Heather Lynn Pressures Wells Fargo to Change

Wells Fargo-Wachovia

Congratulations to to Heather Lynn, the college student whose Facebook page (Wachovia=Fail) called attention to Wells Fargo - Wachovia's 3% "transaction fee" on donations to Haitian charities. A bank spokesman, Edward Terpening, announced that the bank is waiving and refunding all transaction fees related to donations to Haiti.

Her page had well over 3000 followers, some of whom were closing their Wells Fargo accounts and others who aired various complaints about the bank.

A pleasant reminder that one person can make a difference.

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Required Reading for Congress: the U.S. Constitution

Shortly after the "jock-strap bomber" was arrested in Detroit, there has been a steady parade of alarmist conservatives finding fault with the Obama Justice Department for giving the accused his Constitutional rights. Their claim is that foreigners in the United States do not have the same Constitutional rights as Americans and that the Bill of Rights applies only to American citizens.

They are dead wrong. Why do they think the Bush Administration was keeping suspected terrorists in Gitmo? They understood that once the suspects were in the United States, they would be entitled to the protections of the Constitution. If interested in the history, consult Greenwald - Salon.com, 2/1/2010,"Susan Collins spreads central myth about Constitution."

What is extremely disconcerting is that a Senator, Susan Collins, does not understand that Constitutional protections apply to everyone in the US. And it has not been that long ago that Republican leader, John Boehner, confused the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence.

Perhaps, before someone can assume a seat in Congress, she/he should be required to attend a two-day seminar on the U. S. Constitution and The Amendments. This may assure that they actually read it - at least once!

Nikki Giovanni: "Always There Are The Children"

Having been a fan of Nikki Giovanni (originally from Ohio) for many years and sharing some common friends, I often feel compelled to share one of her poems. You may remember her stirring recital of "We Are The Hokies" after the killings at Virginia Tech.

Always There Are The Children

and always there are the children

there will be children in the heat of day

there will be children in the cold of winter

children like a quilted blanket

are welcomed in our old age

children like a block of ice to a desert sheik

are signs of status in our youth

we feed the children with our culture

that they might understand our travail

we nourish the children on our gods

that they may understand respect

we urge the children on the tracks

that our race will not fall short

but our children are not ours

nor we theirs they are future we are past

how do we welcome the future

not with the colonialism of the past

for that is our problem

not with the racism of the past

for that is their problem

not with the fears of our own status

for history is lived not dictated

we welcome the young of all groups

as our own with the solid nourishment

of food and warmth

we prepare the way with the solid

nourishment of self-actualization

we implore all the young to prepare for the young

because always there will be children.

My favorite line: "history is lived not dictated"

The Passing of the Passionate Howard Zinn

Last week, at 87, Mr. Howard Zinn died of a heart attack in California. His death was noted in the media, but it did not generate much attention. He spent much of his life peacefully protesting the significant issues of recent history: racial segregation, the war in Vietnam, and discrimination in all its forms.

Recently, when asked by Bob Herbert about the present state of affairs, Mr Zinn offered: "If there is going to be change, real change, it will have to work its way from the bottom up, from the people themselves. That's how change happens."

One of his most recent projects was was the film, "The People Speak,"which features ordinary Americans whose efforts resulted in historic change. It's about the everyday people "who have given this country whatever liberty and democracy we have."

In his most famous book, “A People’s History of the United States,” published in 1980, Mr. Zinn approaches history from the viewpoint of the ordinary citizen. For example, he says: “If you look through high school textbooks and elementary school textbooks in American history, you will find Jackson the frontiersman, soldier, democrat, man of the people — not Jackson the slaveholder, land speculator, executioner of dissident soldiers, exterminator of Indians.” (Bob Herbert, NYT, 1/29/10)

We can but hope Howard Zinn is not the last of his kind.

Coffee - The New Health Drink

Can it possibly be true? Coffee is a health food?

Perhaps so; there has been, in the last fifteen years, a flurry of basic research on coffee, primarily at Vanderbilt University (Nashville) and Harvard Medical School (Cambridge). As reported by the media, the news is music to a coffee lover's ears; coffee is good for our health. Kathryn Wilson, a researcher at Harvard reports: "When people find out that they are at risk for developing disease, coffee can be one pleasure which they don't need to deprive themselves, and then they can focus on other life-style choices."

