Transgender Eye for the Biologically Female Gal - III. Help Arrives

Well, I have been extremely busy with my friend "Valerie," as I call him/ her. "He" calls me on the phone but is usually female when we e-mail and IM each other. I was really wondering where to turn. I finally decided I needed an online support group. I posted a message on this Yahoo group called "RM-Counsel." Apparently, they are a bunch of psychiatrists, but they have invited me to join several times because I'm so crazy and I think they want to study me. Anyway, someone did answer my post. I got my head shrunk pretty good, but they gave me a link to resources for family and friends of transgender people.

To make a long story short, I finally logged onto www.pflag.org (Parents and Friends of Lesbians and Gays). I had been to this group many times in Pittsburgh and was very impressed with it. They had a transgender page. Through the transgender pages on PFLAG's site, I found an impressive group in Cleveland. Here is a link to their website: http://www.transfamily.org/index.html. They have quite an assortment of Yahoo groups you can join. I joined one which seems really nice. Since Cleveland isn't that far from Pittsburgh, I'll probably be able to drive up there and meet them in person. I'd drive up there to see the Red Sox, so I might as well drive up there to meet these folks. Anyone is welcome to join their groups if you need support regarding this issue. You don't have to live in or near Cleveland.

Behind the Violence in Uzbekistan

According to The Boston Globe, hundreds have died in the recent clashes in Uzbekistan (boston.com, Poverty, crime, and oppression seen as fueling Uzbeks’ anger, Anna Dolgov, May 17, 2005). The article reports that protests erupted over the jailing of a group of businessmen. President Islam Karimov accused the businessmen of being Islamic extremists, and he blamed Islamic extremism for the protests. Witnesses accused the government of firing on the protesters. But what is really behind the protests?

The Globe notes that Uzbekistan is among the poorest countries of 15 former Soviet Republics. It gained independence in 1991. Unemployment is widespread, and Afghan opiates pass through the country on their way to the west. Karimov is a dictator with a dismal human rights record. The press is controlled by the state, and no opposition voices are tolerated. "The United Nations has accused Karimov’s government of systematic torture of his political opponents," the Globe states. Because Uzbekistan provides the United States with a military base where they can keep an eye on Afghanistan, Karimov thinks he has an excuse to further violate human rights, since the US needs him. The State Department has declared the exiled Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to be a terrorist group. Karimov uses this as an excuse to persecute all Islamic groups seeking change. He persecutes Muslim groups dedicated to change through nonviolent protest and considers them the same as Islamic extremist groups. This causes much popular resentment. Protesters feel the businessmen jailed were not Islamic extremists, but that Karimov labels every dissenter as such to find an excuse to repress them.

According to the Globe, a Russian political commentator, Yulia Latynina of the Ekho Moskvy radio station, this revolt had nothing to do with Islamic extremism. It was "simply a revolt by desperate Muslims, who above all wanted to free their relatives from prison."

Transgender Eye for the Biologically Female Gal - II. HELP!

I got myself into this one, because I sought Valerie out. This is not her real name. I’m calling her Valerie to protect her privacy. I actually went through the profiles on the computer, sought this person out, and e-mailed her. This is a very important and rewarding friendship for me. I am not sure why I pursue these friendships with transgender people. I’m finding, however, that I am at a loss as to where to go for support. There are plenty of people who didn’t ask for this situation but who have it. A family member turns out to be transgender. They must have somewhere to go for support. I’m always wondering, am I supporting my friend in the right way? Am I saying the right thing?

I met my first transgender friend by accident at work. I’m going to call her Angie to protect her privacy. That’s not the actual female name she chose. This was a very different story. She was fairly youthful to make this sort of decision. And she was adamant. She wanted to be female physically as well as emotionally. She had a good job, enough money, and no children to support. She had a support group and a shrink. She went through living as a female, she went through all the physical things she had to do, and then she had surgery. Although I did not know her when she was living as male, I imagined she would have been rather puny and effeminate as a male. So it seemed that this was definitely someone who was born into the wrong body, and it made a lot of sense for her to go through a gender change. I still wondered whether I was saying and doing the right things.

Valerie has many more complications than Angie had. She has a decent job, but she has kids to support. She is not highly educated as Angie was, and she doesn’t have the formal support network. She has some family members who fully support her, but others don’t even know. She doesn’t have an easy time passing as a female. There is a real fear of violence for her when she dresses as a female. Again, I really wonder if I’m saying the right things. Am I offering the right kind of support for this person? She definitely offers me a lot of support. She is not just taking from the relationship but is giving a lot too.

Then there is the fact that I’m encountering some level of hostility from people around me for being in this friendship. My family members don’t know what to say. I think they are worried that I’m in an intense friendship with a transgender person. I don’t sense that they feel it is right to be transgender. They think it is sick and wrong and perhaps a sin. One transgender activist says that in Isaiah 56 the Bible says that it is not a sin because that verse says basically that eunuchs who are faithful to God have a higher place than sons and daughters. Also, I think my family members are worried I’m in danger from my friendship with Valerie. Other people I meet think I’m kind of weird when they find out about it.

So, I’m feeling lost on a number of fronts. I wish I could find some kind of support group. I’m wondering whether I’m saying the right things and offering the right kind of support. And I’m dealing with people’s ambiguous feelings toward me for having friendships with transgender people.

United States is the Biggest Police State

In About, The World’s Greatest Prison State, Your Guide to Civil Liberties on civilliberty.about.com, 2005, author Andrew Somers asks the question: which country has the highest incarceration rate per each 100,000 people in the population? "Would you think Russia? China? South Africa? Saudi Arabia?" he asks. The sad truth is that it is the United States. The United States currently incarcerates 718 people per 100,000, according to Somers. England and Canada are in the low to mid-100s per 100,000, he reports, and that violator of human rights, China, incarcerates 103 per 100,000.

