Embarrass Us

A ten-year old girl embarrassed her family and her village.

She objected to being raped.

Nujood Ali is a young girl in Yemen. In 2008 she was ten years old when her father married her off to a lecherous man in his 30's. Her father worried for her safety in a land where some village elders, the wise men of the community, considered rape an inconsequential crime, an act easily rectified by marrying the child to the rapist. Nujood's father had already had one daughter go through this terror and didn't want to see it happen again. So her father married her to an old man, who proceeded to rape her....oh, sorry, have sex with her....night after night. Amazingly, Nujood, after several months, escaped to a nearby city where judges actually listened to her, and granted her a divorce.

I am not sure what is more striking, that Nujood escaped or that the judges listened to her. The judges actually listened and granted her a divorce. There is hope for men, maybe. Though I pray to the gods, Women, don't let up, don't acquiesce, don't be silent, don't be submissive. Our species won't survive if you do.

Some of the men in her family are embarrassed by all the attention. Why couldn't she just suck it up, take the rape and act like a good girl.

Nujood has much attention thanks to many strong women in her life, not the least of whom is Delphine Minoui, who helped Nujood write about her young life. With some luck, she may grace us with a long life.

"I Am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced"

Embarrassment may be our only salvation.

George Clooney is banking on embarrassment preventing the Sudan from descending into civil war, if not another genocide. He and John Prendergast and others have raised almost a million dollars to hire satellites in the sky to watch the troops live, in action, and broadcast the feed immediately for the world to see.

www.satsentinel.org

Sadly, people who hate other people aren't usually embarrassed by their hatred. In fact, publicizing it often fuels their resolve.

It leaves me embarrassed for us.

Journalists, Our Guardians, Need Our Help

Natalia Estemirova is dead.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/15/natalia-estemirova-killin_n_234021.html

Anna Politkovskaya is dead.
http://www.annapolitkovskaya.com/

Stanislav Markelov is dead.
http://www.robertamsterdam.com/2009/01/grigory_pasko_rip_stanislav_markelov_1974-2009.htm

Anastasia Baburova is dead.
http://www.economist.com/obituary/displaystory.cfm?story_id=13055783

They were all murdered.
We should remember them.

Laura Ling and Euna Lee are still alive.
Imprisoned, but alive.
Help them.

http://www.lauraandeuna.com/

Happy Easter

Just caught wind of this video happening.
People catching a train station by surprise, singing and dancing.
Warmed my heart.

http://video.yahoo.com/network/100000089?v=4816051&l=100022574

Embarrassed to be in auto management

When I see ads touting 35 or 40 miles per gallon, I have to wonder who would say proudly, head held high, "I'm in upper management of a car company, and we've just increased fuel efficiency by five miles per gallon!" Do they seriously think that is exciting, note worthy, something to write home about?

Give me 100 miles per gallon. Then I'll cheer. Give me 100 miles per gallon at $20,000 and I'll buy a car today. I think you'd see a stampede. Even at $30,000 you'd be doing well. You probably wouldn't keep up with demand. But make it $20,000 and 100 miles per gallon and you'll turn the industry on its head.

http://www.motherearthnews.com/Green-Transportation/2008-08-01/MAX-100-MPG-Car.aspx

Gay Rights

There's a beautiful slide show of people who care deeply about each other. They all happen to be gay.

http://www.couragecampaign.org/Divorce

Last November Californians (with the deep financial help of some wealthy Utahians) passed Proposition 8, which restricts the marriage rights of gay people. Discrimination based on sexual orientation is no different than discrimination based on racial identity. Both stink and we should be raising the rafters to eliminate them.

A majority of people recognize that racial discrimination is morally wrong, even if they are not comfortable with people outside their own race. We need to get to that point with sexual discrimination.

Homophobic behavior is morally wrong. It's a moral issue. People are born homosexual. Discriminating against them is no different than discriminating against someone with yellow skin or green eyes or a low IQ or a wide forehead. Discriminating against people because they are different from us is so plainly wrong one wonders why it needs to be said.

Homophobia is stupid at best and evil at worst. And it's a feeling. I have homophobic friends and I simply feel sorry for them because they limit their circle of friends with this short sightedness. I don't debate the issue much with them. I don't try to convert them. People can have pretty much any feelings they want. We're frequently prisoners of our feelings.

But legislated homophobic behavior is discrimination. We must raise the rafters and stop it.

Clean up the tax code

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/06/AR2009020602845.html

Holy Rings Hollow

For a Christian nation we can sound pretty selfish. I tuned into some talk show on that liberal NPR station and heard a comment to this effect:

Host: "You can't expect us to return to those years when the rich were getting dollars over a certain amount taxed at those outrageous rates. No one would expect that, would they!"

I didn't hear anyone call him on that comment. Amazing.

We have created the safest society in the world to make money. Lots of money. Our institutions protect business from physical theft and intellectual theft. It's a privilege to be able to build a business in this environment. With the privilege comes a little price tag. We don't dictate how much the boss has to share with the employees beyond a minimum wage. But we do assert that it costs money to create this ideal business environment. So we ask folks who make a lot of money to pay more supporting the government and this ideal business environment than folks who make a little money. It's awfully hard to argue with the rationale that those who have profited most from our society should pay more to support it than those less well off.

It is a different question entirely what government programs we should support and how much government we should have. But the question of who pays how much to support whatever government we have seems pretty straight forward to me. And I'm barely Christian at all.