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Friday, September 21, 2012

International Day of Peace... Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future


Messages at the UN today have been deeply moving. They have addressed: human rights & tears, hate & weapons (large and small), cooperation & education, the environment & all life forms, the past & the future. This year's theme is 'Sustainable Peace for a Sustainable Future'.



My letter to the Guardian RE Palestinians need a one-state solution


RE: Palestinians need a one-state solution
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2012/sep/20/one-state-solution-palestinians-israel

Dear Sir,

Palestinians need a solution- a solution that will actually end the Israel-Palestine conflict for everyone's sake.

The one-state solution agenda is geared to convince insiders and outsiders to sabotage support for a sovereign Palestinian state:  Both Israel and Palestine have dedicated one-state activists focused in on divesting from peace, boycotting negotiations, demonizing the 'other', perpetuating hate campaigns, exasperating religious extremism, and lambasting diplomatic efforts to free Palestine.

As Hussein Ibish of The American Task Force on Palestine wisely points out in exploring What's Wrong with the One-State Agenda: "I am not an optimist who thinks it will be easy or inevitable to end the occupation and secure peace between Israel and Palestine, and I have no illusions about the difficulties and the considerable prospects for failure. However, I also have no illusions about the alternative, which is not a single, democratic state for all the Arabs and Jews between the river and the sea, or, for that matter, a nonviolent, Gandhian campaign of civil disobedience. The practical alternative is continued conflict, violence and occupation in an increasingly religious context that intensifies the process of turning a conflict that is difficult to resolve into one that is completely impervious to any solution. Neither Palestinians nor Israelis, nor their friends in the United States and around the world, can afford to believe that the other side is going to be vanquished, capitulate or simply abandon its national agenda and interests."

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab
American homemaker& poet
 
NOTES
Unclench your fist- live by the Golden Rule

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:

Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you



and/or explore

CARTOONS


Thursday, September 20, 2012

Maen Rashid Areikat: Throwing Logic Out the Window

"It's not only Republicans who throw logic out the window during election season when it comes to the Middle East. We all witnessed also the bizarre turn of events at the Democratic National Convention two weeks ago, in which a vote was taken three times to include language recognizing Jerusalem as the "capital of Israel" -- despite resounding cries against the motion every time it was called. Why would Jerusalem and Palestine be an election topic for candidates running in U.S. elections? What interests do candidates serve by trying to impose a solution to very sensitive issues, which must be dealt with between the relevant parties? And what U.S. interests are preserved by giving Israel unconditional support and making its politicians even more intransigent? None.

The only way for the United States to preserve its credibility in a region full of turmoil and upheavals is to have the courage to hold Israel accountable to its actions. American politicians cannot continue to assign blame to Palestinians for Israel's intransigence and lack of interest in peace. No election campaigns or political platforms could morally justify supporting a brutal military occupation that continues to exact a heavy toll on millions of Palestinians and violates their human rights on a daily basis. Standing up for your values, principles, and religion requires opposing oppression and injustice. This is the least the American people expect of their politicians."

Peaceniks in Palestine

The PLO’s U.S. ambassador slams Mitt Romney’s leaked comments on the Middle East.

                    BY MAEN RASHID AREIKAT | SEPTEMBER 19, 2012

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Ambassadorship is no longer reserved for elites. In this era of digital interconnectedness, we are all called upon to use free speech to foster peace, not violence. To honor Ambassador Stevens, let us uphold that responsibility in our online – and offline – interactions.

After anti-Islam video and Muslim riots, we are all ambassadors

Libyans hold placards as they march on Sept. 14 to express their sympathy for US Ambassador Christopher Stevens and other Americans killed in the Sept. 11 deadly attack on the US consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Op-ed contributor Kate Otto says: 'These citizens also revealed a secret to high-quality ambassadorship: using online spaces to communicate the same sincerity as if one were speaking face-to-face.' Their actions 'still have the potential to ripple out and promote more peaceful days ahead.'
Mohammad Hannon/AP
 September 18, 2012 
Cambridge, Mass.
 