The Associated Press recently reported that jails and prisons in the United States held 2.1 million people, or one out of every 138 U.S. residents! (abcnews.go.com, U.S. Prison Population Soars in 2003, 2004, U.S. Prison Population Grew by Some 900 Inmates Per Week Between 2003, 2004 Government Reports, Shiobhan McDonough, Associated Press, April 24, 2005.) In addition, in 2004, 61 percent of the inmates were racial and ethnic minorities. "An estimated 12.6 percent of all black men in their late 20s were in jails or prisons," McDonough reported. While 3.6 percent of Hispanic men of that age group were incarcerated, 1.7 percent of white men in the same age group were locked up.

The reason for the increase, according to McDonough, is the get-tough policies of the 1980’s and 1990’s, such as mandatory drug sentences, three strikes laws, and laws which restrict early releases. Many of the incarcerated are not serious or violent criminals. There are many low-level drug offenders behind bars. Malcolm Young of the Sentencing Project told McDonough that "one way to help lower the number is to introduce drug treatment programs that offer effective ways of changing behavior and to provide appropriate assistance to the mentally ill."

You have to wonder about the possibilities if all the money spent keeping these people behind bars were spent to provide decent jobs. Is this the kind of society we want to live in, where people are locked up in jails and prisons so that we don’t have to do a little extra work and spend a little extra money to provide them a decent living and turn them into productive, taxpaying citizens and residents? What are we doing invading and occupying Iraq, trying to establish democracy there, when we have to lock up 1 out of every 138 of the people living here in the US because we don’t have the money to provide them jobs, training, education, drug treatment, or treatment for mental illness!

Cubans Protest Double Standard Re Terrorism

On May 17, 2005, CNN reported live from Havana, Cuba, showing thousands of Cubans marching by the United States Interests Section to protest the presence of Luis Posada Carriles in the United States and his request there for political asylum. According to www.cuba-solidarity.org, a British web site, which has collected a series of news reports from the New York Times, MSNBC, the Associated Press, and other media, Posada Carriles is considered to be an international terrorist by many Americans, Cuban-Americans, Cubans, Venezuelans, and other Latin Americans. Cubans consider him the Osama bin Laden of Latin America, in fact. The Cuban protesters are upset that he has been allowed to hide out in Florida and that the Bush administration denies knowing his whereabouts. They think Bush should have him picked up like 34,000 others who have entered the United States illegally and been incarcerated, and they feel Bush is intentionally turning a blind eye to appease anti-Castro Cubans. Here are some of the things Posada Carriles has done, according to www.cuba-solidarity.org:

• He was a CIA agent for years. Documents recently declassified show that in the 1960’s the CIA paid him to work with Dominican-based groups to overthrow the Cuban government.
• FBI documents recently declassified show that he was paid in 1965 by a prominent Cuban exile in Miami to finance attempts to attach powerful explosive mines to Cuban or Soviet ships docked at a port in Mexico.
• He was involved in the assassination of former Chilean foreign minister Orlando Letelier. This happened in downtown Washington DC on September 21, 1976, and an aide, Ronni Moffit, was also killed.
• He is considered responsible for blowing up a Cuban commercial airplane in the sky off the coast of Barbados in 1976. Seventy-three persons died in this explosion. A newly declassified FBI document placed him at two meetings where the bombing was planned when he was working as a Venezuelan intelligence officer. He was in prison in Venezuela waiting retrial for this. He is considered a fugitive of Venezuelan justice, because he escaped from prison there, and Venezuela requests his extradition.
• He worked for the Nicaraguan contras out of El Salvador then went to Guatemala to continue his terrorist activity.
• He has admitted to plotting several bomb attacks on tourist resorts in Havana in 1996 and 1997 in which an Italian tourist was killed. He bragged about this to the New York Times seven years ago.
• He was convicted in Panama in 2000 of attempting to kill Fidel Castro during his visit there. He and his colleagues were arrested with 33 pounds of C-4 plastic explosive. In 2004, he received an eight-year sentence for this. Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso pardoned him on her way out of office.
• He plotted to enter the United States illegally upon his release in Panama. According to the President of Honduras, he entered that country with a fake US passport. According to Fidel Castro, he then went to Mexico and took a boat to Florida, where he succeeded in entering the US illegally.
• Last but not least, www.cuba-solidarity.org claims that Posada Carriles has never renounced the use of violence, even when it claims innocent lives.

Later, on May 17, MSNBC reported that US authorities had taken Posada Carriles into custody. Bush will be pressured by right-wing Cuban supporters to grant him asylum. However, granting him asylum, according to www.cuba-solidarity-org would violate UN Security Council Resolution 1373, adopted September 28, 2001, which "makes it mandatory for every government in the world to oppose any form of cooperation with all terrorists—no matter what they did or where. No protection. No refuge. Nothing."

New Pastor at Mr. Rogers' Church

Sunday was an exciting day at the Sixth Presbyterian Church. It was the first day for our new pastor, Rev. Mary Louise McCullough. The church had a pastor for many years who retired, then they had an interim minister for a long time. Mary Louise wasted no time reminding us that we are a More Light congregation. She even addressed the fact that all of us, at some point, are going to feel uncomfortable with someone in the congregation. It’s hard for me to believe this could happen to me personally, since a very activist transgender minister is the person who found this church for me! Mary Louise paid homage to the Jewish neighborhood in which Sixth is located, praising the efforts of the congregation to reach out to the Jewish community. In her sermon, she treated us to a story of forgiveness between two families, one Israeli and one Palestinian, in which the Palestinian extremist son had shot the rabbi father of the Israeli family. Many of the Jewish immigrants living in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood speak Russian. I will have to tell Mary Louise that I speak Russian in case any Russian immigrants would express interest in the church. But I was too busy speaking French with the French-speaking members of the church on Sunday!

