Least of My Brothers

Hunger Emergency

2009-12-17T13:59:00.001-06:00

Games That Give

2009-08-11T19:41:00.002-05:00

If you like to play computer games like Solitaire or Sudoku, now you can play while contributing to charities at a new web site called Games That Give. The site, which went live on July 12, supports several major charities, including MercyCorps, Ronald McDonald House, and UNICEF. The site is supported by advertisers, with 70% of advertising revenue donated to the participating charitable organizations.

So add Games That Give to your favorites and the next time you take a break at work or home to play your favorite game go to Games That Give and support a good cause while having fun.

Father's Day

2009-06-20T19:38:00.003-05:00

I received the message below from the Innocence Project in time for Father's Day...

My father, Rickie Johnson, was wrongfully convicted when I was just a toddler. Due to circumstances, he and I didn’t meet again until I was in my 20s, but when I learned that he was fighting to overturn his wrongful conviction, I threw all of my energy into the battle to prove his innocence. I wrote to the Innocence Project on his behalf and studied his case transcripts. I couldn’t believe somebody could be convicted in this country on such thin evidence.

With the help of the Innocence Project, DNA testing was conducted in my dad’s case and he was finally freed last year after serving 26 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit.

I’m blessed to have my father back, and this year we’ll celebrate a joyous Father’s Day. But there are countless people in the country who aren’t as fortunate as I am — the innocent mothers and fathers who remain in prison today while their families are forced to get by without them. If you can help the Innocence Project with a donation today, you’ll help reunite families like mine across the country and reform the system to prevent injustices like this from ever happening again.

My father is my hero and an inspiration to so many people he met over the years. Not only did he survive a quarter-century in prison, he did it with a positive outlook on life. When he would tell me years ago that he was sure he’d be free someday, I would admire his optimism but take it with a grain of my own realism, knowing the odds were against him. Now I know that the truth can overcome the odds any time. Whenever I feel down about anything, I think about my dad’s strength and his triumph.

This Father’s Day, I’ll be celebrating my dad’s freedom and thinking of all of those other families who aren’t so lucky.

La’Keisha Butts

Learn more about the Innocence Project.

A President, a Boy and Genocide

2009-03-05T19:58:00.003-06:00

When the International Criminal Court issued its arrest warrant for Sudan’s president on Wednesday, an 8-year-old boy named Bakit Musa would have clapped — if only he still had hands.

Bakit found a grenade left behind by proxy forces of Sudan's president, Omar Hassan al-Bashir, sent into neighboring Chad to terrorize Darfur refugees. The grenade exploded, taking both of Bakit's hands, one eye and the skin on half of his face.

Bakit is one more casualty of President Bashir's brutality against the people of Darfur. The arrest warrant issued by the ICC is a first step, although a small one, toward holding Bashir accountable for his crimes.

Read more...

Restoring Core Values

2009-01-22T13:47:00.000-06:00

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

White Phosphorus

2009-01-11T20:05:00.000-06:00

Youth Voices From Gaza

2009-01-06T19:02:00.004-06:00

"Last night at 3:20 a.m. our neighbors informed us that buildings close to our home will be bombarded and that it wasn't safe for us to stay. We grabbed our ID cards, money and some bed covers and went to a nearby park where all the people were gathering. We had to call relatives and move in with them. The situation is really miserable. I was supposed to graduate and now we are left without electricity, water ... not even a house."

-Fairouz

Read more at Mercy Corps...

Sign a petition calling for humanitarian access to deliver aid shipments to families in Gaza.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-27T21:28:00.005-06:00

I received the following letter via email today from a client of the Innocence Project...

Dear John,

On this Thanksgiving — the first one I’m spending with my family since 1984 — I thought I would send a note to tell you how thankful I am for my freedom and for the chance at a new life. I’m thankful to my family for welcoming me home, and to God for making my exoneration possible. I’m thankful to the Innocence Project staff for their work on my case and, most of all, to you, for your support as a member of the Innocence Project community. I spent 23 years behind bars in Texas for a crime I didn’t commit. After not knowing for a lot of years whether the truth would ever come out, DNA testing proved my innocence and I was released in April.

