“Why Americans love the Dalai Lama - CNN” plus 3 more |
- Why Americans love the Dalai Lama - CNN
- Intriguing: He wants U.S. border drones - CNN
- Claxton created an accidental legacy - MiLB.com
- Facts are Stubborn Things, But They are Still Facts - Oregonian
| Why Americans love the Dalai Lama - CNN Posted: 22 Feb 2010 06:54 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. On CNN on Monday, the Dalai Lama goes one-on-one with Larry King in his first interview after his controversial meeting with President Obama. Hear his thoughts about China, human rights and the situation in Haiti. Monday night, 9 ET on "Larry King Live." (CNN) -- He's been decorated with awards and called one of the world's most influential people. He's addressed packed auditoriums and waved to crowds who line streets just to catch a passing glimpse of him. He's shaken the hands of countless global dignitaries and earned a fan base following on Facebook that might rival that of Hollywood stars. He is His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, the 74-year-old spiritual leader of Tibet and the head of the Tibetan government-in-exile, based in Dharamsala, India. And though he describes himself, according to his Web site, as "a simple Buddhist monk," the love so many Americans and others have for him has, no doubt, bestowed on him iconic status -- whether he sees it that way or not. "I'd love to be in his presence. I'd love to be in an audience where he speaks," said Jerilee Auclair, 55, of Vancouver, Washington, who has yet to have that pleasure. "I yearn for it. I watch his schedule to see if/when he'll be in my area. ... I love what he stands for. His inner peace inspires me to find mine, daily." She's far from alone in her admiration. A CNN/Opinion Research Corp. survey released Thursday, the same day the Dalai Lama visited the White House, showed that 56 percent of Americans hold a favorable view of him, putting him "in the same neighborhood as other major religious figures," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Favorable ratings for the pope, at 59 percent, and Billy Graham, at 57 percent, are virtually identical." Not bad for a guy who lives on the opposite side of the globe, is entrenched in a decades-old political and cultural struggle many don't understand, and lives according to a tradition few Americans follow. Less than 1 percent of Americans identify themselves as Buddhist, with less than 0.3 percent of those being Tibetan Buddhist, according to The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life. But what he represents resonates with Americans who may need a figure like the Dalai Lama to look to, said Ganden Thurman, executive director of New York City's Tibet House, an organization dedicated to preserving Tibetan culture and civilization. "He stands for achieving peace by way of peace, and since Gandhi and Martin Luther King aren't around, he's a placeholder for that kind of position," he said. "He says he's a 'simple monk,' but that's wishful thinking. He's a monk that's been saddled with the responsibility of shouldering the hopes and dreams of millions of Tibetan people. ... He's doing the best he can with that, and frankly, these are the kind of people we admire." Not that Thurman, 42, always treated the Dalai Lama with this kind of reverence. His father, Robert Thurman, co-founded the Tibet House, is an Indo-Tibetan Buddhist studies professor at Columbia University and holds the first endowed chair in Buddhist studies in the West, according to the university's online biography. The older Thurman, who also happens to be the father of actress Uma Thurman, was a personal student of the Dalai Lama, and it was through this relationship that his son first met the spiritual leader. "My earliest memory of meeting him, I was around 4. I was a pretty rambunctious 4-year-old," he said with a laugh, guessing that he probably jumped on His Holiness and grabbed at the man's glasses. "Diplomatic protocol wasn't high on my list of priorities." Tenzin Tethong has known the Dalai Lama since he was a child. He worked in the exile government and served as the spiritual leader's representative in New York and Washington during the 1970s and 1980s. Now the president of The Dalai Lama Foundation, a Redwood City, California, organization that promotes peace, Tethong said he organized the Tibetan leader's first visit to the United States in 1979, 20 years after he had gone into exile He recalled not being sure they'd be able to pull off the visit because by the early 1970s, the U.S. had normalized its relations with China, which has long viewed the Dalai Lama as a threat to its national unity on the issue of Tibetan autonomy. But they came at the invitation of various colleges and religious groups, and the American fascination with the Dalai Lama -- the curiosity about his exotic past, his beliefs and his teachings -- spoke volumes then, Tethong said. In the decades since, the Dalai Lama's star power has only risen as Americans have learned more about his commitment to nonviolence, interfaith outreach and more. For starters, there was that Nobel Peace Prize he won in 1989. High-profile supporters, like actor Richard Gere, helped give him and his people's struggles pop culture prominence, as did several mainstream films including "Seven Years in Tibet," starring Brad Pitt, and "Kundun," directed by Martin Scorsese. With the increased exposure, there has also been a growing prevalence of "Free Tibet" bumper stickers, the appearance of Tibetan prayer flags in suburbia and Facebook fans who shower the Dalai Lama with praise. "Have a nice and easy day with Obama! Namaste," one woman wrote Thursday. "thank you for all your love, guidance and wisdom ... u changed my life," a man added. And then this from a college-student fan: "HH Dalai Lama!! You kick metaphorical ass!!!" How has all this attention not gone to his head? "When fame happens, people get carried away, right? The Dalai Lama, despite tremendous adoration as well as adulation ... is very conscious of that," Tethong