A strong message was sent at the social after the service. A table was set up with many pieces of literature, pamphlets of community interest and youth interest among them. Since this is Mr. Rogers’ church, of course it has to be a great place for youth. I was impressed with a leaflet from the Persad Center, which offers services to the LGBT community, a pamphlet from the organization That All May Freely Serve, and forms to fill out to join More Light Presbyterians, along with envelopes to mail them in!

I picked up a pamphlet from The Presbyterian Peace Fellowship. I already receive the Buddhist Peace Fellowship’s e-newsletter. It was appropriate that this pamphlet be on display, because this organization once awarded its annual Peaceseeker Award to a member of the congregation, Mister Fred Rogers. According to the pamphlet, the organization was started in 1944 by Presbyterian conscientious objectors. It is a "national community of Presbyterians who trust in the nonviolent Jesus Christ." Some of the issues they address are "gun control, land mines, …nuclear weapons, …globalization, the war on terrorism, the nuclearization of space and the need to reduce militarism in our society." Current projects include working toward preventing the US from making the same mistakes in Colombia which were made in El Salvador. Also, they work toward a peaceful resolution of the situation in the Middle East, including seeking peace between the Israelis and Palestinians, as well as resolving the situation with North Korea peacefully. They are also working to close down the infamous School of the Americas, which trains Latin American militaries in repressive counterinsurgency techniques which they then use against their own populations.

Happy International Conscientious Objector Day!

According to an e-mail I received from www.democracyinaction.org, today, Sunday, May 15, 2005, is International Conscientious Objector Day. The e-mail explains that, "Since 1985, people around the world have used this day to draw attention to the hardships faced by COs and to call for recognition of their right to freedom of conscience."

Activities in honor of the day have been shifted to Monday, May 16, so they can take place during a normal business day in Washington, DC. The National Campaign for a Peace Tax Fund will join with several other organizations to launch an "I Will Not Kill" campaign. The purpose of the campaign is to "promote the right of conscientious objection, oppose any future draft, and educate youth about these issues. We seek to ensure that everyone has the right not to participate in war, whether physically or financially."

The people involved in these activities feel that they are contributing to war and killing just by paying their taxes. They allege that 42 cents out of every tax dollar they pay goes to the military. They feel this is wrong, that they are doing something unconscionable just by paying their taxes. Some of them refuse to pay taxes and suffer serious consequences, having their belongings confiscated and wages garnished.

The short-term solution is to create a special fund into which conscientious objectors can pay their taxes. None of these taxes would go to the military. The bill they will lobby for in Washington on May 16 is called The Religious Freedom Peace Tax Fund Bill. The website www.peacetaxfund.org states that in the 108th Congress, 44 representatives cosponsored the legislation. The coalition supporting the bill will hold a press conference at the U.S. Capitol on Monday. Rep. John Lewis, the lead sponsor of the bill, as well as Reps. Cynthia McKinney and James Oberstar are scheduled to speak at the rally.

Colombia's Long Civil War Puts Millions on the Run

When you hear about internally displaced person, or refugees, you think of large camps. You think of populations on the run, driven from one country to another, a foreign country often reluctant to accept them. You don’t usually think of them as people living in a city. But that is the situation in Colombia. Colombia has the world’s third largest population of internally displaced persons, according to the UN News Centre in their May 12, 2005 article Joint UN study sheds light on plight of millions of displaced in Colombia (www.UNrefugees.org). A forty-year civil war has forced millions of Colombians from their homes. Many of them are forced into urban areas.

The UN World Food Programme and the International Committee of the Red Cross did a joint study on Colombia’s IDPs. The study found that the IDPs have certain things in common: "lack of steady income; inadequate housing, health services and education; and poor hygiene and sanitation all exacerbate food and economic insecurity." The study found that the IDPs spend an average of 58 percent of their income on food alone. Most of the rest is spent on housing and utilities such as water, electricity, and gas. This leaves only six percent of their income for healthcare and three percent for education.

The study attempted to get a realistic picture of the situation and the numbers involved so that they can improve the delivery of assistance to those in need.

Albania's Bleak Situation

At the end of 2005, the United Nations World Food Programme will phase out its operations in Albania (www.wfp.org). Compared to needy countries in Africa and Asia, it’s hard for WFP to justify using its scarce resources in a European country, even if it is one of the poorest. The web site states that in 2002, Albania’s per capita income was $1,230. The communist government ended in 1981. Then in 1997, the economy collapsed along with pyramid financial schemes in which two-thirds the population had invested their money. To add to the pressure, refugees from Kosovo spilled across the border in 1999. There were oil fields in Albania, but they have been closed down, and all the workers are unemployed. The main industry of agriculture suffers from droughts and archaic machinery. The instability discourages investment from surrounding European countries. As a result, one-fifth of the population has emigrated. Albanians are highly dependent on money sent by relatives working in Greece and Italy. Unemployment is extremely high, and many people rely on a $30 per month handout from the government. Some regions are worse off than others. In the northern mountainous region, half the population lives in poverty.

Rebecca Martinez, a WFP intern in Albania, reported in her E-Card on the conditions she witnessed. Walking through the streets of town, she noticed the outdoor cafes packed with men during the day. That is because there is no employment, and they have nothing to do. The men often are able to pick up only two to three days’ work per month, and the family must live on the government handout. Women buy what their families need at the store by running up credit. They can’t take their kids to the store, because their kids will want things they cannot afford to buy. People cannot afford rent, so they become squatters in abandoned warehouses, tool sheds, and other buildings. Often, they can’t afford electricity even if it is available in the building. They use outhouses and get their water from pumps. These facilities are shared with other families.