I’ve been out for seven months now, and it’s hard to express how good it feels. I’m starting to build a life. I live with my sister in Garland, Texas, and I’m taking computer programming classes through an organization called Central Dallas Ministries. Technology has changed so much since I went to prison, but I’m really into learning new things and these classes are perfect for me.

For my first Thanksgiving as a free man in 23 years, I’m not taking anything for granted. After a few years in prison, you start looking forward to the meal they serve on Thanksgiving, and you start to think of your fellow inmates as your family, because it’s hard to accept that your real family is all together, so far away. After what I’ve been through, I’m just taking it all in. I’m going to my mom’s house, my grandma’s house and maybe a friend’s house as well. Thanksgiving is a special day, and I’m overjoyed to be with my family.

Thank you for your commitment to truth and justice, and Happy Holidays,

Thomas McGowan
Garland, Texas

Read more about the Innocence Project.

More about Central Dallas Ministries.

Countdown to Inauguration Day

2008-11-07T10:18:00.000-06:00

2009-1-20 12:00:00 GMT-05:00
A new beginning for the United States of America!

Barack Obama will take the oath of office as the 44th President of the United States on January 20, 2009 at 12:00 Noon EST.

The world is beginning to feel like a better place already.

Join the countdown to Inauguration Day.

Yes We Can

2008-11-06T20:15:00.004-06:00

President-Elect Barack Omaha's acceptance speech at Grant Park, Chicago, Illinois, on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

Meltdown

2008-10-15T06:00:00.000-05:00

While many Americans are wringing their hands over the meltdown in the financial markets, much of the world is going about its business without taking any notice of the crisis.

On the road from Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, a 3-year-old boy, Slupeth, collects grain blown from passing trucks with his mother, Esnat, 36, and her sister, Chipo, 26. It takes them half a day to gather a pound of maize, which will make a small dinner. The precious grains are about all there is to eat.

Half of the boy's hair has fallen out; his skin is scaly and his eyes runny. The two women are gaunt, their cheekbones sharp, their wrists like sticks. The family ran out of corn in April. Esnat and Chipo used to do odd jobs for a bucket of maize, but now no one has any to spare. Their neighbors are so short of food that there is nobody left to beg from. So they are forced to live on gleanings from the passing trucks.

Even if the financial crisis in the U.S. markets ends in the worst possible outcome, Americans will be far better off than Slupeth and his family - and better off than many others as well.

More than three billion people - half the world's population - live on less that three dollars a day. The poorest 40 percent of the world's population accounts for 5 percent of global income. The richest 20 percent accounts for three-quarters of world income.

The wealthiest 20 percent of the world also accounts for three-fourths of total private consumption; the poorest 20 percent consumes just 1.5 percent. About 0.13 percent of the world's population controls 25 percent of the world's financial assets.

Nearly a billion people entered the 21st century unable to read a book or sign their names. But less than one per cent of what the industrialized nations spend every year on weapons would put every child in the world into school.

According to UNICEF, 26,500-30,000 children die each day due to poverty. And little Slupeth from Zimbabwe might soon be one of them. But most of us are too preoccupied with the prospect of a financial meltdown to care.

Read more about the food crisis in Zimbabwe here.

Read more poverty facts here.

The Other Tina Fey Video

2008-10-02T19:32:00.003-05:00

From MercyCorps...

This one is not funny.

Private Dwyer

2008-07-15T10:24:00.010-05:00

It was one of the most widely-published photographs of the Iraq war, second only to the iconic "Marlboro Marine" of the Fallujah massacre. Pfc. Joseph Dwyer, an Army medic in the early days of the Iraq invasion, carries a half-naked and frightened Iraqi child to apparent safety. It captured what we thought of as the best of the American soldier, and it made Private Dwyer an instant hero.

Sadly, Private Dwyer died last month in North Carolina at age 31. Ever since returning from Iraq he had been in and out of treatment for post-traumatic stress disorder and addiction. His wife left him to save herself and their young daughter. When the police broke down the door of his apartment on June 28, they found him dying among pill bottles and cans of cleaning solvent that friends said he sniffed to deaden his pain.