One study found that men who drink six or more cups of coffee a day have up to a 60% lower risk of advanced and lethal prostate cancer. The results being almost the same for decaf and caffeinated coffee. A study done in Sydney, Australia, concluded that drinking four cups of coffee a day reduced the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 25 to 35 %. Coffee also seems to help "prevent cardiovascular disease, liver cancer, and liver cirrhosis." Coffee is safe for heart-attack survivors and its antioxidants may reduce inflammation and protect blood vessel walls. There is, in addition, evidence that coffee "decreases the risk of premature death, especially in women."(Costco Connection, Feb., 2010)

Perhaps it's time for a cup (or more) of java.

Wells Fargo, Wachovia Charge for Donations to Haiti

After the public outrage over credit card companies charging transaction fees for donations to Haitian relief, four major credit card companies stopped the practice. On the other hand, Wells Fargo, the parent company of Wachovia continues to charge 3%.

Heather Lynn, a student at Old Dominion University, has begun a Facebook page for those unhappy about this, and it reveals other questionable fees being charged by Wells Fargo. The Facebook page is: Wachovia=Fail.

Supreme Court Ignores Thomas Jefferson

In their Congressional confirmation hearings, Supreme Court Justice Roberts and the other four conservative (i.e. Republican) justices went to great lengths to insist that there is no place on the Supreme Court for "activist" judges and judges should not legislate from the bench. In fact Justice Roberts used the analogy of an baseball umpire who interprets the rules to the situation but does not make the rules. They have demonstrated in the recent Citizen United Decision that they did not believe what they were saying; they were saying what the public and Congress was hoping for and had the right to expect.

As has been pointed out frequently in the last week, their research and scholarship is also suspect. They conveniently overlooked Thomas Jefferson's statement: “If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their money, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them (the banks) will deprive the people of their property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent that their fathers conquered.” (Dan Burnard, "The New Corporatocracy," Toledo Free Press, 1/29/10) Obviously Thomas Jefferson did not think that corporations and big Wall Street banks were persons and had the same 1st Amendment rights as an individual.

One would think that real conservatives like Barry Goldwater would be screaming to the high heavens, but we haven't heard from them. Obviously it is not about principles; it's about politics. On the other hand, we have not yet heard from George Will. It will be interesting to learn his position.

J.D. Salinger Achieves Ultimate Isolation

J.D. Salinger, whose Catcher in the Rye (1951)

became a classic and introduced us to Holden

Caulfield, one of literature's memorable

anti-heroes, has died of natural causes at age 91

in his isolated home in Cornish, NH.

After fame came his way, he retreated to

Cornish where he was almost paranoid about

maintaining his isolation.

His novel struck a cord with many of us growing

up in the 1950's and perhaps even suggested

that we had to be independent and take

responsibility for our lives or we too might end up

in a mental ward.

The question is: What was J. D. Salinger

afraid of? What was he hiding from? What demons

possessed him?

Lake High Girls BB

Kaysie Brittenham

Lake Flyers

Congratulations to the Lake (Millbury,OH) High School

Girls basketball team for extending its regular-season

winning streak to 36 wins and going strong.

Orhan Pamuk's "Museum of Innocence"

The Museum of Innocence is Turkish author Ohran

Pammuk's first novel after winning the Nobel prize for

Literature in 2006.

The story which takes place in the 1970's in Istanbul

is of Kemal's pathetic, pathological obsession with

a beautiful, younger woman, Fusun. It's a story that

has been told many times ( e.g. Nabokov's Lolita),

but it becomes a new story in Pamuk's hands,

partially because of Pamuk's style of story-telling as

well as the local color of Istanbul and the Bosophurus.

Kemal, a thirty year-old whose family is of wealthy,

upper-class society, is engaged to Sibel, a young

lady of like circumstances. Before his official

engagement party, Kemal quite by accident meets

Fusun, a beautiful eighteen year-old store clerk he

had known as a child. Smitten, he begins his

journey of erotic obsession. Soon Kemal becomes

a pathetic fool and develops another obsession--

collecting , actually pilfering, items that have been

associated with Fusun. His collection of earrings,

wine glasses, hair barrettes, and even cigarette

butts become the basis of his peculiar museum.

His justification of this odd behavior is that he is

"the anthropologist of his own experience."

The reason this apparently simple story requires

over 500 pages is that Kemal's quest involves

discussion of political unrest, the conflict between

tradition and westernization, and the developing

Turkish film industry.

Since both Sibel and Fusun lost their virginity to

Kemal, it is also an issue. Virginity was the

prized possession of Turkish women living in a

conflicted time--a time of change from the

tradition of the past to a more westernized

society. Pamuk writes:"virginity was still

regarded as a treasure that young girls should

protect until the day they married."

Although he takes a long time telling it, the

story is worth the journey.