The WFP launched its food program in 1997 after the collapse of the pyramid schemes. It had to launch a new program in 1999 because of the refugee problem. These were emergency operations, and they were never intended to become permanent. Other NGOs operating in Albania are looking for donors, but they are not having much luck. With so many situations in the world looking so much more dramatic, there isn’t much interest in helping the impoverished but not totally desperate Albanians. When the WFP pulls out, the situation will just get a little bleaker.

Transgender Eye for the Biologically Female Gal - I. Feet

I have decided to start a new regular segment on my blog about my friendships with transgender people, how they have enriched my life and helped me see things in new ways. My first transgender friend came into my life about 20 years ago. She was a very educated, politically leftist person. She felt very alienated as a man. She was already living as a woman when I met her. I couldn’t even imagine her as a man, even though she had not had surgery at the time. She didn’t seem to like anything about the male world. She had always felt she was female inside. She just wanted to go through the long process of making it permanent, physically and psychologically. I had a very deep, intense friendship with her, the kind I don’t seem to be able to form with biological females. She eventually had surgery, and then she decided she really did not want to have much to do with males and decided she would be a lesbian. This woman was very intelligent and idealistic, and this was all part of her decision to go through a gender change.

Until recently, I had only met transgender people by accident. But I finally decided I like them, so maybe I should seek them out. Well, I looked through the profiles on my computer and found someone I thought sounded like a really neat person, and I e-mailed her. Now I’m in another intense friendship with her, even though it is an online friendship. I thought it would be a good time to write about it every so often, how it is changing my life in a positive way. Since she is partially in the closet about who she is, I won’t use her real name. I will call her "Valerie."

Valerie would like to live as a female all the time, but that is impossible. So she lives part of the time as a male. She has always felt, however, that she is female inside. She is taking various steps to become more female physically. I don’t think she is considering surgery at this point. I could talk about her for pages and pages, so I guess I’ll just have to pick out one insight at a time. Today, I thought "feet" would be a good subject. Valerie is very interested in how her feet look. She keeps her toenails in good shape, paints them, and loves the way they look in women’s shoes. A couple years ago, I went through the feet phenomenon with my sister. One of her friends took a great interest in improving the appearance of my sister’s feet. I did some thinking about my feet at the time. Now Valerie has me really thinking about it again.

I also am obsessed with my feet, but in a completely different way than Valerie. I am a long-distance runner, so my feet are obviously very important to me. I’m interested that my feet don’t hurt so that I can keep running. I could care less about whether my toenails are polished. My feet would probably look extremely ugly to Valerie. I’m just concerned that the toenails don’t completely wear away so that I get blisters and can’t run. Unlike a lot of women who want many pairs of sexy shoes, my only concern is having a good enough running shoe that I can run far and not hurt myself. When I have to worry about getting a job or going to church or the like, all I care about is wearing a pair of shoes which looks somewhat presentable. I usually hate them and wish I had my running shoes on!

Maybe the subject of feet sounds petty, but I find that trifling female concerns take on a new importance when I discuss them with male-to-female transgender persons. The small female things I take for granted become things I am thankful for when I see another human being longing for them, someone who can’t have them easily, because she is female but was born in a male body.

War Aggravates Childhood Malnutrition in Iraq

Islamic Relief, an organization based in Britain, is one of the international aid agencies still operating in Iraq, despite the danger and hardship involved. "The instability throughout Iraq continues to make daily survival a struggle. The violence has also driven away many international aid agencies," states Islamic Relief’s monthly e-mail update, entitled "Children ‘Starving’ in Iraq," www.islamic-relief.com. Islamic Relief’s update this month highlights the findings of the UN Human Rights Commission, which UN hunger specialist Jean Ziegler presented at its annual meeting in Geneva. "He blamed the worsening situation in Iraq on the war," states the article. The report found that, "More than one quarter of Iraqi children do not get enough to eat, and are chronically malnourished…"

The update goes on to explain how the UN-imposed sanctions and subsequent war slowly transformed a situation of overabundance of food into one of starvation and malnutrition. In the 70’s and 80’s, Islamic Relief alleges, the biggest nutrition-related problem for children in Iraq was obesity! From 1990 on, when the UN imposed trade sanctions, malnutrition rates began to shoot up. The rate peaked at 11 percent and dropped to 4 percent during the Oil-for-Food program but increased again with the war. According to Islamic Relief, "Iraq’s child malnutrition rate is now much higher than in Uganda or Haiti."

The update outlines the multiple reasons behind this trend. "Malnutrition is not simply about children going hungry," they explain. The lack of clean water and sanitation, for example, causes children to drink contaminated water and suffer from dehydration. This also leads to decreased appetite and loss of nutrients. The malnourished children then become more susceptible to disease. This problem has become widespread, because Iraq’s water and sewer systems have collapsed. The untreated sewage spills into the rivers, widely contaminating the water supply. The unreliability of the electrical system further contributes to this problem. Often, the power is off, and people can’t boil the water to make it safe. In poorer areas, people depend on kerosene rather than electricity. The price of kerosene has shot up, and the people can’t afford it. This makes it harder for them to boil water or cook. This situation seems to be worse in southern Iraq.

Islamic Relief is telling us this, of course, because they want contributions. Why is it so urgent to contribute? Islamic Relief fears permanent damage to these children. Some are even in danger of dying, as evidenced by muscular wasting and general swelling in some children. "Over the long term, malnutrition can result in crippled growth and weakened immunity. Children who survive are often left physically and mentally impaired for life," they point out. Obviously, this is a problem well-meaning people in developed countries can do something about. As long as there are aid agencies willing to risk the danger of operating in Iraq, contributions can get to these children by helping the Iraqis to obtain clean water, food, and medical care.