America and its leaders are in denial about the enormous toll of the Iraq war in human life and suffering. From the very beginning it has been a senseless undertaking for which no one is held accountable. The heroic young men and women of the U.S. military who have sacrificed dearly in the name of duty have done it all for nothing. So too, the suffering of untold numbers of Iraqis caught in the conflict is nothing but a senseless waste. Will we ever learn?

Civil Disobedience

2008-07-13T12:06:00.007-05:00

When U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents rounded up some 400 undocumented workers at a meat processing plant in Postville, Iowa in May in what was boastfully called "the largest single-site operation of its kind in American history," Father Paul Ouderkirk knew it was time to come out of retirement.

Father Ouderkirk had served as pastor of St. Bridget's parish in Postville, his last assignment before retiring in 2002 after 43 years in ministry. He occasionally returned to the parish to officiate at a wedding or baptize a baby, but mostly he enjoyed his well-deserved retirement.

But on the morning of the ICE raid, the Hispanic families of Postville turned to the one place in town where they felt safe - St. Bridget's. Within minutes of the raid, wives and children began trickling into the church. By evening nearly 400 families filled the church and adjoining social hall, and Father Ouderkirk was back to work.

Church members came forward, serving food, watching over the children of those arrested, and standing guard at the church door. As the ordeal dragged on, Father Ouderkirk began organizing - hiring extra staff to help track court cases and distribute food and financial aid. And he offered spiritual support to the deeply religious families in his care.

American sentiment seems to be solidly against immigration these days. We have apparently all forgotten where we came from. In a sign of the times, the Postville raid, unlike ICE raids in the past, has resulted not in deportation for most of the detainees, but in prosecution and jail sentences for using false documents.

And the efforts of Father Ouderkirk and his parishioners have not been applauded. One anonymous phone message warned Father Ouderkirk, "What you are doing is against the law." And his associate, Sister Mary McCauley, received an unsigned letter wishing, "May you rot in hell."

Sometimes civil disobedience is the right thing to do. Father Ouderkirk, good for you! And good for you, Sister McCauley!

The Children of Guantanamo

2008-06-24T14:42:00.005-05:00

In 2002 the United States ratified an international treaty barring the use of children under 18 in armed conflict. Among other provisions, the treaty obligates governments to help rehabilitate child soldiers and reintegrate them into society. But the commitment to rehabilitation seems to be missing when child soldiers engaging U.S. forces are captured.

Since 2002 the U.S. has brought more than 20 detainees under age 18 to the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay. The youngest was age 13. Most have since been released, but three remain, having spent more than a quarter of their lives at Guantanamo. These three have been subjected to repeated abuse, a clear and egregious violation of international law. They spend their days sitting in their cells with little more than a mattress, a copy of the Quran, and a roll of toilet paper. All three suffer from mental illness and have attempted suicide.

Probably no action by the Bush Administration has brought more shame on the United States than its treatment of detainees at Guantanamo Bay. And the "worst of the worst" of its offenses is its treatment of the children of Guantanamo.

Read more on the abuse of children at Guantanamo at Human Rights Watch...

John McCain - War Hero???

2008-06-14T10:07:00.005-05:00

Cruel and Unusual

2008-06-10T19:38:00.004-05:00

Ahmed Belbacha, a 39-year-old Algerian who has been in Guantanamo since March 2002, has been cleared to leave the prison camp, but he remains locked in his windowless cell 22 hours a day with little more than a Koran and another book to occupy his time. He cannot return to his home in Algeria, and no other country will take him. So he remains part of the shameful chapter of U.S. history known as Guantanamo Bay.

Last December, Ahmed tried to commit suicide and was moved to the mental health facility, where he was stripped naked, dressed in a green plastic rip-proof suicide smock, and placed on suicide watch in an isolated cell where he remained for two months.

More than half the detainees currently at Guantanamo are housed in conditions like Ahmed's. They spend all but two hours a day in small cells with no natural light or fresh air. Their meals are slipped through a slot in the door and they are given little more than a single book and the Koran to occupy their time. They are not allowed visits by family members, nor are they allowed phone calls to loved ones.

