Tues Ten 052609: Rights & Privileges

I’m thinking of freedom again this week.

These have been written, argued, judged, critiqued, cursed, praised, misunderstood, expanded, contracted, and fought for. And, here they are again, straight from the owner’s manual–the U.S. Constitution, Amendments 1-10 in their original form, ratified on December 15, 1791.

1. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

2. A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

3. No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent of the Owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law.

4. The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

5. No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the Militia, when in actual service in time of War or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

6. In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence.

7. In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be otherwise re-examined in any Court of the United States, than according to the rules of the common law.

8. Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

9. The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people.

10. The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.

780 over Lunch

The fact that I’m writing over my lunch break is not surprising.  It’s something I do often as a break from design work.  But, today, as I eat the hamburger with pineapple and dorito chips I brought from home, the irony of this act is hard to ignore.  Because I’m writing about hunger.  My tiny, muffled stomach growls are silent now and my hunger has been assuaged by leftovers and sweet tea.  But, my hunger is not the hunger some have.  My hunger comes at mid-morning or early afternoon and is postponed by my lunch bag or jelly beans, Double Bubble or  Girl Scout cookies.  My hunger comes in early evening when I open the refrigerator to decide what I will make my family for supper.  It is easily put in it’s place with placemats and pitchers of tea and two boys, a baby and a man around the same table.  My hunger creeps in sometimes before bed and is easily pushed aside by some flavor of chocolate I’ve purchased for just such an occasion.  The hunger for mine is easily kept at bay with juice and goldfish and bottles of formula.  The main concerns for our tummies are how to get food on the table at a decent hour and will they eat what I’ve planned or do I need to also warm some chicken nuggets.  No, my hunger is not the hunger some have.

I was reminded of the hunger others have in my morning drive to work.  The KLOVE radio network is conducting a donation drive for Compassion International today–a day deemed “Global Food Crisis Day”.  The statistic astounded me:

There are 25,000 starvation-related deaths worldwide each day.

Thy typical “marketing” conundrum with statistics of these kinds are that they are sometimes so staggering that they become mind-numbing.  They lose their significance because of sheer size or other-worldliness.  So, to satisfy my inner geek, and to comprehend, I challenged myself (and Google):  Show me the numbers.  Show me their significance in a 24-hour period.

6 million Jews died in the Jewish Holocaust over a 13 year period (1933-1945).  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 8 months.

4575 Coalition military have been killed in Iraq over the last 7 years (2003-2009). Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 4 hours 23 minutes–before I can get supper on my table tonight.

March Madness will highlight a select few recipients of the 6982 NCAA men’s college basketball scholarships available each year.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 6 hours 42 minutes–about 3 basketball games including TV timeouts.

There are pproximately 693,000 people in each Congressional district electing a member of the House of Representatives.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 28 days.

26 million folks watched American Idol last night.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in just over 2 1/2 years.

There are 175 million FaceBook users.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in just under 20 years.

There were 306 million residents in the United States as of February 2009.  Unchecked hunger will claim that number in 34 years.  Not even one generation’s time to lose an entire multi-generational population.

Here are the numbers on hunger from Compassion International’s world hunger fact sheet:

• 1 person in 7 goes to bed hungry every day
• 1/3 of the world’s population is undernourished
• There are 25,000 starvation-related deaths each day
• More than 300 million children go to bed hungry each night
• Over 12,000 children (one every 7 seconds) die from hunger-related causes each day
• 146 million or 27 percent of children under age 5 in developing countries are underweight
• Nearly 17 percent of babies in developing countries are born with a low birth weight compared with only
• 7 percent of babies in industrialized countries.
• More than 4.4 million children die from malnutrition each year.
• Worldwide, 161 million preschool children suffer chronic malnutrition.

The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 25, Number 1 tells me:

“Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and of his family, including food…”

The same rising food costs that make me compain when I buy my 3 gallons of milk each week are diminishing the reach of many hunger relief agencies and organizations.  I’m convicted that the money I spent Saturday on snacks and convenience-builders for my family–3 boxes of honey buns, a bag of Doritoes, a box of Lucky Charms, 2 bags of french fries, 1 cataloupe, 2 bags of chicken nuggets, and a bag of grated cheddar–would likely feed a child on the other side of the world for 3 or 4 months.  Yes, I said MONTHS.  I’m astounded that in the 45 minutes or so I’ve been typing on my laptop and munching chips, about 780 people somewhere in the world starved to death.