Cuba a Good Model for Disaster Preparedness

Thousands of people needlessly perished in the December 24, 2004 tsunami due to lack of disaster preparedness. The absence of national plans to deal with disasters cost many lives. "Cash-strapped governments…simply don’t have the resources to create disaster preparedness plans, communications networks, evacuation plans, and disaster recovery programs," said Chris Hufstader in his December 29, 2004 article Disaster Planning Essential for Minimizing Risks, www.oxfamamerica.org. So is it a hopeless case? Are poor countries doomed to lose many lives that could be saved when a disaster strikes? Actually, there is a poor country which is a model in disaster preparedness. It is Cuba. When hurricanes strike, many people die needlessly in other Caribbean countries, while Cuba loses few lives. Even the poorest of its citizens are protected.

Oxfam studied Cuba’s disaster prevention and mitigation plan and prepared a report entitled Weather the Storm: Lessons in Risk Reduction in Cuba. Hufstader noted in his article that certain features of Cuba’s plan outlined in the report can be used elsewhere:

Disaster Preparedness: Cuba was especially good at mobilizing entire
communities to develop their own disaster preparations. This involves mapping
out vulnerable areas of the community, creating emergency plans, and actually
simulating emergencies so people can practice evacuations and other measures
designed to save lives. When disaster strikes, people know what to do.

Commitment of Resources: Cuba’s strong central government prioritizes
resources for its civil defense department. This helps the country to build up a
common understanding of the importance of saving lives, and the citizens trust
that their contributions to the government are well used for this purpose. Their
collaboration on developing emergency plans helped build confidence in the
government, so people trust in the plan they helped develop.

Communications: The communications system for emergencies in Cuba
builds on local resources. Using local radio stations and other media to issue
warnings on potential hazards also reinforces the disaster preparations. Since
the local population is already involved in mapping risks and creating emergency
plans, they are more inclined to act on emergency bulletins. Good
communications, packaged simply, and build on existing, commonly used resources,
is another way to build trust in disaster preparations.

There are a couple of drawbacks to using Cuba as a model. For one thing, Cuba has a strong central government. Also, Cuba suffers from hurricanes, a disaster that can be predicted days in advance. Still, strong community leadership and organization of the population always help. Hufstader cites an example of how everyone in a town in El Salvador survived flooding with their own strong local disaster plan.

I noted a variation of this during the aftermath of the tsunami. It appeared that villages where there was a strong oral tradition passed down that the population should head for the hills immediately when they felt an earthquake saved a much higher percentage of their members.

Clinton's Ambitious Campaign Against Childhood Obesity

On May 3, 2005, Bill Clinton and Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee appeared in a New York City school near the hospital where Clinton had bypass surgery last year. According to the Associated Press as reported in The Daily News, Wednesday, May 4, 2005 edition (published in McKeesport, Pennsylvania), they are kicking off an ambitious plan to fight childhood obesity. This is a joint project of the American Heart Association and the William J. Clinton Foundation. How ambitious? "Clinton and Huckabee vowed to halt childhood obesity in the United States by 2010," reported the AP.

Childhood obesity in the United States has rapidly become a massive problem. The article reports that the number of overweight children has doubled since 1980. Sixteen million US children are now estimated to be obese. This makes them more susceptible to life-threatening diseases, such as heart disease and diabetes. According to the article, an obese child has a 70 percent chance of staying obese as an adult. That could reduce the child’s life expectancy from two to five years. "The truth is that children born today could become part of the first generation in American history to live shorter lives than their parents because so many are eating too much of the wrong things and not exercising enough," Clinton said in his speech.

Why is this issue so important to Clinton and Huckabee? Because they know the consequences of a lifetime of bad habits. Both were known for their love of junk food, and both landed in the hospital. Clinton had to have bypass surgery, and Huckabee had to lose 110 pounds when he was diagnosed with Type II diabetes. They don’t want today’s obese children to end up like them or worse.

Plans are to "work with schools, communities, the restaurant and food industry and the media to develop programs and policies designed to encourage healthier food choices and more exercise." They are working on an interactive web site which will be directed at children between the ages of nine and thirteen. Huckabee will soon release a book called Quit Digging Your Grave With a Knife and Fork. Both men are hoping adding their high profile names to the battle will bring more attention to the issue.

World Food Programme Issues Food Alert

On May 4, 2005, the United Nations World Food Programme issued an alert regarding the rapidly declining numbers for global food aid. (WFP Sounds Alert as World Food Aid Plummets by 30 Percent in 2004, www.wfp.org, 5/4/05). The amount of food donated has been in decline since 1999, when 15 million tons of food aid were delivered. In 2003, according to the WFP, this number was down to 10.3 million tons from all sources and dipped to 7.5 million in 2004. Overall, this was a decline of 30 percent, while WFP’s aid itself did slightly better, dipping only 25 percent. As a result of the decline in food aid since 1999, the number of hungry people in the world, estimates WFP, has increased from 790 million to 852 million. However, there is only half as much food available in 2005 to meet the needs of these 852 million people.

There are several primary reasons for this sharp decline. Higher prices for cereals are a large factor. Total cereals provided by WFP went from 8.9 million metric tons to 6.4 million metric tons, while non-cereals dipped from only 1.3 million metric tons to 1.0 million metric tons. In addition, transport costs are at record levels. Another reason for the trend is that major donors are putting more money into development assistance than food assistance. Development assistance is at a record level of $80 billion. Therefore, the money is available and there is no excuse for the decline in food aid.

WFP Executive Director James Morris calls this situation "shameful and unacceptable." "It is time for a Food First policy," he said. "Hungry children don’t get any sustenance from the roads, ports and factories we build with the increases in development aid. But just who are we building this infrastructure for? We have to put ending hunger and malnutrition at the top of our priority list. The cost in human suffering is just too high and it’s going up."

This makes a lot of sense. You have to wonder who is going to maintain the roads and ports, benefit from them economically, and work in the factories if people are too starved and malnourished to be healthy enough to do so!

