAMA STAND A CHANCE?
| Iman Kurdi, Ik511@hotmail.com |
| Is it possible that a man born of a Kenyan father, whose skin is a dark shade of caramel, whose middle name is Hussein and whose surname rhymes with the first name of the world’s most wanted terrorist, whose mother was named Stanley and who married not one but two non-American men, whose stepfather was a Muslim and who, what is more, has been a senator for less than four years, is it really possible that such a man could become the 44th president of the United States of America? Theoretically at least the answer is yes, and yet, for many of us who only know the US through a foreign lens, it seems not just unlikely but counterintuitive.Barack Obama’s candidature may be at one with the American Dream, but it is a straight contradiction of the image of the US abroad. Quite frankly it seems hard to believe that the flag-waving, nationalistic, insular, conservative (at least by European standards) populace who voted in two terms of George W. Bush could vote for a man who on the surface represents everything that the current president is not. Of course Bush is a Republican while Obama is a Democrat and most of those who voted for Bush will vote Republican no matter what, while most of those who voted for Al Gore last time are likely to vote along party lines too. Or will they? This has been one of the most interesting aspects of the campaign for the Democratic nomination, the argument put forward by Hillary Clinton’s camp that those who voted for her would not vote for Obama in a general election and that the reason for this is quite simply his skin color.I have always found swing voters fascinating. While many of the people who talk passionately about politics have clear and generally unwavering allegiance to a particular political camp, the voters who effectively put governments in power are those who are swayed not by a deep belief in ideology but by the promises and personalities of the candidates they have before them on the ballot paper. And to make a sweeping generalization, the kind of person they like to vote for is someone whose persona is convincing and whose policies make them materially better off. In other words, someone who looks like their perception of what a president should look like and who can convince them he or she will look after their best interests in terms of security, wealth, education and healthcare, often in that order.
I could more easily understand Hillary Clinton’s argument if she was saying that swing voters in a general election would be more likely to vote for her than for Obama, but that is only part of the argument. What is actually being said is that EVEN among card-carrying Democrats, there is a sizable contingent who would vote for the candidate of the other party or not vote at all rather than vote for an African American. And that is another thing which intrigues me, the way a man whose mother is white and whose father is black is automatically categorized as black, at least by whites. What would he be if he had three white grandparents and one black grandparent, I wonder? Also African American I suspect. Historically that was certainly the case, just one non-white ancestor was enough to categorize you as non-white too, with all the consequences it entailed. This view of being white as some kind of pure breed is offensive and brings to mind the certificates that come with pedigree dogs whereby the owner can be assured that all the ancestors of their new pet were indeed of the same breed. Besides I have long found categorization based on race offensive in its own right. Whenever I have to tick such a box on a questionnaire I am tempted to tick on “other” and write “human”. Technically, if you must insist on these kinds of categorizations, Barack Obama is of mixed race, or Metisse as the French have christened those born of parents of different skin colors. Moreover he was brought up by his mother and his maternal grandmother — both white. It’s little wonder that some African Americans questioned his African American identity and wondered whether someone who was not descended from slavery could accurately reflect their identity. Though he has now won the popular African American vote, many were at first keener to vote for Hillary Clinton rather than for a man they did not quite see as one of them. And here is another question: Had Barack Obama not been head to head with a woman for the Democratic nomination would he have won? Given it was not initially a two-horse race perhaps the question is not so pertinent, but still, it is worth asking. The candidates may have held fiery and informed debates and argued about foreign policy and other political issues but the critical, decisive question of the campaign was: “Who would be more likely to win the presidency between a white woman and a black man?” So now that Obama is up against another man and that he is campaigning for the votes of all Americans and not just those of his own party, what are his chances? If the rest of the world were voting, he would probably win hands down. He is so much more of an attractive prospect than John McCain, not just because he is young and eloquent, but because he holds a world view that is far more empathic toward foreigners. There has also been much talk about him being the more pro-Arab of the candidates but I think that is an error. If anything, the opposite is more likely to be true. Wanting a phased withdrawal of troops from Iraq and wanting to talk to Iran do not somehow make him pro-Arab, they just show him to be more open to diplomatic resolutions to conflicts and more averse to direct military intervention than Bush. President Obama, I suspect, will be as fervently pro-Israel as his predecessor, partly because it is a given of how American foreign policy functions and partly because he needs to be seen to be supportive of Israel to win the sizable Jewish vote which currently eludes him. Sadly we non-Americans don’t get to vote in November. Obama’s fate will quite naturally be decided by the citizens of his own country. If they do vote him into power, it might or might not lead to a change in the way America is run, but it will certainly change the way most of us see the US.
SOURCE: http://www.arabnews.com/?page=7§ion=0&article=110644&d=7&m=6&y=2008 |
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UPDATE: RACIST SIGN IN HARRIS COUNTY HAS NEW MESSAGE
06:21 PM CDT on Sunday, June 15, 2008
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — A racist sign that shocked a Harris County community had a new look Sunday, and it was actually sending a nice message.
Someone apparently painted over the sign, which once displayed a derogatory comment about Barack Obama’s bid for the presidency.
Neighbors said they were pleasantly surprised with the new message, which simply read “have a nice day” and was adorned with smiley faces.
The man who claimed to own the sign told 11 News on Thursday that it was a “good joke.”
But no one else was laughing.
Quannel X held a protest in front of the sign Sunday.
He said even though it’s been painted over, he wants the owner to know that the neighborhood will not tolerate racism.
According to 11 News legal expert Gerald Treece, the owner of the sign wasn’t breaking the law with his offensive message.
It’s his First Amendment right to display what he wants on his sign, which is on private property.
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Hmm.
A smiley face, eh?
Well. . . .
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SUSPENDED NASCAR OFFICIALS ACCUSED OF HARASSING BLACK TECHNICAL INSPECTOR
AP Auto Racing Writer
NASCAR chairman Brian France speaks to the media after a news conference at Lowe’s Motor Speedway in Concord, N.C., Wednesday, June 11, 2008. France denied Wednesday that a former official complained to her supervisors about racial and sexual discrimination, claims she alleged led to her eventual firing. (AP Photo/Chuck Burton)
In this Feb. 18, 2007 photo, former NASCAR technical inspector Mauricia Grant is shown in the pits at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Fla. Grant worked as a technical inspector for NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until she was fired last October and is suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination. (AP Photo/Laura Reitz)
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Two officials suspended by NASCAR are accused in a $225 million lawsuit of exposing themselves to a former co-worker, the Associated Press has learned.
Tim Knox and Bud Moore have been placed on indefinite administrative paid leave.
NASCAR will not reveal the identities of the officials sent home Friday from Kentucky Speedway, but a person familiar with the investigation confirmed to AP on Saturday that Knox and Moore were suspended. The person requested anonymity because NASCAR’s investigation is ongoing.
NASCAR did not give a reason for the men’s suspension, and chairman Brian France cautioned against assuming the officials are being punished for allegations made in the lawsuit.
“Obviously we found some violations in our policy, but I would not jump to conclusions to assume that all of the allegations that were made are accurate,” France said at Michigan International Speedway, site of Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race.
“Even if we take action on any official in this investigation — we might discover something entirely different that has been going on that has nothing to do with the claim, this lawsuit, but still is in violation of our policy. That would get you in trouble with us.”
Mauricia Grant filed her suit Tuesday, alleging 23 specific incidents of sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of racial and gender discrimination during her time as a technical inspector for NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series.
Grant, who is black, claims her October 2007 firing was retaliation for complaining about the way she was treated on the job from her January 2005 hiring.
NASCAR sent a team of investigators from its human resources and legal offices to Kentucky and did 27 interviews away from the track Thursday and Friday. Knox and Moore were found to have possibly engaged in behavior that violated NASCAR policy.
Grant’s suit accuses both men of exposing themselves to her.
The lawsuit contends that at an April 2007 race in Texas, Knox exposed himself in the hospitality suite of their hotel at an officials gathering hosted by Nationwide Series director Joe Balash.
Moore is accused of coming out of his hotel room in Memphis in October 2006 clad only in a towel. The suit says he asked Grant if she wanted to see what was under the towel, opened it, then ducked behind a trash can.
In another incident, Grant claims Moore asked her how it felt to be black. Her suit claims Grant described being black as “a privilege,” and Moore feigned confusion and wondered aloud “how can she be proud of being black?”
Moore also is accused of making lewd sexual advances toward Grant.
France has not addressed the validity of Grant’s claims, but reiterated Saturday that the former official never made a formal complaint or followed NASCAR policy in reporting harassment. In fact, France said the investigation has shown she never had anything negative to say about her job.
“We would have investigated this claim instantly, if it had been brought to our attention. She chose to make this about money and about a lawsuit, and we’ll deal with that,” France said.
“So far, we have found she just didn’t report anything to anybody. Quite the opposite. She was very pleased with her colleagues, and most of her comments that we have heard were that she liked her job, enjoyed being there, liked the camaraderie of the other officials.”
France also insisted NASCAR has a very open path for reporting complaints, with multiple options.
“If any employee has an issue, you can e-mail me directly,” he said. “There are dozens of way to go about this.”
