Tue 30 Oct 2007
Too many schools are producing too few graduates. The irony is that while society is failing students, local media outlets are failing to properly educate the public on this issue.
Take this excerpt from the news story from WTNH:[bold added for emphasis]
(WTNH) _ More than a dozen Connecticut schools fail to make the grade when it comes to keeping kids in the classroom. These schools are being called “dropout factories.” (more…)
Sat 27 Oct 2007
A crowd of several thousand basked in comfortable temperatures under threatening skies as the Boston Common hummed with frustrated war protesters this afternoon. It was a big enough crowd–twice the capacity of the Bushnell, at least–to produce much harmony and love, but not nearly big enough to exert any real pressure on the ruling class. It was one of eleven demonstrations nationwide. High-schoolers were well-represented, as was the white-haired crowd, with younger middle-aged folks a distinct minority. The police kept a very low profile, saving a good deal of the grumbling that always accompanies a trip to New York or DC. There were speakers from organized labor, politics, and academia, but the most moving addresses came from veterans, soldiers and soldiers’ families. The rain stopped in time for the demonstration and resumed afterwards. At the edge of the weather on the road home, the sun was bright enough on the western horizon to produce a complete rainbow in the east, and the cars were stopped along 84 with smiling kids and grownups lined up to enjoy this rare event.
Sat 27 Oct 2007
Yesterday on my way to work I noticed that “POWER” 104.1 no longer had the commercial R&B/hip hop/rap programming. Instead, the station seems to have reverted to the 90’s style of grunge and modern rock. It’s not entirely cutting edge, but it’s not filled with absolutely annoying whine rock either. The best thing right now is something I feel sort of guilty about thinking of as a good thing– there’s an absence of d.j. banter. While I don’t know that I think computerized stations are the way to go, I will say that the reason I won’t listen to other hard rock stations with any consistency is because of the LCD crap that makes up the talk shows in the morning and evening drive time. If a computerized station means I don’t have to listen to racism, sexism, homophobia, and the word “retard” every three minutes, so be it.
This doesn’t replace alternative radio on the left hand side of the dial, but I’m glad that there’s more music I can tolerate listening to on my way to work.
Fri 26 Oct 2007
The following is a correspondence from John Dennehy, former HIMC volunteer and intern. John has been traveling the world’s lesser known corners and reporting on what he witnesses there. John self-published a book of his letters, simply entitled Letters from Far Away. After spending much of the last two years in South America, John is now in the remote areas of India. Here is his latest letter:
Kerala
Yesterday I woke up in a city on the Arabian Sea called Calicut and I was happy with neither the city nor how I was feeling. Today is a new day. I was already feeling better by the time I left that place behind on a bus traveling south and things have only improved since. I picked a random dot on my map and waited for it to arrive. I don’t
think I waited long enough. (more…)
Thu 25 Oct 2007
Scientists say that the so-called petrified forests of Arizona were the result of the organic materials of ancient trees being slowly replaced over eons with inorganic compounds. While the form remains familiar, the object itself is no longer a tree or a piece of wood but mineral. Stone cold and hard.
In the political realm, the transformation from human tragedy to grist for the political mill does not take eons. In fact, in Connecticut it took place overnight. (more…)
Wed 24 Oct 2007
As with many things that the media gravitates toward, the Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus aureus is no exception. What I mean by that is the media have blown this infection way out of proportion, as they have done with things like the West Nile virus and the threat of bears to suburban Connecticut. That’s not to say that such things are not serious. They certainly can be. But the reporting style being practiced leads audiences to believe that these threats are more common than they are.
The Eastern Connecticut State University Student Health Services sent the following text out to the ECSU community. (more…)
Wed 24 Oct 2007
General, we’ve been doing a little armchair reconnaissance on how your surge is going. Not so many U.S. soldiers getting zapped in Baghdad. Iraqis still taking it up the ass, but that’s war, aint’ it. But lookie what’s happening up north. PKK, the Kurdistan Workers Party, got some foxes shooting at the Turks. Hope they don’t start shooting at us.
Mon 22 Oct 2007
The following is a press release from our friends at ACORN -
When: 9:00 a.m., Tuesday, October 23rd, 2007
Where: Lot 45-47 Enfield Street, Hartford, CT
Members of Hartford’s North End United chapter of the community organization ACORN and residents of the North End will meet with city officials Tuesday morning to demand why the city’s promises to see to the clean-up of abandoned vacant lots, made at a meeting on October 2nd, have not been fulfilled.
“No one should have to live like this,” says ACORN member Rosie Easterly of Enfield Street, who shares her back door with an overgrown lot. “The rodents are so bad, it’s ridiculous. If the city doesn’t do something soon, the rats will evict us.” (more…)
Sat 20 Oct 2007
The regular Saturday noon 
vigil on the green in West Hartford yielded to a press conference today to promote next week’s nationwide rally for an end to the war in Iraq. Instead of a single assembly in Washington, this rally is being held in 11 cities, and Boston is the gathering point for this region, with buses leaving Saturday morning from West Hartford, New Haven, and Willimantic.
Steve Thornton, local labor organizer and activist, introduced the speakers. Cornell Lewis, a Hartford clergyman and civil rights leader, brought a can-do attitude to the crowd of about 25, warming them up for Bill Shortell, of the Machinists’ Union, Mims Butterworth, a longtime West Hartford resident and Quaker activist, Rich Sivel, of AFSCME, and Henry Lowendorf and Al Marder of the Greater New Haven Peace Council.
I reminded the gathering that bus riders can charge their fare on-line using my terminal, accessible from http://www.stepfour.com/peacetrain. It’s a secure site, and it accepts a credit card or an electronic check. A bus ride from Hartford is $45 and a ride from New Haven is $50, with reduced fares for seniors and students. Transportation details are published on the web site.
To the accompaniment of an occasional supportive car horn, all of the speakers emphasized the Illegality of the Iraq enterprise, and all expressed confidence that our ever-growing movement will end it. The West Hartford News was there to take a few pictures, but there were no television cameras, and no Courant photographer that I could see.
Fri 19 Oct 2007
I can’t believe that in 2007 people still dress up in red face. Red face is the use of red
pigment to make one look like a stereotyped caricature of a native American. It’s to native Americans what black face is to African Americans. It’s meant to ridicule and degrade, to amuse the dominant white majority. And from March to October, you can see on TV — every time Cleveland’s baseball team hits the field.
Maybe I’m just seeing it more now, with the Red Sox battling the Indians in the American League Championship Series, but I don’t remember fans painting their faces like this.
