meta-roj

in my area, we had a scandal about a lesbian kiss; and as that news buzzed around the planet, the threat of being left out of the national honor society came up.

such thing are nothing new in the progress of society, and for whatever reason, the ap wire has picked up on a 51-year old situation that bears some similarities. i introduce you to catherine peters wagner…

Ohio Woman Gets Honor 51 Years After Kiss

Wagner said she was reprimanded after being caught giving a quick kiss to a boyfriend as they passed in a school stairwell during their senior year. She suspects that is why her name was left off a list of new honor society members posted a short time later.

this honor society potentiate went on to marry the guy she kissed, and they’re still together after 48 years. i don’t think we can expect the same thing from stephanie and katherine, but maybe if they run off to massachusetts…

congratulations, catherine peters wagner. sorry it took so long.

[more from the cleveland plain dealer and even carried on the other side of the planet in the pakistan daily times]

always on the lookout for good news, particularly bad news turned good… for the teenagers in everyone’s life, i direct your attention to becca’s closet.

Honoring Rebecca Kirtman and keeping her spirit alive. Becca’s Closet is a non profit organization that provides formal attire and scholarship funding to deserving high school students.

Our purpose is to give students the opportunity to attend their prom, homecoming and other formal events. Becca’s Closet also provides scholarships and funding for advancements in education.

a doctorate in chemistry 1926
a director with the manhattan project in 1945
selected as the oldest worker in 2002.
and the subject of a pbs documentary on centenarians… [with a video clip in several formats available]
but mostly a teacher

has retired from teaching at 104 years young, but has not retired from life.

Ray Crist

As with all people, you go into the past and whatever you might have done, any sum of it might be expressed in the minds and lives of other people, just as what they have done was part of your own personal expression.

Ray Crist

When you have a mission, you go after it, and I am still going after it.

an article on ray crist’s retirement from messiah college in pennsylvania follows.
(more…)

winner of the 2001 rory peck award for his courageous camera work documenting atrocities in north korea. i finally saw the discovery film, children of the secret state: north korea. an incredible film, even through the sanitizing process.

I carried a small bag with a hole with a camera inside. I cannot express with words how scared I was. I felt as though the police and security agents were following me and constantly watching me. I could almost hear the beating of my own heart.

more on anh chol here and here (just to get you started).

be inspired by this man’s courage. do something.

in the name of love

thank you, reverend doctor martin luther king, jr.

(and you to, u2)

before there was hope, before there was rafe, there was duff. from the looks of things, i dropped a link on karen back in july of 1999. now, after all these years, i was fumbling around for a little inspiration and somehow she got my attention again.

moving on and up, through some of the most devastating challenges this world throws at people, she’s shared her life, her experiences and her time with us all, and best of all, she’s done it with self-deprecating sense of humor and a great from-the-core smile. mostly, she’s done it honestly.

karen duffy

I tried to pretend everything was okay, but there were tears in my eyes.

and with that, i throw my weight (such as it is, and ever-expanding 🙂 ) behind this amazing, graceful and inspiring person.

karen duffy

Sarcoidosis isn’t some burden that I carry. It’s not a gift that I would have picked out for myself, but now that I have it, it’s made me actually stronger. It’s made me braver.

and on top of all that, apparently she cooks too.. 🙂

here’s a little syllabus for you… be inspired.

books
model patient : my life as an incurable wiseass
a slob in the kitchen (coming in a few months)

articles
interview
on endometriosis
book review
cnn bio
usa today review

she is a joy of life.

something happened in the past few days, generating over 200 visitors looking for rafe esquith, the hobart shakespeareans and more than a dozen related searches. i don’t know why this is happening now, but welcome. i hope you found something useful and relevant while you were here.

at the ripe old age of 12, and facing a horrific cancer, hope stout was approached by the good people at the make a wish foundation… because, well. that’s what they do, and it’s a good thing.

then things get extraordinary…

Upon learning that there were 156 other kids waiting for their “wish”, Hope expressed a desire to make that happen. Her “wish” was that all the wishes could come true for the kids on the list!

take a moment and share a thought for hope. and if you’re able, contribute. thanks to the open and amazing heart of a 12-year-old, you have a chance to help make two wishes come true at once.

there’s more at the charlotte observer, and again. i found it at metafilter.

update (2003.12.22): a little more here and a photo.

update (2004.01.05): confirming the comments below, the charlotte observer has a story as does wral, wavy, wsoc, the associated press (via the wilmington star), news14.

update (2004.01.06): the guardian, macon telegraph, kfor, sun news and the associated press (via duluth news tribune) also have stories.

mayor pat mccrory of charlotte, the charlotte center city partners and the bank of america have come together to promote an exhibition football game and gathering in hope’s name. stories here, here, here and here.

weddington high school tribute.

on a personal note, hope is still an inspiration.

i give to you, the people who have come here in the name of hope, this forum to share your thoughts and wishes. please be nice, you’re all here for a very, very good reason.

(photo credit: News 14)

hope stout

Better than being famous, like a person who stars in a really good movie, is being famous as a person who made a difference in someone’s life, and anybody can make a difference is someone’s life.

i wandered into this [demographics may be requested] story at the oregonian, describing an interesting effort to give politicians some perspective.

Officials get taste of how lower income live

“I did try, ” said [Multnomah County Commissioner Serena] Cruz, who was allotted $50 a week to feed herself and her husband. “You have to make all of your food. You have to bring your lunch. You can’t get your latte. It’s really hard.”

i’m going to go ahead and take the cheap shot: yes. without your latte, it’s really hard.

$2.50 (tiny boring latte at starbucks) * 7 (days a week) * 2 (people) = $35.

and with that out of the way, what i really want to do with this post is draw attention to the walk a mile program. most of us don’t have a staff (or legal exceptions) to smooth life over around all the legal messes and policy decisions that our politicians create.

perspective is a good thing.

you can read a lot more words, i picked a few.

larry king

What’s wrong with criticism? What’s wrong with the voice of dissent? What’s wrong with another point of view? That’s what America is built on. And I want to tell you something — the minute we lose that right and that capacity to do that, we’ve lost our soul as a nation.

jfk library

So now that so much exists that has filled this world with such villainy and such frustration, and in so many places, such hopelessness, people look to the place that articulates, at least out of its tradition, America articulated the hope that the future could be about.

So when George Bush gets on television yet again– with so much frequency, incidentally– and he speaks about this nation rallying to saving itself from the jaws of this fearful force that’s out there that have us caught up in this great war, people around the world don’t know quite what we’re talking about.

jfk library

And I think America has to wake up to the fact that we’re sitting in a period when if we are prepared to let our rights be co-opted, as Ashcroft and others are constantly putting on the table, when you look at whom they’re putting up for selection in the courts of America, and what they’re saying would be the people who mete out the justice to our citizens, you will understand the extent to which we are in trouble and how much like the ’50’s this is.

helsingin sandomat

This century, we simply don’t have room for war. And there are always alternatives. Even the Soviet Union and the South African apartheid regime were overthrown without shots being fired.

day-o!