Grant has said she followed the chain of command all the way to Balash, but stopped short of telling human resources because she was reprimanded by that department for a separate incident two weeks after lodging her complaint. She said she viewed the reprimand, which included a threat of termination, as retaliation for complaining to Balash.
Balash was unavailable for comment following practice Saturday morning for the Nationwide Series race at Kentucky.
Named in the suit are Balash, assistant series director Mike Dolan, two supervisors, NASCAR’s senior manager for business relations, the human resources director and 17 officials who were Grant’s co-workers.
Meanwhile, France said NASCAR held a pair of meetings in Michigan and Kentucky to review its policies with its officials and remind them of the standards to which they are held.
“Obviously, we wanted to make sure, once again, they knew exactly what NASCAR’s policy was in terms of behavior, harassment and certainly racial discrimination of any kind,” France said.
Copyright 2008 The Associated Press.
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RELATED STORY:
FORMER OFFICIAL SUES NASCAR FOR $225 MILLION OVER HARRASSMENT CLAIMS
As an aspiring racing official, Mauricia Grant had grown used to working in a man’s world.
When she finally made it into NASCAR, Grant was appalled at the way she says she was treated beginning from her first day on the job until her firing last October.
Now she’s suing NASCAR for $225 million, alleging racial and sexual discrimination, sexual harassment and wrongful termination.
“I loved it. It was a great, exciting, adrenaline-filled job where I worked with fast cars and the best drivers in the world,” Grant told The Associated Press. “But there was an ongoing daily pattern (of harassment). It was the nature of the people I worked with, the people who ran it, it trickled down from the top.
“It’s just the way things are in the garage.”
The 32-year-old Grant, who is black, worked as a technical inspector responsible for certifying cars in NASCAR’s second-tier Nationwide Series from January 2005 until her termination. In the lawsuit, she alleged she was referred to as “Nappy Headed Mo” and “Queen Sheba,” by co-workers, was often told she worked on “colored people time,” and was frightened by one official who routinely made references to the Ku Klux Klan.
In addition, Grant said she was subjected to sexual advances from male co-workers, two of whom allegedly exposed themselves to her, and graphic and lewd jokes.
The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, lists 23 specific incidents of alleged sexual harassment and 34 specific incidents of alleged racial and gender discrimination beginning when she was hired in January 2005 through her October 2007 firing.
NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said the organization had not yet reviewed the suit.
“As an equal opportunity employer, NASCAR is fully committed to the spirit and letter of affirmative action law,” Poston said, adding NASCAR has a zero tolerance policy for harassment.
In the lawsuit, Grant said she complained numerous times to her supervisors about how she was treated, to no avail. On one occasion, Grant said Nationwide Series director Joe Balash, her immediate supervisor, was dismissive of her complaints, explaining her co-workers were “former military guys” with a rough sense of humor. “You just have to deal with it,” she says Balash told her.
On another occasion, she alleged Balash participated in the harassment.
“Does your workout include an urban obstacle course with a flat-screen TV on your back?” she claimed Balash asked her during the week of July 28, 2007, while working in Indianapolis.
Grant told the AP her two younger sisters witnessed racial discrimination against the official while visiting her at Daytona International Speedway in 2006 and encouraged her to document every incident going forward.
The lawsuit details a series of those alleged incidents:
• Grant was forced to work outside more often than the white male officials because her supervisors believed she couldn’t sunburn because she was black.
• While riding in the backseat of her car pool at Talladega Superspeedway, co-workers told her to duck as they passed race fans. “I don’t want to start a riot when these fans see a black woman in my car,” she claims one official said.
• When packing up a dark garage at Texas Motor Speedway an official told Grant: “Keep smiling and pop your eyes out ’cause we can’t see you.”
• When she ignored advances from co-workers, Grant was accused of being gay. She also claimed co-workers questioned the sexual orientation of two other female officials.
After her termination, Grant said she went over her notes and recognized “a pattern of retaliation and discrimination.”
“It didn’t diminish my love for the sport of auto racing, but the job wasn’t always the easiest thing to go to every day,” she said.
Grant said she routinely complained to her supervisors. Two weeks after her final complaint, Grant said she was warned during the week of August 18, 2007, at Michigan International Speedway that she had engaged in “conduct unbecoming of a NASCAR representative” and would be fired unless she changed her behavior. She said the warning stemmed from a confrontation with a track official who stopped her as she passed through a gate to use the restroom.
Roughly two months later, Grant was fired, and NASCAR cited a poor work performance in ending her employment. The lawsuit claims other than a previous warning for using “street” language, Grant had never been disciplined for job performance and routinely received positive reviews.
In addition, the suit claims official Heather Gambino was fired in 2006 for complaining about a sexually hostile work environment. The suit also claims former official Dean Duckett, who is black, was reprimanded and ultimately fired last November for using “aggressive language toward a white co-worker.”
Among those identified in Grant’s suit are Balash, assistant series director Mike Dolan, supervisors Alan Shephard and Dennis Dillon, NASCAR’s senior manager for business relations, the human resources director and 17 of Grant’s fellow officials. All of the defendants are white.
“My supervisors all praised me. I was hanging in there with the guys,” she said. “I am an athletic person. I went over the wall and faced malicious crews and competitive crew chiefs, and I was right there and held it down and was never lazy about it.
“And I knew that once I was terminated, there wasn’t going to be an opportunity for me to find another industry like NASCAR to practice my craft.”
Copyright 2008 Associated Press.
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IN REMEMBRANCE: JUNE-15-2008
Hazel Harvey Peace at her 100th birthday party in August.
Tim Russert, a fixture in American homes on Sunday mornings and election nights since becoming moderator of “Meet the Press” nearly 17 years ago, died Friday after collapsing at the Washington bureau of NBC News. He was 58 and lived in Northwest Washington.
Alex Wong/Getty Images for Meet the Press
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Tim Russert during a taping of “Meet the Press” in October 2007. More Photos »
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Eric Thayer/Meet the Press, via Reuters
Tim Russert interviewed Senator Barack Obama on “Meet the Press” in November. More Photos >
His death was announced by Tom Brokaw, former anchor of “NBC Nightly News,” who broke into the network’s programming just after 3:30 p.m.
An NBC spokeswoman, Allison Gollust, said in an e-mail message Friday night that Mr. Russert had died of a “sudden heart attack.” His internist, Dr. Michael A. Newman, said on MSNBC that an autopsy had found that Mr. Russert had an enlarged heart and significant coronary artery disease.
Mr. Russert, who was also the Washington bureau chief and a senior vice president of NBC News, had just returned in the last couple of days from a trip to Italy, where his family had celebrated the recent graduation of his son, Luke, from Boston College. When stricken, he was recording voice-overs for this Sunday’s program.
President Bush, speaking at a news conference in Paris on Saturday with President Nicolas Sarkozy of France, said: “America lost a really fine citizen yesterday when Tim Russert passed away. I’ve had the privilege of being interviewed by Tim Russert. I found him to be a hardworking, thorough, decent man. And Tim Russert loved his country, he loved his family, and he loved his job a lot.”
With his plain-spoken explanations and hard-hitting questions, Mr. Russert played an increasingly outsize role in the news media’s coverage of politics. The elegantly simple white memo board he used on election night in 2000 to explain the deadlock in the race between George W. Bush and Al Gore — “Florida, Florida, Florida,” he had scribbled in red marker — became an enduring image in the history of American television coverage of the road to the White House.
More recently, he drew criticism for his sharp — some said disproportionately sharp — questioning of Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in her pursuit of the Democratic presidential nomination, most notably in a debate between her and Senator Barack Obama in Cleveland in February. But he asked tough questions of Mr. Obama, too, as well as any number of Republicans.
He also leavened his prosecutorial style with an exuberance for politics — and politicians, on both sides of the aisle. And the easy way he spoke on camera belied his fierce preparation, often to the detriment of his social life. He rarely ventured out on Saturday nights.
“He really was the best political journalist in America, not just the best television journalist in America,” said Al Hunt, the Washington executive editor of Bloomberg News and former Washington bureau chief of The Wall Street Journal.
Mr. Russert’s skill at political analysis was born of experience: he worked as a counselor to Gov. Mario M. Cuomo of New York in 1983-84 and for five years before that was special counsel to Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan of New York. He was chosen to run Mr. Moynihan’s New York City office before he turned 30.
He left government for the media world at the urging of Lawrence K. Grossman, then president of NBC News, Mr. Hunt said.
“He was intrigued by it as a career choice,” said Mr. Hunt, a close friend who first met him during Mr. Russert’s days working for Mr. Moynihan. “He absolutely set the standard for moving from politics to journalism. He proved it could be done.”
Or, as Ethel Kennedy, the widow of Robert F. Kennedy, told NBC on Friday: “He had done his homework, so we didn’t have to do ours. We longed to hear what his take on world events was.”
Mr. Brokaw is to host a special edition of “Meet the Press” on Sunday, which will pay tribute to Mr. Russert’s life and career. With Mr. Russert’s unexpected passing, NBC will soon be forced to confront a question with no immediately easy answer: how to replace its lead political analyst with the presidential election less than five months away.