Nigerian Situation Hopeless Without Debt Relief

Officials from the Nigerian government have recently traveled to Washington and will also travel to several European capitals, pleading their case for relief of Nigeria’s $37 billion external debt. Senators Udoma and Osakwe spoke to Davin O’Regan (Debt Relief Critical to Development and Democracy, Senators Say, www.allafrica.com, May 6, 2005, Washington, DC). Most of the debt was incurred under military dictatorships, they allege, and much of the money never made it to the projects for which it was borrowed. Now, the country must spend $2 billion annually just to service the debt. This makes the debt go even higher, causing a vicious cycle further impoverishing the country and threatening its march toward democracy. Recently, efforts are being made against corruption. The National Assembly has passed several pieces of anti-corruption legislation. A National Political Reform Conference has been at work on political reform, tackling such issues as term limits. There are similar efforts to reform the economy. But these efforts could fail without debt relief. Elections will be held in 2007, and the government needs to show improvement in the lives of people if they are to embrace democracy. "It is critical that we get debt relief now," Ukoma told O’Regan, "because democracy must show appreciable dividends. We are directing funds from essential services: the amount we are paying on debt is about three or four times what we are spending on education. It is thirteen times what we are spending on health."

O’Regan points out that Nigeria has a population of 130 million. The per capita income is $300. Seventy percent of Nigerians live on less than one dollar a day. Unicef statistics show that 79,500 Nigerian children below the age of five die every month from malnutrition and poor health care. Nigeria’s oil revenues aren’t much help. Nigeria is the seventh largest producer of oil, but they do not have the smaller population of countries such as Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Their oil revenues only provide 50 cents per person! If given debt relief, the money would be spent on "health services, education, rural infrastructure, the water supply, and fighting HIV/Aids and malaria," Udoma told O’Regan.

Along with the obvious benefits to the United States and Europe of a democratic Nigeria, a healthier, more developed, more educated Nigeria, Udoma and Osakwe point out one particularly attractive benefit debt relief will enhance. Nigeria can provide a democratic, peaceful, stabilizing influence in Africa. Already, Nigeria has peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Sudan. It has also played a pro-democracy role in Togo and Sao Tome. Debt relief will enable Nigeria to put more resources into its peacekeeping and stabilizing role. In fact, Udoma points out, the United States and Europe probably even owe Nigeria for playing this role. "These things cost money, material and lives," Udoma points out. "…all these efforts that Nigeria is making is saving the United States the pains, the money and the lives." This is how the Nigerian officials hope to convince the U.S. and Europe that debt relief is not just a favor to them, but is mutually beneficial and will help Africans handle their own problems without the need for outside intervention.

Peace Activists Organize to Counter-Recruit

Networks of anti-war activists, known as counter-recruiters, are forming to persuade young people not to enlist in the military. The military is having a harder time recruiting since the Iraq war, and counter-recruiters fear young people are enlisting out of desperation, encouraged by promises the military cannot keep. According to Rick Hampton of USA TODAY, March 7, 2005, only ten percent of the new recruits needed come looking for the military. The other 90% have to be sought out.

In 2003 and 2004, counter-recruiters formed a national network at meetings in Philadelphia, Hampton reports. The American Friends Service Committee put together a brochure called Do You Know Enough to Enlist? which looks just like a military recruitment brochure. A 1986 federal appeals court decision allows opponents of the recruiters equal access to students. This has allowed the teacher’s union to get counter-recruiters into Los Angeles schools regularly visited by military recruiters. They are able to "make public address announcements, distribute literature, show documentaries and give classroom presentations." A San Francisco group uses the same decision to dress up like grandmothers to visit San Francisco schools in a counter-recruitment effort. They call themselves the "Raging Grannies." In some other areas of the country, counter-recruiters have to work outside the school property because they are considered unpatriotic, and there is too much hostility toward them inside the schools alongside the recruiters.

Counter-recruiters claim that they do not tell the young people not to join. They simply try to show them other options for fulfilling their ambitions in life. They try to explain that the military may not be able to keep promises they make about educational and career opportunities and that there may be a better way for the students to pursue their aspirations. They try to explain the realities of combat and the horrible things a recruit might see, which could change him or her forever. If the recruit has signed some form of commitment, such as the Marines’ Delayed Entry Program, they will help a reticent student get out of it. Sometimes, the Marines aren’t completely honest that the student can still change his mind.

Transgender Couple Excluded, But No One Will Own Up to It

Just tell them to go away. Them. This word can refer to human beings but can also be used to refer to non-human things. It appears no one really wanted a transgender couple to go away. It’s not THEM, the couple, it’s THEM the issues that were raised. The church told the couple to go away so that the issues would go away.

In April, according to Kristin Buehner of www.globegazette.com, in their April 23, 2005 edition, the couple, Renee and Mayetta, were asked to leave a Lutheran church in Iowa. They had been legally married for 40 years and had children and grandchildren. Renee had been known as Michael until she legally underwent a name and gender change ten years ago at age 51. She did not have surgery to become anatomically female, according to a May 1 editorial on www.globegazette.com. Renee has always felt like a woman in a man’s body, the Globe Gazette says. Mayetta accepted the change and remained Renee’s partner; the couple’s children and grandchildren also accepted it. Apparently, they were model church members, once being the only members volunteering to clean the church before Easter.

It’s not the first time they had been excluded from local churches. They were shunned at their original church when Michael came out as a female and changed her name to Renee. Another church had allowed them to attend but refused them membership. What is striking about this Lutheran church’s rejection of them is that the buck keeps getting passed for the exclusion. The minister says he wrote a letter asking them not to attend at the council’s request, even though he did not agree. The council denies asking the minister to write the letter, and says they wanted him to talk it over and work it out with the couple. A small group of people allegedly wanted them to leave, but no specific names surfaced. Then a meeting was held to reconsider the decision. Thirty-five people showed up anticipating a discussion of the issues, but the council read a short statement and abruptly left without allowing discussion. "I thought we would have a chance to talk about the issues and how it relates to faith," complained one of the participants. "It is an issue that has to be talked through in our church, because I think it’s going to be a very divisive thing in the church."