Yes, that hunger is another kind.  God help me.

Visit compassion.com to find out more about World Hunger and about how you can help.
Visit freerice.com to build your vocabulary and “buy” rice for people who are hungry.

MIPOTW: Last Memory

The Most Interesting Phrase of the Week 022809:
Ok, I’m cheating.  How ’bout that?  This one came from an article I read last week in USAToday.  It was part news story about Elie Wiesel’s foundation losing much of its funds in the Maddoff investment scam, part book review of Mr. Wiesel’s new novel, and part awesome interview with an uncommon man.  Breaking my own rules again.  Twice in one post.  Tsk. Tsk.  But… Two statements stood out:

The irony has been noted: “It takes an extraordinarily heartless conman to swindle a survivor of Auschwitz and Buchenwald and Nobel Peace Prize winner out of all of his charitable funds,” wrote James Bone in The Times of London.

Can I get an Amen?

Wiesel, who teaches religion and philosophy at Boston University, is among a dwindling number of concentration camp survivors: “We’re an endangered species. Someday, there will be just one left. I don’t want to be that person. It would be too heavy a burden to have the last word, the last memory.”

But, he says, “I tell my students and my readers that whoever reads or listens to a witness becomes a witness.”

Moving.

CultureSpeak: “Terror Planner”

Cultural Context:  The term used to headline the 2009 counterterrorism desktop planner released by the National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) this week.  The weekly calendar format highlights wanted terrorists, terrorist incidents and terror organizations and is a perenial favorite resource for law enforcement personnel. Published in one form or another since the 1990s, this year’s publication is available to the public as a downloadable pdf and in an online interactive version.

The World Where I’m Raising Them…
“Hub and I looked at each other and shared a collective deep breath and then a simultaneous smile.  We were standing in the parking lot of the daycare after getting all our gifts settled in their respective rooms with their respective hugs and kisses.  “I think that qualifies as exercise,” he said.  Then, with a kiss we were off to work…”

That was the start of the Montgomery Madness post I had brewing in my mind this morning, a funny take on “exercise” and New Year’s resolutions.  And then, I saw this FoxNews article announcing the release of the “killer calendar.” Just like that, my account of our ordinary routines was interrupted by wider realities.  When I first read the article, I honestly wondered if it was a joke.  I don’t know why, since bombs are no laughing matter, but that was my first thought.  The subsequent link to the NCTC ruled that out.  I wondered if it was just a very creative installment of anti-terrorist propaganda.  The NCTC press release said it was chock full of profiles on “bad guys with bounties on their heads.”  I wondered if it was some sort of odd Homeland Security fund-raiser.  Leslie Jewell, spokeswoman for NCTC, told NewsMax in their article that the Government Printing Office would offer limited edition hard copies for sale on its website to “gauge public interest.”  I wondered if the calendar was designed as a kind of Rambo-in-training tool.  Apparently it’s been used by first-responders, investigators, counterterror agents, and the like for years.  Ms. Jewell indicated that they “love” the calendar because of the detailed index included, allowing them to “read about anthrax and other exciting topics.”  

Truth be told: none of the above would have really surprised me.  What struck me was the unmistakeable irony of something as mundane as a weekly planning calendar so matter-of-factly infused with such violence and hatred.  My day was a small microcosm–thoughts on the utterly ordinary occurence of dropping my three gifts safely in their daycare classrooms interrupted and juxtaposed with the realities of the world where I’m raising them.  The world where I am raising them is a world where a counterterrorism day planner is not as shocking as it should be. 

So, I downloaded a pdf copy from the NCTC website to take a closer look–all 65MB/160 pages worth.