“Meet the Press,” the top-rated public affairs program on television, is viewed by nearly four million people each Sunday, according to Nielsen Media Research. As word of Mr. Russert’s death spread across BlackBerry and computer screens, tributes poured into NBC from the highest elected officials and competitors on other networks. Thousands of loyal viewers also posted tributes on media Web sites.
In a statement, President Bush described Mr. Russert as “an institution in both news and politics for more than two decades.”
“He was always well informed and thorough in his interviews,” Mr. Bush said. “And he was as gregarious off the set as he was prepared on it.”
Former President Bill Clinton and Senator Clinton issued a statement saying, “Tim had a love of public service and a dedication to journalism that rightfully earned him the respect and admiration of not only his colleagues but also those of us who had the privilege to go toe to toe with him.”
With his bulky frame, thick face and devilishly arched eyebrows, Timothy John Russert Jr. was an unlikely television star. And it was not just that he was a graduate, with honors, of the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law, or that he was the son of a onetime garbage collector in his native Buffalo. (Even casual viewers of “Meet the Press” would learn of his passion for the Buffalo Bills football team and his strong embrace of the city itself, where on Friday flags flew at half-staff.)
When he joined NBC in 1984, it was as an executive working on special news projects. Among his earliest “gets”: arranging an appearance a year later by Pope John Paul II on the “Today” program, broadcasting from Rome.
Behind the scenes, Mr. Russert’s colleagues at NBC News soon learned that he had a gift for making the most complex political machinations understandable and compelling.
“He had a better political insight than anyone else in the room, period,” said Jeff Zucker, the chief executive of NBC Universal, who was then an up-and-coming producer.
As Mr. Zucker told it Friday, Michael Gartner, Mr. Grossman’s successor as president of NBC News, went to Mr. Russert at some point in the late 1980s to ask him to be the Washington bureau chief.
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Chester Higgins, Jr./The New York Times
Tim Russert on Dec. 8, 1982, when he was counselor and spokesman for Governor Mario Cuomo of New York. More Photos >
“Michael came back from the meeting,” Mr. Zucker recalled, “and said he had also decided to name him the new moderator of ‘Meet the Press.’ “
“This was a guy who had no on-camera experience,” Mr. Zucker said. “Forget that he had never hosted a program. He had never appeared on television.”
He made his debut as moderator in December 1991. Eight years later, Bill Carter wrote in The New York Times that Mr. Russert had reinvented “Meet the Press,” which first appeared on television in 1947, “changing it from a sleepy encounter between reporters and Washington newsmakers into an issue-dense program, with Mr. Russert taking on the week’s newsmaker.”
Among those who submitted to Mr. Russert’s pointed questions (which he often set up with evidence, frequently from the subject’s own mouth, cued on videotape) were Mr. Clinton and Mr. Gore, President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, John Kerry and John McCain.
During last year’s perjury trial of I. Lewis Libby Jr., Mr. Cheney’s former chief of staff, Mr. Russert was put in the unfamiliar position of answering questions himself, from the witness stand. Mr. Libby had said that he first learned of the identity of a C.I.A. operative, Valerie Wilson, from Mr. Russert in a July 2003 conversation. Mr. Russert denied the claim, and prosecutors have asserted that Mr. Libby concocted that account to avoid acknowledging that he had learned about her from fellow officials.
Those reporters who covered the television beat saw many sides of Mr. Russert, whether it was in a direct phone call or voice mail message sternly questioning the accuracy of a particular reference to him, or the way he would seem to melt when being asked about one of his heroes, Bruce Springsteen, who was known to receive Mr. Russert backstage at his concerts.
Off camera and away from the office, Mr. Russert was a mentor to young colleagues, a gregarious man with a rolling laugh and a roster of friends who were in his life for decades, a devoted Roman Catholic proud of his Jesuit education at John Carroll University in Ohio.
Those who were in the presence of him and his son were long struck by the closeness of the relationship. Mr. Russert was known to steal away from work during the day to greet his son upon his return from school, or to surprise him while he was caddying at a golf course in Nantucket, Mass., where the family had a home.
Four years ago, when the younger Mr. Russert was preparing to depart Washington for Boston College, several friends wondered aloud to the father how he would survive being so far away from his son.
In addition to his son, Mr. Russert is survived by his wife, Maureen Orth, a special correspondent for Vanity Fair magazine, whom he met at the 1980 Democratic National Convention, at Madison Square Garden in New York; his father, Tim Russert; and three sisters. His father is the subject of Mr. Russert’s best-selling book, “Big Russ & Me.”
Mr. Hunt, of Bloomberg News, said that in one of the last of their nearly weekly conversations, early this month, he and Mr. Russert relished the opportunity to cover this year’s presidential campaign. As his old friend recalled through tears Friday, Mr. Russert marveled, “Can you believe we get paid for this year?”
Katherine Q. Seelye contributed reporting.
SOURCE: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/14/business/media/14russert.html?_r=1&ref=obituaries&oref=slogin#
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Edwina Froehlich, who was inspired to help found La Leche League to support breast-feeding after being told at the age of 35 that she was too old to make breast milk for her baby, died Sunday in Arlington Heights, Ill. She was 93 and lived in Inverness, Ill.
Edwina Froehlich
Her death followed a stroke two weeks earlier, said her son, Assemblyman Paul D. Froehlich.
A pioneer on several fronts of motherhood, she worked for Young Christian Workers, a Roman Catholic lay organization, before marrying John Froehlich when she was in her early 30s. She had her first child a couple of years later, making her comparatively old to have a first child at the time, and she made the controversial decision to forgo giving birth in a hospital in favor of a more natural delivery in her Franklin Park, Ill., home, with an obstetrician attending.
At a time when most pediatricians encouraged formula and bottle-feeding and when there were few scientific studies demonstrating the health benefits of breast milk, Mrs. Froehlich chose to breast-feed all of her babies, said another La Leche founder, Mary White.
“We used to tell the mothers the three main obstacles to successful breast-feeding were doctors, hospitals and social pressure,” Mrs. White said.
In 1956, when Mrs. White and a friend, Marian Tompson, decided to start a community organization to support and educate local breast-feeding mothers, Mrs. Froehlich was one of the first women they approached. Soon, monthly meetings were being held in Mrs. Froehlich’s home, and a new phone line was installed so she could answer questions coming in from mothers across the country, Mrs. White said.
“We didn’t have any information,” said Mrs. Tompson, another of the original group of seven La Leche League founders. “There weren’t any books out there, and women just didn’t talk about these things. Only 18 percent of women in the U.S. left the hospital breast-feeding at that time.”
As La Leche League of Franklin Park grew, becoming La Leche League International in 1964, Mrs. Froehlich took on additional roles, including serving as assistant executive director for many years and, more recently, as a board member and a member of the Founders’ Advisory Council.
She was one of the authors of “The Womanly Art of Breast-feeding,” the league’s manifesto, which was first put together in loose-leaf form in 1958 and later published as a bound book in 1963. More than two million copies are in print.
Mrs. Froehlich was born Edwina Hearn on Jan. 5, 1915, in the Bronx.
In addition to her son Paul, of Schaumburg, Ill., she is survived by two other sons, Peter and David, who live in the Chicago area; a sister, Pauline, who lives in North Carolina; and nine grandchildren. Her husband, John, died in 1997.
Mrs. Froehlich donated her body to the University of Illinois for research; her children think she wanted to continue serving science even after her death.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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TREVOR WILKINSON, MAKER OF SPORTS CARS
Trevor Wilkinson, the founder of TVR, the small British carmaker known for nimble little sports cars that early owners often assembled from a kit, died on June 6 in Minorca, Spain. He was 85.
His death was confirmed by Marshall Moore, the president of the TVR Car Club of North America.
The soft-spoken Mr. Wilkinson built his first car in 1947 as a race special and incorporated TVR Engineering (later simply TVR) the next year. The company name was a shortened version of his first name. In later years, the company was known for producing extroverted cars with outlandish names like Sagaris (a Persian-era battle-axe) and Cerbera (a derivative of Cerberus, the three-headed hound of hell).
Nothing resembling regular production began until the late 1950s, by which time Mr. Wilkinson had come up with the formula that served TVR well for the next several decades: a light tube chassis draped with oddly styled fiberglass bodywork. Mechanical components were a mishmash of parts from larger British manufacturers.
It all worked surprisingly well; early TVRs, while generally cramped and uncomfortable to drive on the street, proved to be capable weekend club racers. Because of a loophole in the British tax laws, TVRs of this era were available fully assembled or as a kit.
After the loophole was closed in 1970, most TVRs came fully assembled.
Mr. Wilkinson left the company in 1962, and TVR was sold to Martin Lilly in 1965.
Under Mr. Lilly’s stewardship, the company began to make an impression among American sports car enthusiasts.
From the start of regular production in the mid-1950s until 2006, TVR produced fewer than 30,000 cars, Mr. Moore estimated.
Mr. Wilkinson stayed in touch with TVR’s small fan base in the United States. He often attended club events, including the annual gathering of the TVR Car Club of North America. Mr. Moore said Mr. Wilkinson had been bemused by the size of the gatherings and the popularity of the cars in America and had admired the cars built by TVR’s subsequent owners.
