Children's Defense Fund - Campaign for New Priorities

One Year in the Life of American Children:
2,243 children and youth under 20 commit suicide.
4,941 children and youth under 20 are killed by firearms.
112,230 children under 18 are arrested for violent crimes.
531,591 babies are born to teen mothers.
613,514 children are corporally punished in public schools.
1,200,000 latchkey children come home to a house where there is a gun.
1,977,862 students are suspended from public schools.
2,695,010 children are reported abused or neglected.
Meanwhile...between 1995 and 1999 the Defense Department will spend $150 billion on nuclear weapons alone. That money could fund:
4.4 million low-income college students
2 million summer jobs for youth annually
Head Start for 1.4 million kids
Tutoring for 9.8 million students
Treatment for 30,000 drug addicts in one year
Infant care for 2 million families...
and much, much more.
Sources: Children's Defense Fund, Center for Defense Information, Defense Budget Project, and Campaign for New Priorities.

She sang and the earth moved a little...

Prehistoric Rome Lovers Found in Embrace: any ideas for a play?

ROME, Feb. 7, 2007
By ARIEL DAVID Associated Press Writer
(AP)
It could be humanity's oldest story of doomed love.

Archaeologists have unearthed two skeletons from the Neolithic period locked in a tender embrace and buried outside Mantua, just 25 miles south of Verona, the romantic city where Shakespeare set the star-crossed tale of "Romeo and Juliet."

Buried between 5,000 and 6,000 years ago, the prehistoric pair are believed to have been a man and a woman and are thought to have died young, as their teeth were found intact, said Elena Menotti, the archaeologist who led the dig.

"As far as we know, it's unique," Menotti told The Associated Press by telephone from Milan. "Double burials from the Neolithic are unheard of, and these are even hugging."

The burial site was located Monday during construction work for a factory building in the outskirts of Mantua. Alongside the couple, archaeologists found flint tools, including arrowheads and a knife, Menotti said.

Experts will now study the artifacts and the skeletons to determine the burial site's age and how old the two were when they died, she said.

Luca Bondioli, an anthropologist at Rome's National Prehistoric and Ethnographic Museum, said double prehistoric burials are rare _ especially in such a pose _ but some have been found holding hands or having other contact.

The find has "more of an emotional than a scientific value." But it does highlight how the relationship people have with each other and with death has not changed much from the period in which humanity first settled in villages and learning to farm and tame animals, he said.

"The Neolithic is a very formative period for our society," he said. "It was when the roots of our religious sentiment were formed."

The two bodies, which cuddle closely while facing each other on their sides, were probably buried at the same time, possibly an indication of sudden and tragic death, Bondioli said.

"It's rare for two young people to die at the same time, and that makes us want to know why and who they were, but it will be very difficult to find out."

He said DNA testing could determine whether the two were related, "but that still leaves other hypotheses; the 'Romeo and Juliet' possibility is just one of many."

Keepin' Up with the Kabat House

Brentwood Police Arrest Occupation Project Group

4:50 Seven members of the Cabat House affinity group were arrested Thursday, February 8 by the Brentwood police at Representative Carnahan's office charged with trespass, and in the case of two who chose to go limp, resisting arrest.
10:00 UPDATE: All seven members of the Cabat House affinity group have been released after posting a total of $4500 in bond.

Those arrested:
Jonathan March, computer programmer
Carolyn Griffith, refugee worker
Teka Childress, homeless worker
Mary Harojodan, refugee worker
Sarah Sunseri, teacher
Leilani Castleman, health worker
Jorj Arteaga, refugee worker



Anti-war protestors arrested at Carnahan's office


Associated Press
ST. LOUIS - Police arrested seven war protesters Thursday while they conducted a sit-in at Rep. Russ Carnahan's office. The protesters refused to leave the office unless the Democratic congressman promised to vote against any additional funding for the war in Iraq.

Brentwood Police Chief Rick Knight said the demonstrators were arrested for trespassing when Carnahan's office closed at 5 p.m. and they refused to leave. Two of the protesters decided to lie down, and were charged with resisting arrest, Knight said.

The protesters were in Brentwood jail Thursday evening while bond was being set, Knight said.

Spokesman Bill Ramsey said the demonstrators are part of a national campaign called The Occupation Project that aims to end new funding for the war through civil disobedience.

Carnahan spokesman Glenn Campbell said Carnahan won't promise to vote against new money for the war until he is sure the vote won't deprive troops in the field of equipment they need to protect themselves.

Ramsey said his group thinks there is plenty of money to bring troops home safely, and all new funding will simply extend the war.

Campbell said Carnahan opposes the plan to "surge" more U.S. troops into Iraq. He said Carnahan might support proposals from the Democratic Party to limit funding, although none has been put forward.