said. "One of the Buddhist practices is to always be very aware of one's self and how one looks at one's self and not to be carried away with one's ego." Not standing on formalities -- he playfully threw snow at reporters outside the White House on Thursday -- staying grounded and his constant ability to exude warmth and joy have made him easy to love, people who admire him say. "He really is the real deal -- a truly loveable guy. He lives his values," said Jamie Metzl, executive vice president of the Asia Society, a global organization that seeks to increase understanding and relationships between the U.S. and Asia. "Recognizing someone who lives their life according to such positive principles helps us all grow." And Metzl, who said he's met the Dalai Lama three times, suggested the Chinese government, through its denunciation of the spiritual leader, has bolstered his recognition. He said that by saying the Dalai Lama is "a wolf in sheep's clothing," a claim Metzl said doesn't match what people read and see, "the Chinese are doing a great deal to turn him into a rock star." But nothing does more to make people appreciate the Dalai Lama than being with him, said Charles Raison, a psychiatrist with Emory University Medical School. Raison, who's been involved in a program where Western doctors work with and exchange teachings with Buddhist monks, recounted a time when he, his wife and several others met with the Dalai Lama about four years ago. "Many people, myself included, have a powerful experience in his presence. I nearly erupted in tears," he said. And his wife, whom he said "does not have a religious bone in her body" was "just beaming." He said studies have long shown that people have a physiological response to the behaviors, feelings and even smells put forth by others. "Buddhists," he added, "say that sweet smells come from a saint -- a mark of spiritual advancement." And given the Dalai Lama's effect, his smile, his laughter, his sense of peace and gentle spirit, it's no wonder people fall for him. Even if they haven't had the chance to meet him. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Intriguing: He wants U.S. border drones - CNN Posted: 22 Feb 2010 06:33 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Editor's note: Every weekday, CNN focuses on a handful of people in the news. This is a chance to find out more about what they've done -- good or bad -- what they've said or what they believe, and why we think they're intriguing. (CNN) -- Herb Brooks: On this day in 1980, the former University of Minnesota coach led a hockey team of college kids in a 4-3 victory over the best national team the Soviet Union had ever sent to the Olympics. The squad from the USSR practiced 11 months a year. Brooks was coaching amateurs. According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, "The Olympic Fieldhouse in Lake Placid, New York, hardly seemed like the place where hockey history could be made, but on one afternoon in 1980, the greatest moment in international hockey took place. It was a moment that transformed the game in one country and, over time, around the world. It was a moment that came to define Olympic success. It was a moment that came to inspire dreams. After February 22, 1980, anything was possible." On this day 30 years ago, the "Miracle on Ice" stunned Olympic fans. In his famous pre-game speech, Brooks inspired his team by saying, "If we played 'em ten times, they might win nine. But not this game. Not tonight. Tonight, we skate with them. Tonight, we stay with them. And we shut them down because we can! Tonight, WE are the greatest hockey team in the world!" Two days later, the U.S. team beat Finland and won the gold medal. Brooks died in August 2003, in a car accident in Minnesota. He was 66. In 2004, Kurt Russell portrayed Brooks in "Miracle," the movie based on the victory. And on the 25th anniversary of the showdown, the arena in Lake Placid was named after Herb Brooks. Sunday in Vancouver, Team USA pulled off its biggest Olympic hockey upset since the Miracle on Ice, stunning Canada 5-3 to advance to the quarterfinals. International Ice Hockey Federation: 'Miracle on Ice' is No. 1 story Ron Paul: The Republican Texas congressman, a stalwart foe of government spending, won a blowout victory Saturday in the annual Conservative Political Action Conference presidential straw poll. With participants naming "reducing the size of federal government" as their top issue, the 74-year old libertarian hero captured 31 percent of the 2,400 votes cast in the annual contest. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney finished second with 22 percent of the vote, ending a three-year winning streak at the annual CPAC gathering. Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin finished third with 7 percent of the vote, followed by Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty at 6 percent and Indiana Rep. Mike Pence at 5 percent. The announcement of Paul's win, a surprise victory unlikely to have a major impact on the 2012 presidential contest, drew a volley of loud boos from the CPAC audience. According to his official biography, Paul was born and raised in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, graduated from Duke University School of Medicine, and served as a flight surgeon in the U.S. Air Force during the 1960s. Paul ran for president in 1988 as a Libertarian and in 2008 as a Republican. CNN: Paul surprise winner of CPAC straw poll Office of Rep. Ron Paul: Biography Henry Cuellar: The Democratic congressman representing Laredo, Texas, has asked federal officials for a Predator drone aircraft to help protect the border between the United States and Mexico, from Brownsville to El Paso, Texas. The San Antonio Express reports that Cuellar, chair of the House Homeland Security subcommittee, has requested a meeting in April with officials from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the Federal Aviation Administration to discuss the possibility of using a drone to fight drug trafficking and possible