What does it mean to be an ambassador?

In the wake of the murder of Ambassador Christopher Stevens in Benghazi, Libya, and continued riots and attacks on US embassies worldwide, our traditional understanding of this ancient term takes on new meaning.

“Ambassador” is a title that signifies responsibility for relationship management between two foreign powers, and Amb. Stevens exemplified core virtues of respect and cultural understanding throughout his career. His years as a Peace Corps volunteer exposed him to the challenges everyday people face, and his fluency in Arabic and French was more than many individuals in international public service can claim, as many never learn the language of the communities in which they serve.

And yet as exemplary as his leadership was, his best efforts were thwarted by a different kind of diplomat: a 21st century sort, a kind whose power has mirrored the rise (and near ubiquity) of global digital communications – an “everyday” ambassador.

We live in a world of instantaneous connectivity, in which our capacity to share opinions with global neighbors is nearly limitless, and the likelihood of governments blocking access to such content becomes less with every fallen dictator. We thus become ambassadors with every new piece of content we upload, taking international relationship management into our own hands. If we fail to take this responsibility seriously, we risk dire consequences....READ MORE

[AS ALWAYS PLEASE GO TO THE LINK TO READ GOOD ARTICLES IN FULL: HELP SHAPE ALGORITHMS (and conversations) THAT EMPOWER DECENCY, DIGNITY, JUSTICE & PEACE... and hopefully Palestine]

Tuesday, September 18, 2012

A Hollow Call For "Justice"... Cohen wants Palestinians to drop what both parties agreed would be one of the four major final status issues: the question of the Palestinian refugees.

by Hussein Ibish
in the The Daily Beast (Opinion)
September 17, 2012 - 12:00am
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/09/17/a-hollow-call-for-justice.html


Ben Cohen's response to my recent piece systematically proves every point I make about Israel's cynical new campaign to raise the issue of Jewish refugees. In particular he demonstrates that this is not about defending the rights of Jewish refugees, since no substantive demands on their behalf are made, but simply about using them to try to obliterate the claims of Palestinians. It's one of the oddest cries for "justice" I've ever encountered, since it seeks merely to deny the claims of others.

Cohen thinks the source of my "umbrage" is a conference. It's not. It's a much broader campaign, organized by the Israeli Foreign Ministry, to raise the issue globally as part of Israel's political strategy. Israeli diplomats around the world, for example, have been instructed to raise the issue at every possible opportunity. Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, who makes no secret of his hostility to a peace agreement and support for the occupation, is leading the campaign.


Bona fide efforts by Jews from the Arab world to recuperate their history are legitimate and desirable. There is nothing to be gained by covering over aspects history that I described as "a stain on Arab honor." Cohen suggests I repeat an "oft-heard claim of Arab propagandists that Jews lived in harmony and equality with their Arab and Muslim neighbors until the Zionist movement started meddling." In fact I argued the contrary: that while Israel's government was enthusiastic about the mass migration, growing hostility to Jewish communities in the Arab world after and before the creation of Israel made normal life impossible.


If the issue of Palestinian refugees did not persist and was not a final status issue, the Israeli government would not be launching this campaign. Cohen claims I am "fixated… with the notion of an Israeli plot." It's not a plot. It's a well-publicized, announced campaign, with obvious political and diplomatic intentions.


Cohen's repetition of crude hasbara talking points is demonstrated by his dismissal of "the hoary myth of the 'Nakba,'" in contrast to "the horror of the ethnic cleansing" of Jews from the Arab world. This is the essence of the campaign: to downplay and dismiss the sudden and crushing destruction of Palestinian national society and the displacement of most of its residents in 1948, while describing the far more complex and protracted migration of Jews from Arab states to Israel, under multiple circumstances with many different experiences, in the most reductive and emotionally charged language possible.