Since no one specific would actually take responsibility for not wanting to worship with Renee and Mayetta, it seems it was the issues themselves and discussion of these complex issues that the church leaders sought to avoid. Some of these issues include divorce and break up of families, discomfort, and honesty and openness vs. remaining hidden. No one was courageous enough to admit they did not want to worship with Renee and Mayetta; no one was courageous enough to tackle the issues either.

The issue of whether to ask a family to split up is an extremely tough one. If Michael committed a sin by changing to Renee, should Mayetta divorce Renee? If Renee and Mayetta are committing a sin by being a lesbian couple, should Mayetta leave? No one had the guts to say, "Yes. Mayetta can stay if she leaves Renee." Is it a bigger sin to split up a family, a marriage of 40 years which includes children and grandchildren? Is it a greater sin to back out on one’s marriage vows? No one had the guts to say, "Encouraging this family to break up by rejecting them is a greater sin; therefore, we should accept them."

Then there’s that bathroom issue. Women felt uncomfortable with Renee using the women’s restroom. I would bet you most of the women who felt uncomfortable saw Mel Gibson’s "The Passion of the Christ." I saw it for the first time on Palm Sunday. We are talking serious discomfort, sitting through that movie! These women can watch "The Passion of the Christ" but they aren’t willing to be in a bathroom with someone who makes them feel uncomfortable. They are willing to come to church each Sunday and face what Jesus went through on the cross, but they are unwilling to face Renee in the bathroom.

Then there’s the issue of what happens if Renee, who is open and honest about who she is, sits next to them in church. In another Lutheran church, not long ago, they could have been sitting next to the BTK killer, Dennis Rader, NOT knowing who he is, since he hid it. In fact, he was the council president of his Lutheran church. We don’t really know who the people sitting next to us in the pews are. We are all sinners. We don’t know everyone’s secrets and what they have done or might still be doing. Would these people rather sit next to a transgender or gay person who is open about it or sit next to a serial killer who is hiding it? Would they rather show up to clean the church and risk being alone with Renee and Mayetta, or would they prefer to show up and find themselves alone with Dennis Rader?

By choosing to attend any Christian church, we are forced to think about and deal with complex and troubling issues. How could a virgin give birth to Jesus? Why was a good man who was the Son of God put through a horrifying crucifixion? How could a horribly mutilated dead man be resurrected? Why did this have to happen to save us from our sins? The leaders of this Lutheran church are willing to tackle these questions, but they sent Renee and Mayetta away because they were unwilling to tackle tough questions raised by their union.

Luckily, another Iowa church was willing to wrestle with these questions and resolve them, down to the restroom issue, and welcome Renee and Mayetta into their congregation.

Buddhists Reach Out to New Pope

The May 2005 e-newsletter of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship just arrived in my inbox. On May 1, 2005, this organization wrote a letter reaching out to the new pope (BPF’s Letter to Pope Benedict XVI). The letter was signed by the Executive Director, Staff, Board Members, and BPF International Advisory Council Members. The letter stated, "We offer this letter in the spirit of affirming a dialogue already well-begun, grounded in loving speech and understanding."

Founded in 1978 with the mission "to be a catalyst for socially engaged Buddhism, and to help all beings liberate themselves from the suffering we experience in our lives, in our relationships, institutions, and social systems," the organization has actively sought interfaith dialog. It is an affiliate of the International Fellowship of Reconciliation. The letter was an effort to find common ground with Pope Benedict XVI and Catholics. "We affirm our solidarity with your opposition to war," they state. They cite a Buddhist teaching which I completely agree with, "Hatred does not cease by hatred, but by love alone does it cease." They also cite their agreement with the Catholic Church that the death penalty is wrong. In addition, they feel that Buddhists can learn much from the Catholic Church’s commitment to the poor, to charitable work, to education, healthcare, and social services. They are excited by the choice of the name Benedict, as they view Pope Benedict XV as a man who spoke out for peace during World War I.

I particularly liked one statement in the letter: "The Buddhist path is complete unto itself, but we recognize that many practitioners wish to honor and continue their own precious and long-held faith traditions." I couldn’t agree more. Several years ago, I was involved in a Soto Zen meditation group here in Pittsburgh. I actually am trying to find time to go back. However, I am glad to be back in the Presbyterian Church, where I grew up. I am attending the church where I was baptized, as well as a new More Light church where I feel more comfortable. But I know I can learn much from other traditions. I learned a lot and am a different person because I went to Krishnamurti’s talks for many years. I was involved with Siddha Yoga also for many years, and I gained so much from all the years of chanting in Sanskrit. I still take my cymbals to Round Hill to play along with the rock band at the Saturday night service. A part of me is still Hindu. When I lived in France, I hung out almost exclusively with Moslems. I will never be the same person after spending so much time with people who had so much faith in Allah, who thought nothing could happen except by Allah’s will, and who were at such peace because everything was in Allah’s hands. I also went to college with mostly Jewish people, and now I’m back in the Jewish neighborhood of Squirrel Hill at my new church where the church tries to build warm relationships with Jews. I also learn a lot from other Christian traditions, such as Catholicism. I watch EWTN, and this enriches my life and has given me a great appreciation for devotion to Mary. But the recent Buddhist influence is the strongest these days for me. I feel very strongly about being a vegetarian. I feel just as passionate about being against war and the death penalty. These experiences with other religions have made me a better Christian.