terrorism threats. Predators are remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and target acquisition. The Predators used by the U.S. military are armed with Hellfire missiles. The Congressional Research Service says that drones are twice as likely to crash as manned aircraft, the Express reports. Drones have already been approved by Congress for border protection. Each Predator drone costs around $4.5 million. Rep. Cuellar, a member of the fiscally conservative Blue Dog Coalition, was elected to Congress in 2005 and is now serving his third term. His official Web site reports, "With a total of 5 advanced degrees, Congressman Cuellar is the 'Most Degreed Member' serving in the House." San Antonio Express-News: Aerial drones could patrol Texas border Office of Rep. Cuellar: Biography Roslyn Brock: The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, one of the oldest civil rights groups in the nation, announced the successor to Chairman Julian Bond on Saturday as the organization strives to prove its relevance and influence to a new generation. NAACP Vice Chair Roslyn Brock was selected to fill the seat left by Bond, a civil rights leader who has held the post since 1998. Brock, 44, the youngest person ever to serve in the position, has worked with the organization for more than 25 years in various roles, according to the NAACP. She is also a vice president at Bon Secours Health Systems in Marriottsville, Maryland. The NAACP selected Benjamin Todd Jealous as its president in 2008. At 35, Jealous was the youngest ever to hold that post at the NAACP. In an interview with Essence magazine, Brock said, "To be at this place is truly a blessing. I never thought I could possibly lead this organization knowing that it is a male-dominated organization and only had three women prior to this time. The fact that only two African American women have served as chair really made it seem out of my reach." On CNN's "Sunday Morning," Brock said, "It is our goal to extend a broader net, to encourage all Americans who believe in life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to come and join us." CNN: New leader vows she'll bring 'new generation' to NAACP Essence: Roslyn Brock youngest chair of NAACP Mary Robbins: The 71-year-old retired military nurse from Colorado Springs, Colorado, died of cancer on February 9. KKTV in southern Colorado reports that Robbins had signed a contract in 2006 with a cryonics company to have her head and brain preserved and frozen when she died. She agreed that $50,000 would be paid to Alcor Life Extension Foundation of Scottsdale, Arizona, for the procedure. Her daughter, Darlene Robbins, recently hired an attorney, because she says her mother changed her mind before she died. Attorney Robert Scranton told CNN on Sunday that Mary Robbins "had a great interest in science and was very forward-thinking." She thought that she might be brought back to life one day, he said. But in December, the lump she had discovered turned out to be cancer, which had metastasized all over her body. Scranton said she did not want to be revived in that condition. KKTV reports that Eric Bentley, an attorney representing Alcor, says the nonprofit foundation wants to carry out Mary Robbins' wishes. An all-day court hearing is scheduled Friday to decide in what condition Mary Robbins will be buried. Her body is at a funeral home. According to Alcor's Web site, "Cryonics is the science of using ultra-cold temperature to preserve human life with the intent of restoring good health when technology becomes available to do so." KKTV: Battle underway for head and brain of Colorado Springs woman What makes a person intriguing? There are people who enter the news cycle every day because their actions or decisions are new, important or different. Others are in the news because they are the ones those decisions affect. And there are a number of people who are so famous or controversial that anything they say or do becomes news. Some of these people do what we expect of them: They run for office, pass legislation, start a business, get hired or fired, commit a crime, make an arrest, get in accidents, hit a home run, overthrow a government, fight wars, sue an opponent, put out fires, prepare for hurricanes and cavort with people other than their spouses. They do make news, but the action is usually more important than who is involved in the story. But every day, there are a number of people who become fascinating to us -- by virtue of their character, how they reached their decision, how they behaved under pressure or because of the remarkable circumstances surrounding the event they are involved in. They arouse our curiosity. We hear about them and want to know more. What they have done or said stimulates conversations across the country. At times, there is even a mystery about them. What they have done may be unique, heroic, cowardly or ghastly, but they capture our imaginations. We want to know what makes them tick, why they believe what they do, and why they did what they did. They intrigue us. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Claxton created an accidental legacy - MiLB.com Posted: 22 Feb 2010 06:26 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. Zeenut Baseball cards are highly sought after by collectors -- for good reason. The San Francisco-based candy company issued sets of Pacific Coast League trading cards between 1911-38. This was before the westward expansion of Major League Baseball, during a time when the PCL was widely recognized as a third Major League. According to vintage baseball card expert Andy Broome of Beckett Media, Zeenut issued many memorable cards during its prolific 28-year run. Highlights included banned Hollywood star Roscoe Arbuckle, a late-career Jim Thorpe and Joe DiMaggio as a member of the PCL's San Francisco Seals. But the most intriguing and historically significant Zeenut baseball card was produced in 1916. It featured 23-year-old Oakland Oaks pitcher Jimmy Claxton, the first black player ever to receive such an honor.