The future of TVR is uncertain, with its factory in Blackpool closed since late 2006; there have been several failed attempts by the current owner, Nikolai Smolenski, to restart production or to sell the company .
Mr. Wilkinson was not married and had been living in retirement in Spain at his death.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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DAVID MITTON, A CREATOR OF ‘THOMAS THE TANK ENGINE’ FOR TV
David Mitton, a creator of the gentle children’s television series “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends,” which evolved into an international hit and a merchandising juggernaut, died on May 16 in London. He was 69.
His death was announced on May 28. The cause was a heart attack, said Michele Fabian-Jones, one of Mr. Mitton’s partners in Pineapple Squared Entertainment, a children’s television production company.
Mr. Mitton, a veteran of British children’s programming, directed or wrote more than 180 episodes of “Thomas the Tank Engine,” beginning with the first one in October 1984. The series, originally called “Thomas the Tank Engine and Friends” and later shortened to “Thomas and Friends,” became an instant success on British television and in 1989 made its debut in the United States as “Shining Time Station” on PBS, with Ringo Starr in the role of Mr. Conductor. (George Carlin took over the role after one season.)
Like their British counterparts, American viewers fell in love with the put-upon but determined Thomas, described in the show’s first episode as “a cheeky little engine.”
Thomas, a bright-blue engine with a round face and big eyes, found adventure and life lessons on the mythical Island of Sodor with a team of engines that included the big, self-important Gordon, wise Edward, uppity James and pesky young Percy. Together they learned the values of friendship, teamwork, honesty and kindness to others.
The series became an unstoppable phenomenon that continued to gather steam, so to speak, long after its original creators had moved on to other projects. Now seen in 145 countries, it supports a vast empire of tie-ins that include books, video games, toys, and clothing.
Mr. Mitton was born in Edinburgh, the son of a consulting engineer — not the railroad kind.
“He was a fanatic about planes and boats and obsessed with comedy shows,” Ms. Fabian-Jones said. “That’s where it all started.”
After attending the Strathallan School in Perth, Scotland, he put in a brief appearance at art school before joining the Royal Air Force, where he was assigned to air-sea rescue in Aden, in the Middle East. Returning to Britain in the early 1960s, he embarked on a career in children’s television, working on special effects for several programs created by Gerry Anderson’s AP Films that used a puppet technology called supermarionation. These included “Joe 90,” “Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons” and the hit series “Thunderbirds.”
Set sometime in the future, “Thunderbirds” followed the adventures of an emergency-response team that used complex gadgetry and futuristic vehicles — the Thunderbirds of the title — to accomplish one impossible mission after another.
In the 1980s Mr. Mitton joined with Ken Turner, a colleague at AP Films, to create Clearwater Films, which quickly gained a reputation for innovative stop-frame animated television commercials. One of them, for Ski yogurt, caught the eye of Britt Allcroft, who had acquired the rights to the Thomas the Tank Engine stories from their author, the Rev. Wilbert Vere Awdry. She approached Mr. Mitton to develop a pilot for a television series, and the two entered into a fruitful partnership, initially adapting the Awdry stories and later adding new ones.
The success of “Thomas” led to “Tugs,” a children’s series about two competing tugboat fleets. It was first broadcast in 1989 and ran for 13 episodes. “Thomas” also inspired the 2000 feature film “Thomas and the Magic Railroad,” with Alec Baldwin as Mr. Conductor. Mr. Mitton was a creative consultant on the models used in the film.
In 2005 Mr. Mitton founded Pineapple Squared Entertainment with David Lane, another AP Films alumnus. As creative director, Mr. Mitton was at work on several projects at his death, notably “Adventures on Orsum Island,” a comedy-adventure series for children ages 7 to 11. Combining photographed backgrounds and computer-generated images, the show is about a shipwrecked teenager named Kodi who becomes embroiled in a struggle between good and evil for control of Orsum Island.
Mr. Mitton is survived by his second wife, the former Joan Ferris; three sisters, Penny, Shan and Juliet; a brother, Michael; and a son, Jonathan, by his first wife, Judy.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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ELIOT ASINOF, ‘EIGHT MEN OUT’ AUTHOR
Eliot Asinof, whose journalistic re-creation of the 1919 Black Sox scandal, “Eight Men Out,” became a classic of both baseball literature and narrative nonfiction, died Tuesday in Hudson, N.Y. He was 88 and lived in Ancramdale, N.Y.
The cause was complications of pneumonia, his son, Martin, said.
A writer whose shrewdness and insight trumped his style, which was plainspoken and realistic, Mr. Asinof was productive and versatile. He wrote more than a dozen books, including a novel, “Final Judgment,” that is set on a college campus and concerns a protest to keep President Bush from delivering a commencement address, and is to be published in September by Bunim & Bannigan.
Weeks before his death, his son said, Mr. Asinof completed a memoir of his World War II service in the Army Corps on Adak Island in the Aleutians. “Seven Days to Sunday,” his 1968 account of a week in the life of the New York Giants football team as it prepared for a game, was an early if not groundbreaking enterprise of journalistic embedding in the world of sports.
His first novel, “Man on Spikes,” published in 1955 and based on a longtime friend who spent years in the minor leagues, was a prescient condemnation of baseball’s feudal control over the players. That system was not dissolved until 1975 with the abolition of the so-called reserve clause in standard contracts, which allowed teams to retain in virtual perpetuity the services of players in their employ.
Mr. Asinof also wrote for television and the movies, although his published credits were limited, probably because he was among the many writers who were blacklisted in the 1950s. In his case, he once wrote after he got hold of his F.B.I. file, the blacklisting came about because “I had at one time signed a petition outside of Yankee Stadium to encourage the New York Yankees to hire black ballplayers.”
But he is best known for “Eight Men Out,” published in 1963, and for the 1988 movie of the same title.
The book is an exhaustively reported and slightly fictionalized account of how eight members of the 1919 Chicago White Sox allowed their anger at the parsimonious team owner, Charles Comiskey, to corrupt their integrity, leading them to welcome the overtures of gamblers, who persuaded them to throw the World Series against the Cincinnati Reds. A seminal event in the history of the game, it led to the appointment of the first baseball commissioner, Kenesaw Mountain Landis.
Mr. Asinof spent nearly three years researching the book, including interviewing the two members of the team, Joe Jackson and Happy Feltsch, who were still alive. In the end, “Eight Men Out” was a book that made plain the connection between sport and money and between sport and the underworld. “Here is the underbelly of baseball vividly dissected,” said Fay Vincent, the former baseball commissioner.
In the Camelot of the Kennedy 1960s, the book also made plain, if only by inference, the unsavory potential in American culture, a theme that ran throughout Mr. Asinof’s work. Twenty-five years later, “Eight Men Out” was made into a popular film directed by John Sayles, with a script by Mr. Sayles and Mr. Asinof.
Eliot Tager Asinof was born in Manhattan on July 13, 1919, and he grew up in Manhattan and Cedarhurst, N.Y. His grandfather Morris, a Russian immigrant, was a tailor who eventually opened a men’s store in Manhattan.
Eliot’s father, Max, worked there, and when young Eliot went to work there as well, it was a tenet that he had to sew a suit before he would be allowed to sell one.
The dexterity he developed served him well. Mr. Asinof was an accomplished amateur pianist and sculptor. He was also a carpenter who in 1985, with his son, built the Ancramdale house he lived in for the rest of his life. He shot his age on a golf course for the first time at 79.
“He was really proud of that suit,” said his son, who lives in Tillamook, Ore. Mr. Asinof is also survived by a sister, Betty, who lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.
After graduating from Swarthmore, Mr. Asinof played baseball briefly in the minor leagues — he was a first baseman in the Philadelphia Phillies’ organization — before he joined the Army. When he returned, his son said, the Phillies invited him to return, but he pulled a muscle during his first practice, and that was it for his sports career. He turned to writing.
He also had a gift for finding the company of other gifted people. A compact man with a gravelly voice and a New York accent, he was gregarious and shrewdly charming.
A friend, at various times in his life, of the violinist Yehudi Menuhin and Joe DiMaggio, Mr. Asinof was married once, to Jocelyn Brando, Marlon’s sister. Their marriage lasted five years, ending in divorce in 1955. They met, his son said, in 1949, while Marlon Brando was starring on Broadway in “A Streetcar Named Desire” and Jocelyn was starring in “Mister Roberts.”
“As I always heard the story,” Martin Asinof said, “my father was on a date with Rita Moreno, and the four of them met for dinner. And Brando took a shine to Rita Moreno, and they left together. And my father was there with my mother.”
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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WARREN A. CROLL, TRAINER OF THROUGHBRED HORSES
Correction Appended
Warren A. Croll Jr., a Hall of Fame trainer who won the 1987 Belmont Stakes with Bet Twice and trained four thoroughbred champions, died Friday in Long Branch, N.J. He was 88.
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Jeffrey Boan/Associated Press
Warren A. Croll Jr., known as Jimmy, with Holy Bull in 1995.
