this may enhance your reading pleasure:
you have kept me transfixed and comfortable with your warmth. your soft glow is that of a woman who has lived and loved and moved on. i put my hands out in hopes that your flames will chase away the cold that has collected. i watched your flicker and sway and the soft crackle has endeared me without effort.
Tim Dearman and Dave Ibach,
I am writing to express my horror and disgust that you chose to publish an advertisement for the Ku Klux Klan on the front page of the Statesville Record and Landmark this morning. It is COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE to provide what is basically free advertising to this hate group. Not only will I never purchase your newspaper again, I will be sure to spread the word about your inexplicable and utterly unacceptable editorial decision. I refuse to feel unsafe as a queer, Jewish North Carolinian and, as a white person, I refuse to allow this form of fear mongering to occur in the place where we fighting to end racism and white supremacy.
I demand that you retract the article, publish a full page apology, and refuse to print any other materials from any racist, hate groups.
Dear Tim Dearman and Dave Ibach,
I grew up in Iredell County. My family still lives there. I frequently read your articles online. Just a month ago, you published my letter against the amendment, through which I reconnected with several people. I started to feel prouder about my hometown.
But today, I can not say I feel those things. I feel scared and worried and sick to my stomach because of your publication, that you made a conscious choice not to just write an article covering reactions to the KKK rally, but that you chose to publish an advertisement for the Ku Klux Klan on the front page of the Statesville Record and Landmark this morning. You essentially gave free advertising to a hate group, to a group that outwardly speaks against and has terrorized much of your readership through violence. I wonder what other people who are gay thought when they read your paper this morning in Iredell County? I wonder what went through the stomachs of your black readers, and of immigrants, as they sat at the breakfast table, and couldn’t avoid this advertisement of hate in their own paper? I wonder if students felt safe in their school, as they read your paper as part of a journalism class or homeroom?
Media can not always be “neutral,” as there are not two sides in discrimination. Your choice to publish this piece, with the KKK flyer large and on front, is contributing to hate.
Today, I am calling and urging my parents and family friends to end their subscriptions and never purchase your newspaper again, due to your inexplicable and utterly unacceptable editorial decision to promote discrimination. I refuse to feel unsafe as a queer North Carolinian from Iredell County, and as a white person, I refuse to allow this form of hate to be placed on others, as we fight to end racism and white supremacy.
I demand that you: 1) retract the article, 2) publish a full page apology, and 3) refuse to print any other materials from any racist hate groups.
Sincerely, Holly Hardin
Typical media one-liner: "There was no immediate word on what sparked the riot."
But we all know the reasons: This is a prison for undocumented immigrants. Its very existence is unjust and intolerable. And the people trapped there suffered inhumane conditions, raw racism, hopelessness, and the courage to rebel.
What are we doing? What are we saying?... to amplify their voices, to support their struggle, to end such mistreatment?
Judge decides to release the minor suspect to public boarding school and not to uncle’s custody, despite favorable social worker report.
The attorney for an Eritrean minor accused a custody court judge of racism and being unfit for the bench after he refused to release the teen to his uncle’s custody, referring in his ruling to the recent arrest in Tel Aviv of an Eritrean minor for rape.
T., 16, entered Israel illegally on his own in January 2010, and has since been held in the Matan facility, a holding tank for minors in Hadera. T. recently petitioned the custody court asking to be released in the custody of his uncle, who has been in Israel for about a year and has a legal residency permit.
But in a hearing this week, custody court Judge Elad Azar ruled that after reading the survey by social workers and in light of the role allegedly played by a migrant minor in a recent rape, he would not release T. to his uncle’s custody, only to a public boarding school.
Minors who infiltrate on their own are first sent to the Saharonim prison, like all infiltrators. After identification and a medical exam, they are sent to the Matan facility. Matan aims to release the minors as soon as possible to one of the boarding schools run by the Welfare and Social Affairs Ministry and the Education Ministry, but a shortage of slots in these schools means minors often spend long periods in Matan.
The other option is to release the minor to the custody of a guardian who is capable of taking care of him and making sure he fulfills the conditions of his release, which include attending school regularly.
T.’s uncle was interviewed by a social worker and found to be living in a properly equipped and clean apartment, with a job that pays enough to support his nephew.
The social worker added, however, that in many instances the families back in Eritrea put pressure on relatives in Israel to obtain guardianship of minors so the teens can get out of the holding facility, find a job, and send money home. Thus, in many instances the freed minors simply ditch their guardian.
Meanwhile, the oversupply of migrant workers means few employers will hire minors. Thus, they usually end up on the street, with no income, and do not attend school as required.
Azar said the social workers’ report, including the information about migrants abandoning their guardians after being released, means it didn’t matter how good the uncle’s situation is "because if the teen is not under his supervision and guidance he won’t benefit from these conditions."
Moreover, added Azar, "We should note the recent report of the arrests of three Eritrean citizens suspected of raping an Israeli woman, and that at least one of them is a minor. It’s not impossible that the suspects were, or still are, minors who came to Israel without a parent and because of a situation such as has been described here, sunk to a life of crime.
"Therefore, I am denying the detainee’s request to be released to a guardian. The detainee should be referred to a Welfare Ministry dormitory," the judge ruled.
Attorney Smadar Ben Natan, who represented T., was livid.
"For a court that must determine the fate of a minor who did nothing but cross a border illegally, to base itself on suspicions against another teen from the same ethnic group is a racist attitude that shows this judge is not fit for his position."
The Justice Ministry said custody court decisions can be appealed to the district court. It added that the decision not to release the minor to a guardian "was explained in detail in the judge’s ruling and was based on professional considerations and the expert opinion of the social worker, and not on a remark about the reality in Israel, which was a marginal reference in his decision."
The former nanny of Hollywood actress Sharon Stone has filed a lawsuit accusing the “Basic Instinct” star of racism and wrongful termination.
The 52-year-old Filipino, Erlinda Elemen, who is a resident of the U.S., has said in her lawsuit that she was subjected to racist slurs and disallowed from practising her Christian faith while she was a live-in nanny for five years, according to a report on Thursday in The Huffington Post.
Elemen claims that she was told not speak to Stone’s three children because she didn’t want to them to “talk like you”, a reference to her Filipino accent the blog reports.
InnerStanding Isness
C.O.W.S.
