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The Weblog at The View from the Core - Thursday, April 07, 2005
   
   

Be Not Afraid...

Mark Windsor is back.

Deo gratias.

Vide.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/07/05 07:50:42 AM
Categorized as Blogosphere Stuff.


   
   

"Spring's Colors"

Random Poetry List XXII

Spring's Colors

Color
comes up
from deep down:
bare boughs flout gravity
to channel hidden sap skyward,
conspiring to bury old winter's brown
beneath new summer's green, rich and deep.
But the baby leaves on trees' innumerable fingertips
wear, a moment, autumn's many colors; shy-soft, though,
not cold-crisp like the old leaves', the generation now past.
Most in day's late light, sun at farthest west,
do autumn's colors live briefly on eastward hills,
gently vivid in the sun's cool caress:
haunting of autumn, last and next.
Though leaves will grow green,
they pause at birth,
a brief reminder:
we'll not
last.

E. L. Core

Originally e-mailed on Wednesday, April 07, 1999 @ 7:09 PM.

[P.S. Confer.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/07/05 07:46:37 AM
Categorized as Literary & Random Poetry List.


   
   

"Darfur vs. Martha Stewart"

Coalition for Darfur V

Darfur vs. Martha Stewart. (Brackets in original.)

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Eleven years ago today, the president of Rwanda was killed when his plane was shot down over Kigali. His death served as a catalyst to a genocide that quickly engulfed the country — within one month, an estimated 500,000 people had been killed and by the time the genocide ended 100 days later, nearly one million Rwandans had lost their lives.

The authors of the essay "Rwanda: US Policy and Television Coverage" calculated that during the three months of genocide, Rwanda received a total of 278 minutes of news coverage from the likes of ABC, NBC, CBS and CNN, meaning that each of these news organization spent less than 1 minute per day reporting on a genocide that was taking lives at the rate of 1 every 11 seconds.

Today, another genocide is unfolding in African and, as this recent article in the American Journalism Review makes clear, very little has changed:

Serious reporting on [Darfur] largely has been absent on the networks and on cable. Last year the three network nightly newscasts aired a meager total of 26 minutes on the bloodshed, according to the Tyndall Report, which monitors network news. ABC devoted just 18 minutes to Darfur, NBC five and CBS three. By contrast, Martha Stewart's woes received 130 minutes, five times as much.
For those who are unfamiliar with what is taking place in Darfur, we encourage you to read this piece by Brian Steidle, a former Marine who spent six months working as cease-fire monitor with the African Union force in Darfur.

The bottom line is that nearly 400,000 people have died of disease, starvation and violence at the hands of the Sudanese government and the Janjaweed militias, yet the crisis has receives barely a fraction of the coverage garnered by the legal problems faced by Michael Jackson or Martha Stewart.

We are all aware of the central role that blogs played in the "60 Minutes" and "Jeff Gannon" stories and we know that blogs have to power to propel forgotten stories into the mainstream media. The Coalition for Darfur is an effort to unite blogs of all political ideologies in an attempt to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in Darfur and raise money for organizations doing life-saving work there.

Though the country is deeply polarized, we think that the effort to stop this genocide is something that can unite people of varying political and religious beliefs.

It is a cliché in American newsrooms that "If it bleeds, it leads." Sadly, despite the amount of blood shed in Darfur, the genocide has received very little coverage. Our challenge is to force this issue onto the television screens and the front page. We ask you to join us in this effort.

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The Blog from the Core does not necessarily endorse every detail of the weekly Coalition for Darfur message.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/07/05 07:39:20 AM
Categorized as Coalition for Darfur.


   
   

Catholic Carnival XXIV

At Dunmoose the Ageless, Protomonk this week. Your Humble, Faithful Blogster has an entry in this week's Carnival.

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/07/05 07:28:10 AM
Categorized as Catholic Carnival & Religious.


   
   

"John Paul the Great"

That's what Vice-President Dick Cheney called the late Holy Father at last night's 58th annual Radio-Television Correspondents' Association Dinner.

P.S. Jackson's Junction has Video: Cheney — "Pope John Paul The Great" you can stream or download.

And LexisNexis has a transcript from FNC's Hannity & Colmes program, which broadcast the vice-president's speech live.

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.... But ladies and gentlemen, I do want to be serious for a moment tonight. And I want to convey the personal regards from the president and Laura who left for Rome this morning and arrived there just a few hours ago.

On Friday, they'll lead the American delegation at the funeral mass for Pope John Paul II, accompanied by Secretary Rice and former Presidents Clinton and Bush. This is the first time a U.S. president has attended a papal funeral, and the gesture could never be more appropriate. Pope John Paul II was the rarest of men and one of those leaders whose name will be familiar hundreds of years from now.

Just last year, Lynne and I had the honor of meeting the Pope at the Vatican. And we were very grateful to have that memory. Because he served so long, journeyed so far and invited so many into his presence, I'm sure many in this room have covered the Pope at one point or another, either in this country or abroad.

If you ever saw John Paul II in person, then you are in a group that numbers in the hundreds of millions. Others have spoken of the religious significance of John Paul's papacy. All of us, I think, can give testimony to his impact on history.

At first glance, nearly 27 years ago, the world knew him only as the Polish Pope. We now know him for all he was, a force for good in the world, guiding the faithful, and at times helping guide great events.

The quiet, humble priest who lived under Nazism and communism rose to be a foe of tyranny, not fearing any man, not submitting to any evil, and always bearing witness to hope. Those with power who had others at their mercy, he challenged with a greater power of unarmed truth.

He set himself against all acts of tyranny, large and small. The Pope was a worldly and intellectual man who understood his times probably as well as anyone else alive, yet never sought to please the listener or to ratify popular opinion.

He tried instead to lift the sights of mankind, defending the weak against exploitation, neglect and servitude, and resisting every affront to freedom, innocence or the dignity of any life.

The death of such a man makes this world poor. But the life of such a man has made this world so much better. The Pope, who kissed the ground of well over a hundred countries, made four pilgrimages to the United States. He spoke to us with words not of comfort but of challenge, to live up to our calling, to be fair, and just, and true to our deals in every way.

Our country, he said, is a providential nation called to be a hospital society and a welcoming culture. John Paul II understood all the gifts and the possibilities of the United States. As I left his office last year, the Pope took both of my hands in his and said, "God bless

All of us here tonight have had the good fortune on occasion of meeting notable and remembered figures, even heroic ones. I think it's safe to say that none of us is likely ever again to encounter so great a man as Pope John Paul II. We will carry with us images of his energetic and righteous life and the example of character he left to us all. We will remember the little known cardinal from a captive nation who stepped onto a balcony and exhorted the faithful, Be not afraid.

We will remember the world leader who was a victim of malice and violence, then visited a jail cell to forgive the gunman, calm his fears and call him a brother. We will remember the man whose very presence affirmed the goodness and dignity of life, not just in times of great vitality, but in years of declining strength, and eventually, in days of silence.

For his life of integrity and deep kindness and moral courage, the pope was loved by men, women and children of all faiths. So it is fitting that our great and diverse country should fly its flag at half staff in his memory as three presidents of the United States pay respects for the American people to John Paul the Great.

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[Follow-up: "John Paul the Great" II.]

Lane Core Jr. CIW P — Thu. 04/07/05 07:19:35 AM
Categorized as Pope John Paul the Great & Religious.


   

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