Not surprisingly, many of the detainees are suffering from serious mental health problems, and many have attempted suicide. And although little is known about the reasons for their detention, it is thought that all but a few are not "enemy combatants" and should not be held at all.

Read more about the deplorable conditions of the detainees at Guantanamo Bay from Human Rights Watch...

Global Peace Index

2008-05-21T20:16:00.001-05:00

The Global Peace Index, now in its second year, ranks 140 countries according to their relative states of peace, based on factors such as military expenditure, respect for human rights, and number of homicides.

See where your country ranks here...

Not Malicious???

2008-05-17T19:23:00.005-05:00

The chief U.S. commander in Baghdad issued a formal apology today for an incident in which a soldier used the Quran -- Islam's holy book -- for target practice. The soldier, whose name was not released, shot at a copy of the Quran on May 9. The bullet-riddled book was discovered two days later by an Iraqi policeman, but the U.S. military did not make the incident public until today.

Major General Jeffery Hammond apologized to local officials in Radhwaniya in the western outskirts of Baghdad, and read a letter of apology from the shooter in which he wrote, "I sincerely hope that my actions have not diminished the partnership that our two nations have developed together. My actions were shortsighted, very reckless and irresponsible, but in my heart the actions were not malicious."

Not malicious? I suspect that the shooter got lots of help from his commanding officers with his letter. They also relieved him of duty. He will be redeployed to the United States for reassignment.

And we wonder why they hate us.

Read more...

Irena Sendler

2008-05-14T11:12:00.008-05:00

One of the greatest heroes of the 20th century died this week, but most people have never heard of her. Irena Sendler, a Polish Catholic social worker, saved 2,500 Jewish children from the Warsaw ghetto during the Nazi occupation of World War II. She smuggled them out of the ghetto, gave them non-Jewish aliases, and placed them in convents, orphanages, and homes. She kept detailed records of their true identities and preserved the records in jars buried in a friend's garden.

She was eventually captured by the Nazis and tortured, but she refused to divulge any information about the children or about the underground organization with which she worked. Miraculously spared from execution herself, she worked diligently after the war to reunite the children with their families, only to find that most of their relatives had been deported and exterminated. Most of the children were adopted by Polish families or emigrated to Israel.

She died on Monday in a Warsaw nursing home at the age of 98. After living in obscurity for most of her life, she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize last year. But she never thought of herself as a hero. She once said, "Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this earth and not a title to glory."

Read more...

Mother Teresa of Baghdad

2008-05-08T09:56:00.001-05:00

Madeeha Hasan Odhaib is a diminutive, 37-year-old seamstress whom some people have begun calling the Mother Teresa of Baghdad. Since 2003, she has been working tirelessly to assist thousands of Iraqis driven from their homes by the war, especially in her Karada district where some 30,000 displaced Iraqis live. With almost no help from occupying forces or the Iraqi government, she has put together one of the few effective aid operations in Baghdad.

Read more about the efforts of this remarkable woman...

Nakba

2008-05-07T12:22:00.002-05:00

When Israel observes the 60th anniversary of its declaration of statehood on May 14, Arabs who make up 20 percent of its citizens will not be joining in the celebration. Instead thousands will gather in their former villages, which they have been barred from occupying for sixty years, to protest what they call the nakba, or catastrophe, of their displacement from their homeland.

In the civil strife that marked the beginning of the modern state of Israel, nearly a million Palestinians fled to neighboring countries, where they were housed in crowded refugee camps. Their children and grandchildren, now numbering over 4 million, are still in those refugee camps today.

Others who remained in the new state of Israel were displaced from their villages. They were granted citizenship but relegated to second-class status. The Israeli government seized their land to make room for new Jewish arrivals from Europe and the former Soviet Union. And although much of the seized land has sat idle all these years, the Israeli government refuses to allow former owners to return to it.

One such former owner is Jamal Abdulhadi Mahameed. Now age 69, he wants nothing more than to return to the land owned by his family for generations and tend to the pomegranate bushes planted long ago by his father.