Claxton was not only the first black player on a baseball card, he was the last to appear in organized baseball until Jackie Robinson's epochal 1946 debut with the International League's Montreal Royals. #ques_include {width:250px;float:right;margin-left:5px;} #ques_content {border-left:1px solid #000000;padding-left:5px;} .ques_schedule {margin-top:5px;font-size:11px;} .ques_dates {font-size:11px;font-style:italic;color:#999;} There was never any "official" color line in the world of baseball, and in the 19th century more than 30 players appeared in the professional ranks. But this era of uneasy and sporadic integration came to end in 1889, when Moses Fleetwood Walker was released by the IL's Syracuse franchise (Walker, incidentally, had been the first black player in Major League history when he suited up for the Toledo Blue Stockings of the American Association in 1884). All of this is to say that integration of professional baseball was a long, messy and often unpredictable and contradictory affair. The curious story of Jimmy Claxton illustrates this fact. Claxton was born in 1892 in the British Columbia mining town of Wellington to a white mother and black father. In the terms of the day, he was a "mulatto," an oversimplification of his diverse ethnic background. Claxton's heritage was Irish and English on his mother's side and African, French and Native American on his father's. This mixed background, and the uncertainty surrounding it, is what led to Claxton's history-making stint with the Oaks.
Just 23 in 1916, Claxton was already well into a long and winding baseball career that would stretch into his 50s and see him compete in 46 states. He began the season in Oakland pitching for a semi-professional club but soon came to the Oaks' attention. "A fellow named Hastings, a part-Indian from Oklahoma, I believe, followed every game we played. He was a baseball nut," Claxton recalled in a 1964 newspaper interview. "He introduced me to Herb McFarland, secretary of the Oakland Coast League club, and told him I was a fellow tribesman. I was signed to an organized baseball contract." Claxton made his debut with the last-place Oaks on May 28, 1916, facing visiting Los Angeles in the first game of a doubleheader. The result was underwhelming. He allowed three runs -- two earned -- on four hits and four walks over 2 1/3 innings. He did not strike out a batter and left the game before his team scored. The Oaks later rallied to take the lead, but Los Angeles regained it in the ninth after a controversial call at first base. When Oakland failed to score in the ninth, pandemonium ensued. "As the Oaks were retired with no scoring, the right field bleacherites moved on the field en masse," reported the Los Angeles Times. "A share of the grandstanders backed them up and before he knew what was happening, [umpire] Guthrie was the target for cushions, scantlings and anything that came in handy." The tumultuous ending overshadowed Claxton's debut, which did not seem to raise the curiosity of the assembled observers. The San Francisco Chronicle simply wrote that Claxton "was obviously nervous and cannot be fairly judged by his showing," while the Call reported that "the Redskin had a nice wind-up and a frightened look on his face, but not quite enough stuff to bother L.A. ... He may do better in the future." As it turns out, Claxton's debut also was his swan song. He was released by Oaks skipper Rowdy Elliot on June 3 without appearing in another contest. Elliot was quoted in the Chronicle as saying that Claxton "had nothing on the ball" and was not worth keeping on the roster. Claxton had his suspicions, however, noting in the 1964 newspaper interview that Elliot did "everything to keep from giving me a fair chance. ... No reason was given, but I knew." Regardless of the circumstances that led to Claxton's hasty dismissal, his time on the pitching mound was far from over. The peripatetic hurler broke the color line in the city of Tacoma's industrial league in 1924, pitching for a squad that also included his brother-in-law, Ernie Tanner. Eight years later, he earned a spot on the Cuban House of David's pitching staff. The ace of that team's formidable rotation was Luis Tiant, father of the Major League All-Star of the same name. Claxton's last recorded appearance came in 1956 in his hometown of Tacoma, where he participated in an old-timers' game. He was inducted to the Tacoma-Pierce County Sports Hall of Fame in 1969 but died the following year.