His death was announced by Monmouth Park racetrack. The cause was complications of an infection, said his daughter, Nancy Croll Murphy.
Mr. Croll, usually known as Jimmy, started in racing in 1940 and moved his stable to Monmouth in 1946. His breakthrough came in 1965, when he claimed a horse named Parka for $10,000. Parka went on to win several major stakes races and was named champion turf horse of 1965. Parka was just one of four champions trained by Croll, the best of which might have been Holy Bull.
Holy Bull was originally owned by Rachel Carpenter, but she died shortly before the horse’s racing debut. Croll inherited the colt from Carpenter, a longtime client, and became his owner and trainer. Holy Bull was undefeated as a 2-year-old but finished 12th in the 1994 Kentucky Derby as the betting favorite.
He rebounded from that poor effort to win 8 of 10 races that year and was named 1994 Horse of the Year and champion 3-year-old. His notable victories included the Florida Derby, the Metropolitan Handicap, the Haskell and the Travers. He was retired after sustaining an injury in the 1995 Donn Handicap at Gulfstream Park.
“I said the day he retired would be the saddest day in my life,” Croll said after the injury. “It happened a lot sooner than I expected.”
Mr. Croll also trained Forward Gal (the champion 2-year-old filly of 1970) and Housebuster (the champion sprinter of 1990 and 1991). Another notable horse he trained was Mr. Prospector, who went on to become one of the most successful sires in the sport’s history.
One of Mr. Croll’s biggest wins came in the 1987 Belmont Stakes. With the 3-year-old colt Bet Twice, he finished second behind Alysheba in the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness Stakes. With Alysheba aiming to become racing’s 12th Triple Crown winner, Bet Twice pulled away to a 14-length win in the Belmont.
Mr. Croll was born in Bryn Mawr, Pa., and briefly attended the University of Pennsylvania’s veterinary school before deciding to pursue a career at the racetrack. He received his trainer’s license in 1940 and won his first race that year at Delaware Park.
In 1946, Mr. Croll moved his stable to Monmouth for the track’s inaugural meet and continued to race horses there every summer through the 2002 season. After retiring as a trainer in 2002, he turned his stable over to his son, William, and remained active as an owner until his death.
His two children survive him, along with his wife, Roberta.
In 1994, he was elected to the National Museum of Racing’s Hall of Fame in Saratoga Springs, N.Y.
This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:
Correction: June 12, 2008
An obituary on Tuesday about the horse trainer Warren A. Croll Jr. erroneously included a race among notable victories by his horse Holy Bull. The horse did not compete in the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a 3-year-old.
An obituary on Tuesday about the horse trainer Warren A. Croll Jr. erroneously included a race among notable victories by his horse Holy Bull. The horse did not compete in the Jockey Club Gold Cup as a 3-year-old.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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BOB ANDERSON, FORMER CHILD ACTOR IN ‘IT’S A WONDERFUL LIFE’
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Bob Anderson, who played the younger version of James Stewart’s George Bailey in the Christmas classic “It’s a Wonderful Life,” died on Friday at his home in Palm Springs, Calif. He was 75.
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Cumberland House, via Associated Press
H.B. Warner, left, and Bob Anderson in “It’s a Wonderful Life.”
The cause was cancer, said his wife, Victoria.
Robert J. Anderson grew up in Hollywood in a movie family. His father, Gene, was an assistant director and later a production manager. The directors William Beaudine and James Flood were his uncles, and his brothers and cousins were editors and production managers.
Mr. Anderson’s film debut came when relatives needed him to appear in a movie scene that called for a baby, his wife said.
When he was 7 he appeared in the Shirley Temple film “Young People” (1940), and had roles in other movies like “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” (1945).
But he was best known for playing the young George Bailey in Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” (1946). As a despairing George Bailey contemplates suicide on Christmas Eve in fictional Bedford Falls, his life is told in flashback for the benefit of an angel assigned to watch over him.
In one flashback, young George spots a potentially fatal error made by a drunken druggist, played by H. B. Warner. (Later in the movie, George Bailey is shown what would have happened if he had not been there to catch the mistake.)
After Navy service in the Korean War, Mr. Anderson had production jobs in the film industry, rising to production manager for movies and television programs.
In addition to his wife, Mr. Anderson is survived by his sons, John, Bob Jr. and Joe; his daughters, Kathleen Inman, Deborah Gutierrez and Heidi Anderson-Robinson; and 11 grandchildren.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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MUSTAFA KHALIL, FORMER EGYTIAN PREMIER
CAIRO (AP) — Mustafa Khalil, a former Egyptian prime minister who helped negotiate the 1979 Camp David peace treaty between Egypt and Israel, has died. He was 88.
Mr. Khalil died late Saturday in a Cairo hospital, where he was being treated for an unspecified illness, MENA, the Egyptian state news agency, said.
As secretary general of the governing Arab Socialist Union, Mr. Khalil accompanied Sadat in his historic visit to Jerusalem in November 1977. The visit paved the way for the negotiations mediated by President Jimmy Carter.
Mr. Khalil served as prime minister from 1978 to 1980.
“Khalil contributed in serving the country for over 50 years and took part in making peace and building the basis of development,” said Boutros Boutros-Ghali, the former United Nations secretary general, according to MENA.
“We continued negotiations together that ended in the Egyptian-Israeli peace treaty that launched the peace process in the region,” said Mr. Boutros-Ghali, who, as deputy prime minister for foreign affairs, also went with Sadat to Jerusalem and participated in the negotiations.
More recently, Mr. Khalil was deputy chairman of the governing National Democratic Party.
He stepped down in November.
He is survived by his wife, Nehal; a son, Hisham; and a daughter, Zeinab. President Hosni Mubarak was expected to attend Mr. Khalil’s funeral on Monday, state newspapers reported.
SOURCE: The New York Times: http://www.nytimes.com
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DELBERT WARWICK, HOUSTON FIREFIGHTER FOR NEARLY 50 YEARS
Delbert Warwick Sr., Houston firefighter for nearly 50 years
At Station 17, he was known for caring and giving
At Station 17, he was known for caring and giving
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
To the firefighters at Station 17, he was the junior captain who never lost his calm. To city of Houston garbage collectors, he was the citizen who met them at his home to offer a cold drink. And to low-income residents living near the station on Navigation, he was the Good Samaritan who hand-delivered used clothes and toys.
Delbert Warwick Sr., a Houston firefighter for nearly 50 years, passed away in his Friendswood home June 1. The father of two was 77.
“The fire department says he may be gone, but is never forgotten,” said Phil Boriskie, chief of the Houston Fire Department. “Without a doubt, he is a legend.”
A year after Warwick’s retirement in 2006, Boriskie said, Fire Engine No. 17 was named in honor of the longtime fireman. The recognition is one of the highest honors the department gives, Boriskie said.
“When you say the name to anyone who worked with him, there is a lot of emotion involved,” Boriskie said. “He would look at these guys and say, ‘You know, I love y’all.’ He really meant it.”
Warwick was born in August 1930 in Royal, Ark., where his family had gone to visit friends.
He was raised in Houston and grew up on the city’s east side. He graduated from Milby High School in 1949. At 6 feet and about 200 pounds, he earned a football scholarship to Harden Simmons College in Abilene, his family said. He took college classes for a year and a half, then joined the U.S. Coast Guard during the Korean War.
He married Violette McMoran in November 1964 and began working for the Houston Fire Department in 1967.
At home, Warwick was described as a man who never knew a stranger.
Violette Warwick remembers her husband grabbing brown paper bags, homemade baked goods and drinks to give to the city’s garbage collectors.
Debbie Newton and her brother, Delbert Warwick Jr., remember their father asking for shoes and clothes they had outgrown.
“We would ask him, ‘Dad what are you doing with that?’ ” said the younger Warwick, also a firefighter. “He would say, ‘I am taking them to work.’ Come to find out, he was giving them to families in the neighborhood.”
His children said Warwick lived and breathed the fire department, often taking them to visit the station and ride the trucks.
“It was a gift for me to have him as a dad,” Newton said.
In the 1980s, when Houston was building its fire museum, Warwick personally went to businesses and asked for plywood and other materials, his family and colleagues said.
Calvin Mendel, a firefighter who fought alongside Warwick, recalled a particularly tenacious fire.
Even as the ceiling fell in, Mendel said, Warwick kept his calm.
“He would fight the whole way and never take a break,” Mendel said.
Warwick’s family and colleagues said he never took a break from caring and giving, too.
“That’s what a fireman is,” said Delbert Warwick Jr. “Yeah, it’s fighting fires and EMS, but it’s helping people, too.”
In addition to his wife and children, he is survived by brothers Doyle Warwick, Doug Warwick and John Warwick; a sister, Jessilee Warwick Ford; four grandchildren; and numerous nieces and nephews.
Funeral services were Wednesday at Forest Park Lawndale.
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com
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JUNE 11TH TORNADO VICTIMS
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| Frightened Boy Scouts huddled in a shelter as a tornado tore through their western Iowa campground, killing four teens and injuring 48 others who had little warning of the approaching twister.Tornadoes also raked Kansas on Wednesday, killing at least two people, destroying much of the small town of Chapman and causing extensive damage on the Kansas State University campus.