In every respect Jamal is a solid citizen. His children include a doctor, two lawyers, and an engineer. But he is prohibited from returning to his own land because it is reserved for Jewish settlement. He notes that his daughter the doctor makes no distinction between Jewish and Arab patients. So he asks, "Why should the state treat me differently?"

Add one more issue to the many injustices to be redressed before the Middle East can even dream of living in peace.

Read more...

Mission Accomplished?

2008-05-01T12:46:00.004-05:00

Five years ago today, George W. Bush pulled his tailhook landing stunt on the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln and declared: "Mission Accomplished!"

Five years later...

More than 4,000 U.S. troops have lost their lives in Iraq, along with more than 300 from the so-called "coalition of the willing".

Almost 30,000 U.S. troops have been wounded in action.

According to conservative estimates, more than 90,000 Iraqi civilians have been killed. The actual number will never be known.

An estimated 2 million Iraqis have fled their country and are living as refugees in appalling conditions in Syria and Jordan. Almost none have been allowed entry into the United States.

An unknown number of Iraqis - upwards to 3 million by some estimates - are displaced within their own country because of sectarian violence.

More than 100 journalists have been killed in Iraq since the start of the conflict.

U.S. troop levels in Iraq are currently at 160,000 with no immediate plans to reduce that number.

In a recent Gallup poll, 59% of Americans said that "the United States made a mistake in sending troops to Iraq."

Egalite?

2008-04-29T10:45:00.010-05:00

About 60 to 70 percent of all inmates in France's prison system are Muslim, even though Muslims make up only about 12 percent of the country's population. A similar pattern is found in other European countries, where immigrants and children of immigrants - mostly Muslim - make up a disproportionate share of prison populations.

The underlying causes are the same ones that result in the disproportionate representation of black Americans in the U.S. prison system, where blacks who comprise 13 percent of the general population make up 49 percent of all inmates. The high percentage of Muslims in France's prisons, like the percentage of blacks in America's, is a direct result of the failure to fully integrate minorities into the life of society. Largely excluded from the economic and social benefits of full participation, these minorities are caught in a downward spiral of poverty and hopelessness, which often ends in crime and imprisonment.

In France the exclusion from full participation extends to the prison system itself. Prison authorities have allowed only about 100 carefully vetted moderate imams to serve as chaplains in France's 200 prisons, compared with 480 Catholic, 250 Protestant, and 50 Jewish chaplains, even though Muslim inmates vastly outnumber prisoners of all other religions.

French prison officials have also refused requests to provide halal food (compliant with Islamic dietary law) to Muslim inmates. In order to observe the dietary laws of their religion Muslims must forego much of the prison food.

In another example of disparate treatment, Christian inmates are allowed to receive packages from their families at Christmas, but Muslims do not receive the same privilege during the holy days of Ramadan.

This absence of egalite in the treatment of Muslims in France's prisons should come as no surprise. The same prejudices and marginalization that contribute to their ending up in prison in the first place are perpetuated in prison as well. We live on the edge of a great divide between East and West, between Muslim and Christian. It is a divide we have made ourselves, based on our own prejudices. It is little wonder that there is no peace in the world.

Read more...

Children of Gaza

2008-04-09T20:26:00.003-05:00

Ayman is a soft-spoken 14-year-old who lives in Jabalia City, Gaza. He wants to be an engineer someday so he can help rebuild his country. He works hard in school, but the challenges of growing up as a youngster in Gaza are daunting to say the least. Some 840,000 children live in Gaza's crowded neighborhoods. As the region continues its downward spiral of violence, isolation, and poverty, their future looks more bleak every day.

Ayman's family is poor, just like everyone in Gaza. His parents have sold almost everything they have to support their children. But they struggle on because, as Ayman's father says, "My children are my hope."

As Israel approaches the 60th anniversary of its independence (May 14) there is little to celebrate in this troubled region. The world community has largely ignored the plight of the Palestinians for over half a century. Justice is a rare commodity in the occupied territories, which might explain why peace is such a distant hope.

Read more about the children of Gaza...