Cohen's main point is that, "We'll give up our refugee status… if you give up yours." Or rather that's what he wants Palestinians to say to Jewish Israelis of Arab origin. Like the Israeli Foreign Ministry, Cohen wants Palestinians to drop what both parties agreed would be one of the four major final status issues: the question of the Palestinian refugees. That's the purpose behind the campaign, dovetailing with many other efforts to achieve the same effect.


It's telling that this is the only indication of what "justice" for Jewish refugees, to which Cohen refers many times, might look like. He doesn't ask for their right of return to their countries of origin, because they don't want that. He doesn't raise the issue of their property rights, because that would also beg the question of who owned what in Palestine on the eve of the creation of the Israeli state. It would imply the right of Palestinian owners to all the property seized by Israel's "Absentee Property Law" of 1950 and other actions that expropriated the lands and other possessions belonging to what had been the country's majority inhabitants in 1948: the Palestinians.


So, "justice" for Jewish refugees doesn't mean restoring any of their own rights to property, return and so forth. Instead this is just cynically using their narrative to deny Palestinians the ability negotiate over their own refugee issue. The message is in effect: Drop this issue, even though we agreed to negotiate over it in 1993.


As a question of history, memory and narrative, raising these issues is a perfectly reasonable project, although it doesn't sit very well with the broader Zionist narrative. But as an effort to eliminate a core, long agreed upon, final status issue (the Palestinian refugees) or suddenly introduce a new one (Jewish refugees), the campaign perfectly reflects the politics of its leader, Ayalon. His argument is, in essence, that Jews must have their state—Israel—as a refuge, but Palestinians shouldn't have one of their own. That's the idea of "justice" that informs this campaign.


Ayalon's hostility to Palestinian statehood, and insistence that there is no occupation and that Israel has full national rights in all of the territories under its control, are the obvious subtext. Cohen's response to me confirms, not dispels, that undisguised reality.



and/or explore

My letter to the Washngton Post 9-18-2012 RE Mahmoud Abbas’s U.N. gambit

Jerusalem
 RE: Mahmoud Abbas’s U.N. gambit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/mahmoud-abbass-return-to-the-un/2012/09/17/5e36a980-00ee-11e2-b257-e1c2b3548a4a_story.html

Dear Editor,

Is it really that  "Mr. Abbas has mostly refused negotiations with Israel, citing as a pretext the continued construction in Israel’s West Bank settlements." OR is it that Israel continues to sabotage negotiations by aggressively usurping Palestinian land, freedom and life. 

Yes negotiations with Israel are the only realistic path to Palestinian statehood.  Negotiations firmly based on full respect for international law and universal basic human rights: Negotiations aimed to empower real justice and peace by creating a fully secular two state solution to once and for ALL end the Israel-Palestine conflict.... Not "negotiations" to provide religious extremists and hate mongers on both sides with even more incentives to become even more extreme thereby giving Israel even more time and excuses to persecute, oppress, impoverish and displace even more Palestinians.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab


NOTES
  "The Muslim extremists stoking the flames of anti-Western violent outrage are following a well-established pattern of seizing on anything that confirms their paranoid and chauvinistic narrative of an Islam under constant attack by the West, and the notion that the American government, above all, is behind this fictional assault. These campaigns are not, of course, aimed at their ostensible Western targets, but are entirely domestic. They are designed to increase the domestic social and political authority of extremist Islamist movements and undermine and attack local authorities." Hussein Ibish  Well-established patterns

The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you


A Preventable Massacre

"The verbatim transcripts reveal that the Israelis misled American diplomats about events in Beirut and bullied them into accepting the spurious claim that thousands of “terrorists” were in the camps. Most troubling, when the United States was in a position to exert strong diplomatic pressure on Israel that could have ended the atrocities, it failed to do so. As a result, Phalange militiamen were able to murder Palestinian civilians, whom America had pledged to protect just weeks earlier."