It was indeed chock full of wanted men–one for almost every week of the year.  I could study their faces from various photographs, take note of their physical descriptions with distinguishing marks, learn their aliases, country of birth and citizenship, and read their terrorist resumes and rewards offered for capture.  The space for each day included Christian, Jewish and Muslim holidays and days ripe for possible “commemoration attacks” printed in blue and a record of this-date-in-terror-history printed in black.  Interspersed with fugitives, I found profiles on various terrorist organizations.  In the reference section at the back, I noticed diagrams on the recommended evacuation distances for various types of explosives, the physical properties of readily available [!] explosives, and notes on what to do if I notice a suspicious substance.  There were tips on recognizing forged documents and questionable financial transactions.  For the graphic designer in me, the calendar even included a two-page spread with the logos of various terror organizations–some shockingly well-designed, others not so much.  The bomb-threat call procedures were located just after the 2010 year-at-a-glance.

As I looked into the eyes of the puppeteers and perpetrators, the calendar simultaneously reduced the threat of terror to an absurd level of normality, and elevated its insinuation into my life to an overwhelming level of reality.  Where I might have written Little Drummer Boy’s pediatrician appointment on Wednesday, I saw the first female Hamas suicide bombing in Gaza.  There, where I would have written a client website meeting on the 21st, a gunman ambushed a vehicle in Kuwait.  Where I would have penciled a heart on my wedding anniversary, seven students at Hebrew University were killed by a bomb.  Where I would have written a reminder to shop for my daughter’s first birthday, a car bomb exploded outside a police station in Columbia.  There, where I would have recorded my hair appointments and friends’ birthdays and project due dates; there, amidst the faces of plotters and descriptions of explosives and first-responder instructions… I found the world where I’m raising them.

10th Day of Thanksgiving: In Times of Trouble

Abraham Lincoln’s first proclamation of the national day of Thanksgiving was issued on October 3, 1863 during the midst of the Civil War.  Although other presidents had set aside similar days, Lincoln’s was the first that established the national holiday.  

It’s interesting to me that he was able to find a heart of gratitude and encourage it in the whole nation at such a devastating time in our history–a time when not even today’s political sparring can compare to the bitterness that existed between differing ideologies.  Just three months prior to the proclamation (to the day) the bloodiest battle in American history ended in the fields of Gettysburg, PA.  Lincoln firmly believed in the cause of unity and the freedom of all men, but it did not make him popular.  Even in the Union camp, he wasn’t a golden boy.  In fact, he was only a last minute addition to the podium when he gave his profound speech dedicating the battleground at Gettysburg as a National Cemetery–the follow-up speaker, no less.  Yet, despite criticism and the weight of the conflict, he was able to adopt a thankful spirit.  He obviously felt that being thankful was very important.  I have read that during his administration, he often declared days of thanksgiving for his staff.  The 1863 proclamation just extended this practice to the entire nation.

Although it seems paradoxical, sometimes the most perilous times are when we realize we have the most to be thankful for.  It’s when we have the most to lose that we realize how much we really have.  Troubled times reveal what is truly important.   When circumstances spin out of our control, we are keenly aware of our own helplessless.  When mistakes and missteps come so quickly, we are overwhelmed by our own inadequacies.  At these times in life, we can often more easily recognize the blessings in our lives that we had no hand in creating.  Maybe it gives me a sense of control, or maybe it just settles my spirit to think of something basic, but for me, when the big things seem to be in peril, I find comfort (and sanity) by looking at the small things–the simple blessings and joys that inspire gratitude.

When I read Lincoln’s proclamation, I noticed a few things he seemed to understand about thanksgiving, God and people:

1.  Learning to recognize bounty is important.

2.  We tend to forget the source of our blessings while we’re being blessed.

3.  We almost always have more to be thankful for than we realize.

4.  Blessings should soften our insensitive hearts.

5.  God is ever-watchful.

6.  Knowing Who to thank is important.

7.  God is merciful.

8.  Setting aside time for thanksgiving is important.

9.  Being thankful together has power.

10.  Thanksgiving is all-inclusive.  Everyone can participate.

11.  Thanksgiving is inevitably entwined with praise.

12.  God is higher than we are.

“The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God…

They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People. I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens…”

~ Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863