Ramsey said the sit-in is part of a national effort and the St. Louis group plans protests at other federal offices.

Kevin Wall says that there are Clowns in Town!

Thursday, February 15th at the Jewish Community Center
Buy tix at Metrotix

CLOWN THEATRE LICEDEI, St. Petersburg, Russia

Licedei is the first and the only clown-mime theatre in Russia, which is engaged in the clownery genre. World-acclaimed clown Slava Polunin created the theatre in 1968 in Leningrad in association with a few other prominent actors. Some of theatre’s founders are still working in Licedei and, along with Licedei’s workshop graduates of 1984, represent the main creative group of the company.

For the last 10 years the theatre toured and participated in the most prestigious festivals not only all over Russia and the former Soviet Union countries, but also in the U.S., Brazil, Germany, France, Spain, England, Holland, Denmark, Austria, Japan, New Zealand, Cuba, Hong-Kong, China, Vietnam, Switzerland, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Finland, Israel, Canada, Korea, Tahiti and Luxembourg. Theatre actors have been featured in many outstanding performances including world-famous Canadian Cirque Du Soleil (Allegria and O).

Prizewinner of the most prestigious Russian National awards (Lenin Komsomol, Golden Ostap Festival of Satire and Humor in St. Petersburg, Constellation Festival); theatre also won numerous international awards at the notable art festivals in Germany, Holland, France, and China. The theatre actors are The Honorary Citizens of city Lexington, VA, USA. Among the celebrities, amazed by their art, we can call, among others, Sir Paul McCartney and Carlos Santana.

Not amazingly, Licedei. have drawn many full houses in grand concerts produced in their native Russia. There are always sold out the Kremlin Palace (Moscow) and the Tavrichesky Palace (St. Petersburg) concert halls. Besides, they performed practically in all the largest show stages in Russia (up to seven thousand spectators) as well as at the Russian main sports arena, Luzhniki, which may incorporate up to 70-thousand audiences. But amazingly, Licedei attracts the same huge audience abroad. Actors have always been warmly and enthusiastically welcomed when touring in the countries mentioned.

A show-program, called The Russian Roulette (Pokatukha), is compiled of the best fragments taken from performances of various periods. At present there are also three theatrical performances in the theatre’s repertory. Katastrofa (Catastrophe) is an outdoor spectacle designed for spacious areas. Ocean is the newest performance, a poetic clownery act dedicated to love, freedom and sea. Semianyuki – a full size comic performance, full of twists and turns. This hilariously funny performance gained rave reviews and incredible success during Avignon Theatre Festival-05. After that Licedei were invited to perform at prominent Edinburgh Theatre Festival-06 in Scotland.

The unique feature of a dumb clown- mime performance is that it can be understood both by adults and children of any age and nationality. It is not like circus in the usual sense of the word; it is a theatre on the borderline between clownery, variety show and tragic farce. Critics call it poetic clownery. No words - instead there are plastic movements and mimicry, music and expressiveness. Laughter and tears, joy and sadness, the good and the evil - these are the simple emotions and truths of Licedei’s art, which can be understood by anyone from any place at any country. In the current world’s theater charts, Licedei are among the very best international groups performing in the clownery genre

The RFT cover story about Carl's Friends - The Catholic Worker Community

Cool to be Kind
Voluntary poverty, sustainable agriculture, helping one's fellow man. A Catholic Worker community quietly grows in north St. Louis.
By MOLLY LANGMUIR

The sky over north St. Louis is overcast as Carolyn Griffeth straps Finn Mateo, her two-year-old son, into a car seat in her beat-up station wagon. They're headed to Walgreens, a store Griffeth would rather not support, but she needs a low-flow nipple for a baby bottle.
"You could make one," her friend Trish Grim had suggested.

"How?" Griffeth had asked.

Walgreens it is.

The house where Griffeth and her family live has a huge garden, a picnic table in the yard and "Instead of War" posters affixed to the fence. It is a few blocks north of downtown, near where Tucker Boulevard curves abruptly and becomes Florissant Avenue. Not long ago a young woman's body was left in a Dumpster down the street, but the event didn't attract much attention in the neighborhood, a place where houses are crumbling in on themselves, posters on rusty billboards are left to peel off and entire blocks are covered over with grass.

This wasn't the life that Griffeth, a small woman with auburn hair and freckles, imagined for herself. More than a decade ago, at age 21, she enrolled in the medical school at Washington University. She'd been raised in Pecatonica, Illinois in what she describes as a dysfunctional middle-class family. Her mother was a social worker, her stepfather a horse trader.

Three years later Griffeth embraced religious faith, anarchy and voluntary poverty. She dropped out of med school, leaving behind a $70,000 debt she intended never to pay. Instead of becoming a doctor, she became a Catholic Worker.

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