New York Times op-ed illustration: A Preventable Massacre

A Preventable Massacre


Salam Fayyad, the Palestinian Authority's Prime Minister, is blunt in his assessment: "Certainly at least in some aspect of what those violent settlers commit - there's hardly any other way of describing it other than outright terrorism."

Israel's Moriah Goldberg was caught on CCTV committing vandalism in a Palestinian village in February BBC NEWs
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-19601311

‘Price-tag’ tactics of West Bank Jewish settlers




With their hoodies, covered faces and cans of spray paint, they may in some ways look like average teenage vandals out for a night of trouble.

But on the streets of Arab East Jerusalem, some young Jewish people are up to more than just graffiti. They are part of what has become known as "price-tag gangs"...READ MORE

 

Well-established patterns

"The Muslim extremists stoking the flames of anti-Western violent outrage are following a well-established pattern of seizing on anything that confirms their paranoid and chauvinistic narrative of an Islam under constant attack by the West, and the notion that the American government, above all, is behind this fictional assault. These campaigns are not, of course, aimed at their ostensible Western targets, but are entirely domestic. They are designed to increase the domestic social and political authority of extremist Islamist movements and undermine and attack local authorities." Hussein Ibish 


An orgy of cynicism


Monday, September 17, 2012

He could have made a big difference in people's lives ... Slain US envoy 'understood Palestinian situation'

George Hale
Ma'an News Agency
September 14, 2012 - 12:00am
http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=519983


BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- Palestinian negotiators on Thursday remembered US ambassador Christopher Stevens as fair-minded and described his death in Libya as a major loss for American foreign policy.

Stevens, who was killed with three colleagues late Tuesday in an attack on US institutions in Benghazi, served years earlier as a political officer at the US consulate in Jerusalem.

"It's just tragic," said Hanan Ashrawi, a PLO leader and veteran negotiator with Israel. "It's very sad. I thought he was a person who was not just intelligent but also caring."

As a mediator, the Arabic-speaking envoy "understood the Palestinian situation well. He was very understanding and he listened; he didn't repeat talking points," Ashrawi said in an interview.

"He could have made a big difference in people's lives and, really, to America's standing and credibility. His loss is a loss not only to US foreign policy but also to its standing with other states."

Stevens and three other Americans died after gunmen attacked the US consulate and a safe house refuge in the eastern city of Benghazi on Tuesday night. The attackers were part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the prophet Mohammad.

Demonstrators later attacked the US embassies in Yemen and Egypt in protests against the film, and American warships were moved closer to Libya.

Senior PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat blasted Stevens' murder as an "ugly act of terror."

"He was a really close friend of the family, and I am really shocked," Erekat told Ma'an. "He was murdered in a very ugly act of terror, and it's so despicable."

Erekat said he had personally communicated to US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the Palestinian people's condolences.

"Such a good man, such a great loss. His heart was in the peace process, and I'm sure his heart was also in the building of Libya,"...READ MORE


A demonstrator holds a placard during a rally to condemn the
killers of the US envoy to Libya and the attack on a consulate,
in Benghazi on Sept. 12, 2012. (Reuters/Esam Al-Fetori)

Islamists

1948 Palestinian exodus - Palestine refugees making their way from Galilee in October–November 1948


Normalizing religious tyranny
Islamists do all they can
everywhere they can
to make sure Palestinians
can't go home
and won't be safe
where ever they might be...

Islamists mimic all the worst
of Israel- and misconstrue
the best.




Checkpoint Trouble By Joharah Baker for MIFTAH

 
This week I had my share of checkpoints, even more than usual. But the events that transpired at the Qalandiya and Bethlehem checkpoint made me look further than my usual “hurry up, I need to get home attitude”. This was a far more daunting wake-up call.