Iowa rescue workers cut through downed branches and dug through debris amid rain and lightning Wednesday night to reach the camp where the 93 boys, ages 13 to 18, and 25 staff members were attending a weeklong leadership training camp. The tornado killed three 13-year-olds and one 14-year-old, said Lloyd Roitstein, an executive with the Mid America Council of the Boy Scouts of America. He did not release the names of the victims. Roitstein said a tornado siren went off at the camp, but the scouts had already taken cover before the siren sounded. The boys had been in two groups when the storm hit the Little Sioux Scout Ranch in the remote Loess Hills. One group managed to take shelter, while the other was out hiking. At least 42 of the injured remained hospitalized Thursday morning, with everything from cuts and bruises to major head trauma, said Gene Meyer, Iowa’s public safety commissioner. At least four of the injured were airlifted from the camp, he said, refusing to elaborate on their conditions or identify the dead. “Our thoughts and prayers are with the victims and the families of the victims,” Gov. Chet Culver said. “We continue to do everything we can to make sure those injured are going to recover.” All the scouts and staff were accounted for, Meyer said, adding that searchers were making another pass through the grounds to make sure no one else was injured. The camp was destroyed. Thomas White, a scout supervisor, said he dug through the wreckage of a collapsed fireplace to reach victims in a building where many scouts were seeking shelter when the twister struck at 6:35 p.m. “A bunch of us got together and started undoing the rubble from the fireplace and stuff and waiting for the first responders,” White told KMTV in Omaha, Neb. “They were under the tables and stuff and on their knees, but they had no chance.” The nearest tornado siren, in nearby Blencoe, sounded only briefly after the storm cut power to the town, said Russ Lawrenson of the Mondamin Fire Department. Taylor Willoughby, 13, said several scouts were getting ready to watch a movie when someone screamed that there was a tornado. Everyone hunkered down, he said, and windows shattered. “It sounded like a jet that was flying by really close,” Taylor told NBC’s “Today” on Thursday. “I was hoping that we all made it out OK. I was afraid for my life.” Ethan Hession, also 13, said he crawled under a table with his friend. “I just remember looking over at my friend, and all of a sudden he just says to me, `Dear God, save us,”‘ he told “Today.” “Then I just closed my eyes and all of a sudden it’s (the tornado) gone.” Ethan said the scouts’ first-aid training immediately compelled them to act. “We knew that we need to place tourniquets on wounds that were bleeding too much. We knew we need to apply pressure and gauze. We had first-aid kits, we had everything,” he said. Ethan said one staff member took off his shirt and put it on someone who was bleeding to apply pressure and gauze. Other scouts started digging people out of the rubble, he said. At a news conference Thursday, Culver praised the scouts for “taking care of each other” as emergency workers from several state and local agencies cut through debris to reach the camp. Roitstein reminded reporters at the news conference that the Boy Scouts motto is “Be Prepared.” “Last night, the agencies and the scouts were prepared,” he said. “They knew what to do they knew where to go and they prepared well.” The injured were taken to Burgess Health Center in Onawa, Alegent Health Clinic in Missouri Valley and Creighton University Medical Center in Omaha. Burgess spokeswoman Beth Frangedakis said 19 victims arrived at the hospital around 8:30 p.m. They included children ages 2 months to 15 years, plus three adults. Frangedakis said four were admitted to the hospital, one was taken by helicopter to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa, and the others were released. She wouldn’t release the nature of the victims’ injuries. David Hunt, chairman of the Mid-America Boy Scout Council’s Goldenrod District, which covers several eastern Nebraska counties, said he believed the boys were from eastern Nebraska and western Iowa. The 1,800-acre ranch about 40 miles north of Omaha includes hiking trails through narrow valleys and over steep hills, a 15-acre lake and a rifle range. The tornado touched down as Iowa’s eastern half grappled with flooding in several cities. The storm threatened to stretch Iowa’s emergency response teams even further. Iowa Homeland Security spokeswoman Julie Tack said officials were confident the state’s emergency response teams could handle the crisis because western Iowa had been largely unaffected by the recent flooding. Along the Mississippi River in Missouri and Illinois, the National Weather Service was predicting the worst flooding in 15 years. Outlying areas could be inundated, but most of the towns are protected by levees and many low-lying property owners were bought out after massive flooding in 1993, officials said. Meanwhile, a line of tornadoes cut a diagonal swath across Kansas, causing widespread damage. Chapman, a Dickinson County town of about 1,400, appeared to be hardest hit. Sharon Watson, spokeswoman for the Kansas Adjutant General’s Department, said more than 60 homes were destroyed and buildings were damaged. All three of the town’s schools were damaged, and the high school gymnasium lost part of its roof. Watson said one victim was found in a yard in Chapman. Homman said three people were critically injured and taken to a hospital. Geary Community Hospital in Junction City. Electricity was out across town, and Homman said the search continued for other possible victims. “We’re still going through methodically one residence at a time,” he said. The other Kansas victim was found outside a mobile home in the Jackson County town of Soldier, Chapman said. The tornado that struck Kansas State University’s campus in Manhattan destroyed a wind erosion laboratory and heavily damaged a fraternity house. Debris littered the campus, and classes were cancelled, but the university reported no injuries. Associated Press writers Henry C. Jackson in Des Moines, Iowa; Anna Jo Bratton in Onawa, Iowa; and John Hanna in Chapman, Kan., contributed to this report. |
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QUINTEN “ROCKY” WHITE, ONE OF THE LAST IN DUKE ELLINGTON’S ORCHESTRA
Jazz drummer’s loyalty, talent widely known
Quinten “Rocky” White was one of the last musicians hired for Duke Ellington‘s orchestra
Quinten “Rocky” White was one of the last musicians hired for Duke Ellington‘s orchestra
Copyright 2008 Houston Chronicle
Quinten “Rocky” White, a jazz drummer who in his early 20s joined the famed Duke Ellington Orchestra and took part in some of its recordings, has died. He was 56.
“He was a remarkable talent on a very high level,” said David Craig of Houston, a bass player who performed with White in local groups. “He was a very swinging drummer and was very personally engaging. He was someone you could sit down and talk to.”
Six days before White died of cancer on June 4, six members of the Ellington orchestra appeared at White’s Houston home, said Lula Hall, a longtime friend.
“It was a real marvelous thing to do,” she said. “We had dinner and talked, laughed, and saw a movie. While we were talking, all of a sudden Rocky was crying,” she said.
Hall is the wife of trumpet player Barrie Lee Hall Jr., who helped White connect with the Ellington orchestra. She also is a former road manager of the orchestra.
“Rocky was a loyal person,” Lula Hall said. “Rocky worked closely with the (Ellington) family on the professional and personal level.”
Played in TSU jazz band
Quinten H. “Rocky” White Jr. was born in 1952 in Hays near San Marcos, the son of Willie Mae Fillmore White and Quinten H. White Sr. When White was a child, the family moved to Houston.
White graduated from San Jacinto High School, where he began playing drums. He also attended Texas Southern University and played in the school jazz band. In 1970, White married Erma Green, whom he had met at San Jacinto.
At TSU, White met Barrie Hall, who in 1973 joined the Ellington orchestra. About a month later, Ellington told Hall he needed another drummer and asked Hall if he knew of one, Lula Hall said.
“Barrie told Ellington about Rocky, and Barrie called Rocky,” Lula Hall said.
White, who joined the orchestra in the summer of 1973, was one of the last musicians that Ellington hired before he died in 1974, said Kelly Dean, copy editor of the JazzHouston Web site.
A night in Paris
According to a family statement, White performed with the orchestra for such recordings as Third Sacred Concert with Duke Ellington, Take the Holiday Train, Hot and Bothered, Digital Duke and Sophisticated Ladies the Cast Album.
In an interview with Houston Chronicle writer Rick Mitchell in 1997, Hall recalled a night in Paris when he and White accompanied Ellington to an after-hours club.
“It was in a basement. The place was reeking with money. I thought: ‘Oh, boy, we’re going to play!’ ” Hall said. “We got on stage, and in front of me was a tom-tom and a tambourine.
We started on Take the “A” Train. Duke on piano, Rocky on drums, me on tambourine. The place went wild.”
After Ellington died, White played in the orchestra under Ellington’s son, Mercer Ellington, who died in 1996, and after that under Mercer’s son Paul.
Ended with sacred music
White’s final appearance with the orchestra was a performance of sacred music in 2007 at Williams Trace Baptist Church.
White’s marriage ended in divorce. Survivors include his daughter, Venet “Shann” Washington, and his son, Seth White, both of Houston.
Services were held Tuesday at McCoy and Harrison Funeral Home, 4918 Martin Luther King Blvd.