Then there's the Zeenut card, which was the result of a remarkable stroke of luck. A visit from the company's photographer happened to coincide with Claxton's brief stint with the Oaks, and he was summarily included in the 1916 set. Given its historical significance and advanced age, Claxton's card is exceedingly hard to come by. "There are no known records of how many cards were produced, nor if the Claxton card was pulled from production," Broome wrote. "It is assumed the Claxton card was produced and distributed in the same quantities as the other cards in the same series. ... The scarcity comes from every collector out hunting for a copy. The current demand far outweighs the surviving supply." One of the cards was sold at a 2005 Sotheby's auction for $7,200, giving an indication of how sought-after it has become. More valuable than the card itself is the story behind it, one of many that illustrate how baseball's march toward full integration was a complicated, uncertain and often absurd affair. But through it all, men like Claxton kept right on playing the game they loved. Thanks to Andy Broome, Beckett Media's senior vintage card grader, for sharing an unpublished story he had written on the 1916 Zeenuts Claxton card. Much of the additional information in this piece came from Tom Hawthorn's excellently researched article on Claxton, which is part of the Society for American Baseball Research's "Baseball Biography Project" and can be found online. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Facts are Stubborn Things, But They are Still Facts - Oregonian Posted: 22 Feb 2010 05:43 AM PST Message from fivefilters.org: If you can, please donate to the full-text RSS service so we can continue developing it. By Syndicated columnsFebruary 22, 2010, 5:46AMBy Leonard Pitts Jr.I got an e-mail the other day that depressed me. My mention of Johnson's heroics drew a rebuke from a fellow named Ken Thompson, which I quote verbatim and in its entirety: "Hate to tell you that blacks were not allowed into combat intell 1947, that fact. World War II ended in 1945. So all that feel good, one black man killing two dozen Nazi, is just that, PC bull." In response, my assistant, Judi Smith, sent Mr. Thompson proof of Johnson's heroics: a link to his page on the Web site of Arlington National Cemetery. She thought this settled the matter. Thompson's reply? "There is no race on headstones and they didn't come up with the story in tell 2002." Judi: "I guess you can choose to believe Arlington National Cemetery or not." At this point, Judi forwarded me their correspondence, along with a despairing note. She is probably somewhere drinking right now. You see, like me, she can remember a time when facts settled arguments. This is back before everything became a partisan shouting match, back before it was permissible to ignore or deride as "biased" anything that didn't support your worldview. If you and I had an argument and I produced facts from an authoritative source to back me up, you couldn't just blow that off. You might try to undermine my facts, might counter with facts of your own, but you couldn't just pretend my facts had no weight or meaning. But that's the intellectual state of the union these days, as evidenced by all the people who still don't believe the president was born in Hawaii or that the planet is warming. And by Mr. Thompson, who doesn't believe Henry Johnson did what he did. I could send him more proof, I suppose. Johnson is lauded in history books ("Before the Mayflower" by Lerone Bennett Jr., "The Dictionary of American Negro Biography" by Rayford Logan and Michael Winston) and in contemporaneous accounts (The Saturday Evening Post, the New York Times). I could also point out that blacks have fought in every war in American history, though before Harry Truman desegregated the military in 1948, they did so in Jim Crow units. Also, there were no Nazis in World War I. But those are "facts," and the whole point here is that facts no longer mean what they once did. I suppose I could also ignore him. But you see, Ken Thompson is not just some isolated eccentric. No, he is the Zeitgeist personified. To listen to talk radio, to watch TV pundits, to read a newspaper's online message board, is to realize that increasingly, we are a people estranged from critical thinking, divorced from logic, alienated from even objective truth. We admit no ideas that do not confirm us, hear no voices that do not echo us, sift out all information that does not validate what we wish to believe. I submit that any people thus handicapped sow the seeds of their own decline; they respond to the world as they wish it were rather to the world as it is. That's the story of the Iraq War. But objective reality does not change because you refuse to accept it. The fact that you refuse to acknowledge a wall does not change the fact that it's a wall. And you shouldn't have to hit it to find that out.
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