After a wonderful, fun-filled wedding in Bethlehem, my husband and I began the drive home. A non-stop direct drive from Bethlehem to the village of Bir Nabala, northwest of Jerusalem should take no more than half an hour. That was in the days of yore, obviously when Israeli checkpoints did not plague our entire lives. That night, we left the wedding hall and arrived at the infamous “Rachel’s Tomb” checkpoint about 10 minutes later. Even though it was after midnight, there were still at least 15 cars waiting to cross. Twenty minutes later, it was our turn. I confidently handed my and my husband’s ID cards to the Israeli soldier and waited for the nonchalant flick of his wrist, indicating that we could pass. I am a veteran checkpoint goer obviously, so I figured I know the ropes.

“You can’t cross in the car. You must walk through the checkpoint,” the soldier informed me. After I ranted and raged for a while explaining that I cross Qalandiya all the time in the car he simply said, “The rules are different here and the rule here is that you must get down.” I pushed him further as to the rationale behind making me get down when I was in the car with my husband, in the middle of the night with a valid residency permit to Jerusalem. “I didn’t make the rules, I just enforce them,” he said calmly and turned away. So, without further ado, I climbed out, walked the winding, empty checkpoint until I reached the bored Israeli soldier in the booth, took off all my “metal” and passed through, green West Bank ID and Israeli permit in hand.

Cut to last night and I was in the car again, with my father this time at the Qalandiya checkpoint. I know this checkpoint like the back of my hand, bane of my existence that it might be. Anyway, as we approached the Israeli soldiers, my heart dropped. The female soldier on our lane had the look of a hard criminal – cold, stony, hateful. I knew we were in for a little wait. After my father handed her his US passport (with the word “Palestine” typed in the slot for “place of birth”) she began her interrogation of me. Where is your ID? Whose children are these? Where are their birth certificates? Open the trunk. Not once did she look me in the eye until she gave me the look of death when she realized she could do nothing more to stop me from passing. “Those are the rules” aren’t they? But when my father decided to give her a piece of his mind, asking her what kind of system would question a child, she glared at him and said one line. “If you don’t like it, don’t come to Israel.”

That’s the bottom line isn’t it? Israel’s system of checkpoints is not about the security of Israel as much as it is about solidifying its military occupation for one, and heightening the misery of the occupied people secondly. They are there to remind us, day in and day out that Israel’s occupation is alive, in control and wielding its ultimate power over our lives. If this were not the case, why then would a 10-year old child have to show her birth certificate just in order to get home? Why would men and women have to take off shoes, belts, watches, hairbands and anything else that “beeps” before going through a metal detector even when the soldiers know that these things are hardly threatening. “It’s your wedding band,” one soldier insisted when I beeped back and forth for the 10th time trying to get across Qalandiya. At first I tried to argue that gold does not “beep” but after her insistence I decided to go for the challenge. “So if it’s my wedding band, why did you make me take it off?” insinuating that this had nothing to do with Israel’s so-called security. “We have to do this, you know why,” she answered. When I played dumb, said no I didn’t actually understand these ridiculous measures she just replied, “Well, maybe you should go and find out.”

I don’t need to “find out.” Israel does not want Palestinians in Jerusalem, it is a plain as day. To that end, it cuts people out in one way or the other. We are the lucky ones, only slightly inconvenienced at checkpoints. Others have their IDs revoked, their homes demolished, their land confiscated and their sons and daughters imprisoned, all towards the same goal of emptying Jerusalem of its Palestinian residents. Making me (or others) get down and walk through a checkpoint is not about security, it is about making our lives that much more difficult so we might think twice about making Jerusalem our permanent home. And hopefully, according to the stone-faced soldier at Qalandiya, if we get fed up enough, we take her advice. “Don’t come back to Israel,” she told us. Little does she know that it will take more than that to deter us. We are not in Israel, I wanted to tell her. We are in Palestine; we are home.


Joharah Baker is a Writer for the Media and Information Department at the Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH). She can be contacted at mid@miftah.org.

CITIZENSHIP: The 21st-century competencies - captured as the 4Cs of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity - are critical for success in college and career.

"Besides basic skills in reading and math, young people today need to acquire 21st-century skills and competencies that include:

*  Knowledge of economic and political processes.