SOURCE: Houston Chronicle: http://www.chron.com
FROM THE ARCHIVES:
Kate Smith, All-American Singer, Dies at 79
(June 17, 1986)
Ethel Barrymore, One of Stage’s ‘Royal Family,’ Dies at 79
(June 18, 1959)
Filed under Uncategorized
PASS IT ON: SHARING THE LOVE
This past week, I was honored to have been given lots of love from Sojourner, of “Sojourner’s Place” ( http://sojournersplace.blogspot.com/2008/06/share-love.html). She included me in with some very great bloggers on her post “Share The Love”. Sojourner herself was the primary recipient of this love, and she was kind enough to pass it on to her fellow bloggers. Here is an excerpt from the post from Regina’s Family Seasons, the original author of this link:
“The “Sharing The Love “Award, was created by Blogger Crystal at “Memoirs Of A Mommy” blog, in honor of donor who saved her one month old’s life a year ago. Cyrstal’s son Noah celebrated his first birthday this week thanks to someone you final gift was the gift of life.
In Crystal’s own words, here are the rules of the Share the Love Award:
“Share this award with all those blogs out there that you love. All the people who make you smile. All those that make you laugh. All those that make your day. All those that leave uplifting comments on your blog.
**All I ask, is that you include a link to this post with the award and ask your recipient to do the same**
As you may have recently seen on my side bar, I have finally created a custom blog award!! I have wanted to do this for a long time but never came up with something that “fit”. I didn’t want just anything. It had
to be something that meant something to me. And what could mean more than Sharing the Love by giving you pieces of my heart??So I created this award in Honor Of The Donor That Saved Noah’s Life. I share this award with those of you whose love and friendship have enriched my life and made my world a better place.I hope by passing this award around the blogging world we can all help raise awareness of the need for Organ Donation.”
I thank Sojourner for bestowing this humble honor on me and the following bloggers:
From My Brown Eyed View
New Black Woman
Modern Musings
Don’t Color Me
Coffee Stained News
Black Perspective.net
Beautiful, Also, Are the Souls of Black Sisters
Black Tennis Pros
Black Women Blow the Trumpet
Hagar’s Daughters
Many black people (and people of color of other minorities) fear the concept of organ donation. Much of this is from misunderstanding how organs are obtained and who gets them, as well as some religious taboos that may surround the resistance to organ donation. Black people especially suffer from lack of donor compatibility due to so few black people donating their organs. But, black people need to learn more about how their donations can go a long way towards giving life to another fellow person. Knowledge about organ donation will hopefully bring awareness to the critical need for organ donors of all racial and ethnic groups:
• Bone marrow more likely to match within ethnic groups
• Blacks 8 percent of registered bone marrow donors, 12 percent of population
• Fear and mistrust of U.S. medical system often cited by many black people
The following are links to get everyone started on learning more about organ donation:
ORGAN DONATION: DON’T BELIEVE THE MYTHS: http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/organ-donation/FL00077
NATIONAL MARROW DONOR PROGRAM: http://www.marrow.org/HELP/Join_the_Donor_Registry/index.html?src=join
I too would like to give due to my fellow bloggers in my “Share the Love”. So, without further ado, here is my love:
RawDawg: http://rawdawgb.blogspot.com/
BlackWomenVote!: http://blackwomenvote.blogspot.com/
Rachel’s Tavern: http://rachelstavern.com/
Problem Chylde: http://problemchylde.wordpress.com/
Angry Black Woman: http://theangryblackwoman.wordpress.com/
Orville Lloyd Douglas: http://orvillelloyddouglas.wordpress.com/
What About Our daughters: http://whataboutourdaughters.blogspot.com/
Abagond: http://abagond.wordpress.com/
Woman of Color: http://brownfemipower.com/
Kai: http://www.zuky.net/
Why Am I Not Surprised?: http://whyaminotsurprised.blogspot.com/
The Blog and the Bullet: http://blogbullet.wordpress.com/
The Primary Contradiction: http://www.genderracepower.com/
My apologies for anyone that I missed. Know that you are in my heart and thoughts.
Thanks to all the above wonderful blogs and all you do that inspires me.
Share the Love.
Pass it on.
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FATHER’S DAY: JUNE 15, 2008
I posted this tribute to fathers last year. For those of you who missed it, I am posting it again. Fathers do so much and are taken for granted so often. If you have not done so, wish your father a very Happy Father’s Day. Believe me, he will appreciate it more than you will ever know.
Happy Father’s Day to those who are fathers in blood, and to those who are fathers in spirit. Fathers who have no children but are fathers to those children who have no fathers. Fathers who silently do for the women and children in their lives: sisters, mothers, nieces, nephews, sons, daughters, grandchildren. Fathers who listen when a young adult or child just needs someone to speak to.
A father is more than just someone who gives you their name.
A father is someone who never stops loving you, who never stops caring about what happens to you no matter how old you become.
I know the saying is cliched, but, as it goes: “Any man can father a child, but, it takes a man to be a father.
Happy Father’s Day to everyone!
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ORIGINALLY POSTED JUNE 17, 2007
Father’s Day is a primarily secular holiday inaugurated in the early 20TH Century to complement Mother’s Day in celebrating fatherhood and parenting by males, and to honor and commemorate fathers and forefathers. Father’s Day is celebrated on a variety of dates worldwide, and typically involves gift-giving to fathers and family-oriented activities.
In the United States, the first modern Father’s Day celebration was held on July 5, 1908, in Fairmont, West Virginia. It was first celebrated as a church service at Williams Memorial Methodist Episcopal Church South, now known as Central United Methodist Church. Grace Golden Clayton, who is believed to have suggested the service to the pastor, is believed to have been inspired to celebrate fathers after the deadly mine explosion in nearby Monongah the prior December. This explosion killed 361 men, many of them fathers and recent immigrants to the United States from Italy. Another possible inspiration for the service was Mother’s Day, which had recently been celebrated for the first time in Grafton, West Virginia, a town about 15 miles away. Father’s day originates as far back as 1839 in celebration of the fathers that went to war in the Battle of Iransop in which 123 fathers lost their lives defending the outpost.
Another driving force behind the establishment of the integration of Father’s Day was Mrs. Sonora Smart Dodd, born in Creston, Washington. Her father, the Civil War veteran William Jackson Smart, as a single parent reared his six children in Spokane, Washington. She was inspired by Anna Jarvis’s efforts to establish Mother’s Day. Although she initially suggested June 5, the anniversary of her father’s death, she did not provide the organizers with enough time to make arrangements, and the celebration was deferred to the third Sunday of June. The first June Father’s Day was celebrated on June 19, 1910, in Spokane, WA.
Unofficial support from such figures as William Jennings Bryan was immediate and widespread. President Woodrow Wilson was personally feted by his family in 1916. President Calvin Coolidge recommended it as a national holiday in 1924. In 1966, President Lyndon Johnson made Father’s Day a holiday to be celebrated on the third Sunday of June. The holiday was not officially recognized until 1972, during the presidency of Richard Nixon.
In recent years, retailers have adapted to the holiday by promoting male-oriented gifts such as electronics ,tools and greeting cards. Schools and other children’s programs commonly have activities to make Father’s Day gifts.
(Information courtesy of Wkipedia Encyclopedia.)
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The image of fathers suffers very much in this society. Fathers are looked upon as some entity that you can take, or leave. And from the looks of things, many would prefer to leave the importance of fathers behind. How did we come to this? Minimizing, trivializing the importance of fathers? In print, in the media, in movies and on TV, fathers are shown as just so much nonessential, useless stumbling blocks that get in the way, irritate and annoy, anger and enrage, the collective body of the rest of America. It’s almost as if many people wish that fathers would just stop being the buzzing annoying insects that many people look upon them as, and just quietly shut up and go away. Fathers get such short shrift in this society. In the movies they are shown as inept, bungling, and out of touch, and sometimes the visual imagery and written text portrays them as simpletons who don’t know whether they are coming, or going. But, it was not always this way with fathers.
Two centuries ago, fathers had practically 100% custodial rights to their children. Today, a mother is more likely to obtain custody of the children in a divorce. When many people think of fathers, they do not begin to consider the profound impact fathers have on their children’s lives. Impact that can be positive as well as negative.
Fathers in children’s lives can create so much that will stay with a child well into adulthood.
Fathers can push children to independence. Fathers can make a difference in a child’s world, by helping them build confidence and character. By teaching their children a trade, how to take things apart, and put them back together, fathers can teach children how things work; fathers can teach children patience in learning to figure the inner workings of machinery, especially in the realm of working on a car. Fathers can teach children how to prepare themselves for the workforce. Fathers can instill a work ethic in their children, to where that child, upon becoming an adult, will do their job good enough and a little more than what is asked of them, to where they do their work with pride, with accomplishment, to where they are proud to sign their name to all the work they do in life.
Fathers can instill respect into their children. A father who loves and admires women can instill into his sons to treat ALL women with adoration, kindness, tenderness, love and joy, no matter what the race, color, religion or nationality of the woman. Fathers can teach their sons that were this world tomorrow to wake up bereft of all women, that this world would be a horrible place to live in. Fathers can teach their sons to always respect the wishes, needs and desires of women, that no matter how tough we women try to make ourselves out to be, that we are vulnerable and delicate, and that women should be loved and appreciated for all the sweetness that we bring to men’s lives.