IMC Helps African Refugee Women With Small Loans

I recently received the International Medical Corps’ April 2005 eNewsletter in my in box. Several days ago, I wrote about how small loans from the Mercy Corps’ to Afghan women had changed their lives. They achieved more freedom in their society with its strict customs regarding women. They often went from a day-to-day existence to a more secure financial position. The IMC also provides small loans to women. This month’s eNewsletter discussed how these loans can help a woman in a much more desperate situation than that of a small business woman in Kabul trapped in her house or draped in a burqa.

Empower a woman and you empower an entire community discusses the situation of refugee women in Africa. Many women become displaced in Africa, but they desperately want to go home. This is similar to what I discussed regarding Chechnya about a week ago. Even though life might be better in Ingushetia, there is still no place like home, so the Chechens are willing to endure even worse hardship to be able to return to Grozny. IMC talks about an Eritrean woman they helped. She had been a refugee in Sudan for 15 years. Eritrea had been in armed conflict with Ethiopia for four decades. Finally, things were calming down, and this woman, Tirhas, joined a UN convoy back home. There was no future for her children in Sudan, so she wanted to go back home where there would be hope they could lead better lives. However, the food situation is still very insecure in Eritrea.

Tirhas returned to an overwhelming situation. She was given one hectare of farmland, but it was a long distance from her home. She had no money, and she was unable to handle weeding and farming the plot. Her family sometimes went hungry, and her children began to miss school. Tirhas heard about IMC’s micro-credit program and received a small loan. But to her, it was more money than she had ever handled. With the loan, she was able to enroll in agricultural training and start a sesame farm. The loan enabled her to get help with weeding and harvesting. She was also able to buy a donkey and a small carriage to transport her and her sons to the farm. IMC also gave her advice. With this assistance, she was able to sell enough sesame to repay the loan, maintain her household, and send her children to school.
This goes to show how we, in developed countries, can completely change the lives of whole families and communities just by giving small contributions to organizations like IMC or the Mercy Corps. This small loan prevented disaster and another generation of misery and illiteracy for this family and enabled them to become productive, thriving citizens.

Sunday's Church Service

Church was really neat yesterday, because the lesbian minister was in charge. Our interim minister is gone, and the new minister does not start until mid-May. We had a guest preacher who became a Presbyterian minister because the Presbyterian Church had come out against apartheid. He was very supportive of our church being a More Light congregation. The lesbian minister was the liturgist. Also, I took communion from her. I had never taken communion from a lesbian minister before. This was a very emotional experience for me, and I was in tears. I was just generally emotional from being in church and having a lesbian minister directing us. After the service, she was in charge of all the honchos who were there, and it was so cool to see her in a leadership position. I’m so proud of my church for standing up for justice, using the talents of all types of people equally, and not oppressing one group of people.

Another emotional moment for me was when she had the whole congregation praying for Rev. Janie Spahr. Rev. Spahr is also a lesbian minister and she is from the Pittsburgh area originally. She came to preach at the Noe Valley Presbyterian Church in San Francisco when I lived there. The whole church went down and marched in the Gay Pride Parade with her. My cousin, Richard Sharpnack, who was a gay Presbyterian and gay father activist, also marched with us. She is in trouble now with the Presbyterian Church for officiating at a same-sex wedding in Canada. In Canada, it is legal for two persons of the same gender to marry. She was charged in November for violating the provisions of the Constitution of the Presbyterian Church. The evidence was the marriage certificate for the two men, which she had signed. The men wanted her to officiate at their wedding because they did not want their marriage to be legally or religiously regarded as second class.

Rev. Spahr chose to take the case to trial rather than to plead guilty and accept a reprimand. At a March 31 pretrial conference, a 120-day continuance was agreed to by the prosecution and defense in order to work out a more constructive way of handling the matter. (Information from www.tamfs.org.)

New Vietnam War Online Journal

In its 25th anniversary year, and to mark the 30th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War, Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation (VVAF) has launched a sort of combination blog and message board for anyone who wishes to talk about the war. VVAF calls it an "interactive online journal" in their press release, which I found in my in box. The address of the site is http://www.vietnamviews.org/. I visited the site, and I was impressed. The purpose of the site is "to capture the personal experiences of people who were involved in and affected by the war…" and to "…serve as a dynamic online history for soldiers, families, friends and others to share their stories from the war." Bill Belding, President of VVAF, states that their organization wishes to depict the story of the war from many different perspectives and to keep the memories alive. "We can never forget," he says.

The organization was founded in 1980 by Vietnam veterans Bobby Muller and John Terzano. They journeyed back to Vietnam to make peace with the Vietnamese. The organization worked to lift the U.S. trade embargo and normalize relations with Vietnam and built a lasting friendship with the Vietnamese. In 1997, the VVAF won the Nobel Peace Prize for enlisting a third of the world’s countries to sign a treaty eradicating the use of antipersonnel landmines. The organization today is described in the press release as "an international humanitarian organization that addresses the causes, conduct and consequences of war through programs of advocacy and service for victims of conflict around the world." The VVAF’s main website is at http://www.vvaf.org/.

In keeping with the goal of reconciliation with the Vietnamese, Belding hopes the site will "celebrate the peace and growing friendship between the two countries." He also hopes to "increase awareness and understanding of the war, and the continued effect the war has had on the troops, their families and friends."

In order to help visitors get started, an initial set of journal entries has been posted. When I visited the site, the first thing I noticed was an open post waiting for a message. A proposed date and year for the post is even supplied, which the contributor can change. Below the new post area the first few lines of several other entries were also visible, so that a visitor could check any of the latest posts out, if interested. On the right was an index so that a visitor could pick a topic to read or write about. The press release states that contributors will be able to manage and edit their entries. The website has technology with the capability of tying the entries together in time, place and other areas, and it will be easy to post photographs and other items. The accounts will be organized and categorized. Americans, Vietnamese, and other nationalities are encouraged to contribute.

If this effort is successful, similar online journals could be launched for other wars, such as Desert Storm, Afghanistan, and the current conflict in Iraq.