*  Skill in understanding what is presented in the media.

*  The ability to work well with others, especially diverse groups.

*  Creativity and innovation to solve problems in new ways.

The 21st-century competencies - captured as the 4Cs of communication, collaboration, critical thinking, and creativity - are critical for success in college and career. They are also essential for effective citizens and a vibrant democracy. The knowledge and skills needed to engage in civic and political life - whether that be in one's school, hometown or local clubs, or state, national, global and/or virtual landscapes - are the same skills needed to solve hands-on, real-world problems in college and in the workplace. The skills one needs to engage in civic discourse are the same needed to work with diverse colleagues, address challenges and creatively solve problems. "


Op-ed: What citizenship means for the 21st century

Sunday, September 16, 2012

My letter to CSM RE In violence over anti-Muslim video, a new world disorder

Freedom to me is ... (a poem)


RE: In violence over anti-Muslim video, a new world disorder
http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/Global-Viewpoint/2012/0914/In-violence-over-anti-Muslim-video-a-new-world-disorder

Dear Editor,

Our "new world" includes the old world Amish who are picturesque proof that religious communities that honestly object to modern influences simply live without modern technologies. Our "new world" also includes reams of advice and opportunities for people who refuse to be 'plugged in' 24-7. 

People world wide are a complex mix of good, bad and indifferent.  Your facebook news feed might be filled with nasty political cartoons, ugly pictures, conspiracy theories and amateur videos- but mine is filled with art and adorable baby pictures, plus nature scenes, interesting architecture, intriguing photos and links to intelligent articles and poems and tweets posted by friends and relatives and organizations world wide who refuse to be a conduit for escalating hate and bigotry.

Heavily influenced by the best that our global information age has to offer, I am totally convinced that ending the Israel-Palestine conflict with a secular two state solution firmly based on full respect for The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and Golden Rule thinking- and the rule of fair and just laws- would go a long way towards creating a much less combustible situation.

Sincerely,
Anne Selden Annab


NOTES
Ambassador Stevens was an exceptional diplomat who mixed impeccable professionalism with genuine passion and caring.

Israeli forces handed confiscation orders to several farmers in the Nablus villages of Beit Iba, al-Naqura, Zawatta and Ijnisinya on Tuesday, which will see 800 acres of [Palestinian] land annexed in order to build an Israeli bypass road.

Israel is using water agreements signed in the Oslo Accords to blackmail the Palestinian Water Authority and destroy the two-state solution

The al-Khan al-Ahmar school constructed of car tires covered in mud is the only permanent structure in the village and serves as a community center and focal point.

American-Islamic Relations: "The only proper response to intentional provocations such as this film is to redouble efforts to promote mutual understanding between faiths and to marginalize extremists of all stripes."

Killing of US envoy to Libya underscores threat of unchecked religious fanaticism

In a joint declaration, the conference of religious leaders stated: “While state systems may be different, equal citizenship, the rule of law and protection of freedoms are the basis of a strong and vibrant civil society.” Hard lessons in liberty for the Middle East

Ending the Israel-Palestine conflict

********
The Office of International Religious Freedom ( http://www.state.gov/j/drl/irf/Given the U.S. commitment to religious freedom, and to the international covenants that guarantee it as the inalienable right of every human being, the United States seeks to:
Promote freedom of religion and conscience throughout the world as a fundamental human right and as a source of stability for all countries

"Where, after all, do universal human rights begin? In small places, close to home - so close and so small that they cannot be seen on any maps of the world. Yet they are the world of the individual person; the neighborhood he lives in; the school or college he attends; the factory, farm, or office where he works. Such are the places where every man, woman, and child seeks equal justice, equal opportunity, equal dignity without discrimination. Unless these rights have meaning there, they have little meaning anywhere. Without concerted citizen action to uphold them close to home, we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world."Eleanor Roosevelt

The Golden Rule... Do unto others as you would have them do unto you