Fathers should teach their sons that a woman’s mind, soul, and body is sacred, and not some empty vessel for a man to take his rage out on. Fathers who have a profound love of women can teach their sons to never abuse or mistreat a woman; that there have been women who have had men’s backs when no one was in that man’s corner. Fathers should teach their sons that there may be women who go to bat for a man when all others will fail him and desert him, and that men should not deliberately sell women short, nor go out of their way to degrade or debase women.
Fathers can teach empathy towards all human beings in this world. Fathers can go beyond teaching the old maxim, “If you want to understand a person’s life, walk a mile in their shoes”. Empathy is not feeling sorry for someone. That is pity. Empathy is listening to someone; being a sounding-board for them and hearing their hurt, their pains, their sorrows. Empathy is not “I told you so”; empathy is “I’ll be there in whatever way I can, because you are my child, and I love you with all my heart and soul.”
Fathers can teach patience in how to do things. If you don’t get it right the first time, persist, with patience, and while you are at it, work to find out why the endeavor was not done right, and how you could have done it better. Patience takes time to build, and a child who sees their father show patience in his relationships with those around him, the more that child will acquire a more patient approach in many areas of their lives—–towards, his relatives, his neighbors, his co-workers—-himself.
Fathers foster development. Fathers at play with their children, are doing more than throwing a ball, playing chess, checkers, or dominoes. Fathers at play with their children teach skills at learning how to lose gracefully, and how to win without rubbing it into the loser’s face. Fathers at play with their children build physical and emotional strength, and they build character that enables child to learn to work with others , thereby creating teamwork, companionship, comradery, and trustworthiness of being counted on to keep their word, because your word is bond, and should never be discounted, nor treated cavalierly.
Fathers most importantly send the message of how a man can love and respect a woman in the world of sex and intimacy.
A father who hugs, caresses, gently touches, kisses and playfully banters with his wife in front of his child sends a message far more lasting than all the words, cards, flowers and candy he can give his wife, the mother of his children.
A father who shows love of his wife in front of his children sends the message that being kind and loving to your wife, not being overbearing or harsh, is what a man does to show love to the mother of his children.
And that is a message that a daughter picks upon from how father treats or mistreats mother and other women.Yes, fathers have a very important impact they can make on a girl’s life, and that importance should never be disregraded nor ignored.
A daughter who sees her father treating her mother with the tenderest and most patient of care, sees that not only is her mother worthy of humane consideration, but, she, the daughter, sees that she too is worthy of love and respect. She sees how her mother’s humanity is validated and treated not with insignificance. She sees how her father’s concern for Mom’s and daughter’s happiness matters to him. She sees how her father marches, protests and challenges racist and sexist stereotypes, that affect not only her, but all other women; she sees how women are not the enemy, not an abnormality, but, that women are the compliment to men, that women are the gifts that a kind, merciful, and loving God created and gave to man, because God saw how lonely man was and therefore, he created women to be more than a helpmate to man, but, instead, God made woman to be a companion for man, someone to share his life with, someone to help him through those days when the whole world would tell him that he amounted to nothing, someone to laugh and joke with, someone to hold his hand when in public he could not cry, but, in private, he could shed the tears in front of her that he dare not show before others.
Fathers, like mothers, are not given a manual on how to raise the perfect child. Many fathers can be overbearing and hard on their children, but, fathers should step back and try to exercise gentleness to their children and to vex not their children. Fathers, like mothers, often do the best they can. Too many people look upon fathers as if they are the mules who are to go out to work, bring home the bacon, and then have to hear the proverbial, “Wait till your father gets home” when having to chastise the child may be the furtherest thing from Dad’s mind. Sometimes, Dad just wants to come home to a quite house, and for all the problems of the household to wait—-wait just a few minutes while he gains his composure from the beating that the outside world has given him.
Today, June 17, 2007 is Father’s Day.
For those of you who have lost your fathers, I offer you my condolences. You have lost someone who was a very important part of your life. Hopefully your relationship with him had as much joy and happiness as could possibly have been encountered.
To those of you whose fathers still are counted among the living, please let Dad know how much you love him. Muster up the courage to tell him:
“Dad, I love you. Thanks for giving me that last of your money in your pockets just so that I might have a new pair of shoes. Thanks for coming to school for the PTA meeting, no matter how tired you were, having just left work. Thanks for footing the bill for college. Thanks for taking care of yourself so you could be there to give me away for my wedding.
“Dad, thanks for being such a loving father, even though I have not told you often enough”.
“Dad, you’re the best.
“I love you so very much.”
I know Dad may act like he can go without hearing you say you love him, but, make no mistake about it. Behind all of that stoic facade and he-man bravado, Dad would give anything to hear the three most cherished words in the English language:
“I love you.”
I know some of you may have a hard time telling Dad how much you love him, but, like I said in my Mother’s day essay, practice standing in front of a mirror and practice saying the words, “I love you.” When you see Dad today, go up to him, hug him, and tell him you love him. You will feel so much happier doing it. Trust me, you will.
Whatever you do on Father’s Day, whether it is to give Dad the proverbial necktie, a set of tools, or a gift card, please let him know how much he is appreciated as an extremely important part of your life.
Take Dad to the zoo, a play, a movie.
Enjoy Dad’s presence in your life, because once he leaves this world, a very important part of yourself will be taken from you.
Whatever you do on this day with Dad, enjoy.
Make it the best Father’s Day ever.
Happy Father’s Day to everyone.
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RACIST SIGN REFERRING TO BARACK OBAMA CAUSES A STIR IN HARRIS COUNTY
ARTICLE COURTESY OF KHOU CHANNEL 11 NEWS
06:36 AM CDT on Friday, June 13, 2008
HARRIS COUNTY, Texas — Neighbors say a sign posted by a Houston-area man is causing tension and fear.
They say the sign is offensive. It makes a derogatory and profane reference to Sen. Barack Obama’s bid to become president.
“Whoever did this is a racist,” neighbor Laz Socarras said.
“They hatin’ on Obama,” neighbor Jarmaine Calvin said.
The painted plywood sign, which Calvin said he drives past every day, has the “n-word” and another profanity prominently displayed on it.
11 News photo
Residents say this sign is causing tension and fear in a Harris County neighborhood.
It’s posted on an empty corner lot full of junk and overgrown weeds.
“When I first seen it, I wanted to tear it down. I still want to tear it down,” Calvin said.
The neighborhood where the sign is posted is populated mostly with Hispanics and whites – only a few blacks.
Brenda Carr is one of them.
“My daughter seen it first. And when I backed up and I first seen, I backed up and said ‘Oh my God. I can’t believe they put that on there like that,’” Carr said.
The man who claims to own the sign stopped and talked to 11 News while we were working on this story.
He focused on the other side of the sign, which criticizes the lack of law enforcement in the area.
“We don’t have good law enforcement out here. The whores run up and down the street out here where white people try to live – good people,” he said.
The sign is located in Harris County, and officials said it does not violate any ordinances.
“The First Amendment gives you the right to say what you want to say. Exclude people from the property if you wish. The First Amendment is a pretty healthy animal,” 11 News legal expert Gerald Treece said.
Since the sign doesn’t make any kind of threat, the Secret Service said there’s really nothing that can be done.
Meanwhile, neighbors said all they can do is look the other way.
SOURCE: http://www.khou.com
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CLAUDINA JONES: ONE LADY WHO TOOK A STAND AGAINST DRUG DEALERS
89-YEAR-OLD WOMAN GETS TOUGH ON CROOKS
HOUSTON—An 89-year-old Houston woman has had enough of the criminals who’ve taken over her neighborhood.
But Claudina Jones wouldn’t settle for sitting back and watching the crimes take place. She took action.
After seven decades of watching the world around her property take turn after turn for the worse, Jones posted a sign on a Napoleon Street home.
It read: “No drugs sold here. No trespassing. Police will be called.”
“Because I didn’t want the drug dealers to feel like they could come in here and take my property,” Jones said.
It’s a simple message, but her son said it’s had a big impact.
“I’ll put it to you this way, no drugs are sold here now, and they used to sit over there,” Jones’ son, Rodney, said.
The dealers have moved on, but they haven’t strayed far.
Experts say when sneakers are strewn over a power line, it’s an indication of a drug dealer’s corner. On Thursday, shoes could be seen hanging from a line less than a block from Claudina’s home.
11 News photo
Claudina Jones
In fact, 11 News found shoes flung over lines all over the neighborhood.
Still, Jones feels like any effort helps, and she’ll keep doing what she can to keep her home safe.
“We just want people to know that on this property, there’s no drug selling, no loitering, no trespassing,” her son said.
Way to go, Ms. Jones! It’s your neighborhood and you have the right to keep it decent and livable.
Hmm.
“Experts say when sneakers are strewn over a power line, it’s an indication of a drug dealer’s corner. On Thursday, shoes could be seen hanging from a line less than a block from Claudina’s home.”
Drug dealers throw shoes across power lines as a sign that that corner is their turf?
And here I always thought it was a sign of a person who was not only ignorant to throw a pair of shoes across a power line, but, I also thought it meant the person had money to burn on shoes.
Sheesh.
07:39 PM CDT on Thursday, June 12, 2008
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Ann
