I have to admit that I have been ignoring the sabre rattling going on lately in regards to Iran. To me, its the same old situation, just move one country to the East.
I have read several books in the last few years about Iran, and it was rather suprising that I picked them up in the first place. The first one was Reading Lolita in Tehran. I thoroughly enjoyed the book, especially since I was a lit minor and it brought back fond memories of my college days. It did open my eyes to what Iranian women were like, even if they were painted in rather broad strokes. I also understood what motivated those college students in the 1970's who took our embassy hostage. I am not saying that I agree with them, their motivations and their actions, but the mood was clear. It can be compared to the mood that swept our country in the late 1960's, when it seemed anything was possible and there was a world of hope. Change, no matter what, would mean better lives and a better world, before bitter disillusionment sets in. Its that brief shining moment that you have before you realize what you currently have is actually worse than what you had before.
I really was not able to empathize with the women in the book group. Then again, I have problems empathizing with the women in the book group I used to attend. There are a variety of reasons women join book groups-some for the intellectual stimulation, others as a way to get out of the house, and for others its all about the network. You never really got a sense of what drove these women to literally risk their lives to read banned literature. Was it thumbing their noses at the regime? Was it the feeling of doing something dangerous? A sense of rebellion? Daring?
The second book that I read was Lipstick Jihad. The title alone intrigued me, and being a supporter of women's rights, thought it would discuss the opression of women in Islamist regimes, or something light and fluffy along those lines. Again, I was rather disappointed in the fact that it was more of a love letter to an Iran that seemed to exist in the author's dreams and memories. Unlike Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, you really can't go home again. The author thought that by returning to her ancesteral homeland she could connect with her family on a different level. Living in an oppresive culture can do that to you I guess.
The third book was Guests of the Ayatollah. I saw the special on Discovery Times channel around the same time the book came out. It was an extremely well written, well researched book as was the documentary. I have to admit, I did enjoy watching it better than reading it since I seem to have the attention span of an ant lately. It was sobering to think that our fellow Americans lived on a razors edge for over a year. I was 9 years old during the Iranian hostage crisis, a very politically astute 9 year old, but still a child. I remember watching what later became Nightline, with the picture of the blindfolded hostage being paraded about. I also remember the triumph of hearing the hostages were to be released as Regan was inaugarated.
I am also a great fan of ancient history and have spent time studying about ancient Persia. I would not say that I am an expert on the history, but I feel like I can at least respect the culture.
This being the background, I have to admit that I have been ingoring the sabre rattling going on of late, with our government laying the ground work for war with Iran. I agree that Ahmidinjad is a nut job, and probably should be taken out. I did applaud the bellicosity of Columbia's president when he was introducing him to speak (I did not agree with the fact that he spoke at the university). I did not stay tuned into CNN to hear the speech, I really did not care. I also did not pay any attention to the UN General Assembly.
I am nervous that things are going to start escalating to bring us to a full fledged Middle Eastern war. I am nervous that the doomsday clock will start ticking and we will be marching towards Armaggedon. Iran having nuclear weapons is not acceptable, and it is a very scary proposition because of the kook who could press the button. Also, I am hoping that we are not being lied to by the government regarding the fact that the Iranians are supplying the Iraqi insurgency and providing material support to our enemy.
I am hoping that we can pursue some other options before we undertake another military campaign in Iran. Divestment in companies that finance the regime in Iran may be a start. It worked with ending apartheid in South Africa. However, it does not seem like there is enough financial incentive to do so. Labelling them a terroristic or rogue state has not curtailed their activities, so name calling isn't going to help. Finding a third path may be the only way to avoid more conflict.

Immigration reform is not just a border security issue, there are so many more dimensions to it. To be pro-reform does not mean that you are promoting prejuidice, or xenophobic. Promoting immigration reform, and an attempt to stem the tide of illegal immigration will help America remain the strongest nation on Earth.

The impact of illegal immigration is being felt strongly in our already overburdened health care system. Emergency rooms-far from the border states-are dealing with an influx of Spanish speaking patients who are unable to tell staff what exactly is wrong with them. This is occurring in areas that do not traditionally have a Hispanic presence, places like Fargo, ND or Helena, MT. There are not even Spanish translators to allow patients to receive adequate care. I am sure that over time, if this is not addressed, there will be many patients dying or treated improperly due to a language barrier.

Another thing to consider is the fact that many of these illegal immigrants are escaping extreme poverty in a Third World nation. They have not had access to reliable medical care during their lives before immigrating to America. Most have not been immunized against common childhood diseases, such as whooping cough. The rates of whooping cough alone in the border region is staggering, reaching near epidemic proportions. What is most disheartening is the fact that these diseases were eradicated due to infant immuniztions in the United States. We may see a resurgence of these childhood killers at rates that recall the post-war era. In addition to not being immunized, basic hygiene is impossible to practice in the Third World. Many of the patients being treated for serious health problems in the ER’s of America could have prevented these issues by washing hands, washing food prior to eating, cooking food properly, etc. Since many illegal immigrants have not had access to reliable medical care, serious health problems may have gone untreated all their lives.

Since illegal immigrants live in the shadows, most if not all do not have health insurance. In most cases, the hospitals treating them absorb the cost for their care. As a result of absorbing the cost of uninsured patients, hospitals raise rates for other patients and have to change their contracted rates for those blessed with health insurance (which in turn harms the overall economy). Many of these immigrants-due to years without adequate primary care-have conditions that are extremely expensive to diagnose and treat. Chronic malnutrition also has done its damage which leads us down another path for these patients.

I am not suggesting that we do not provide medical care for these patients. I think it would be in the best interest of our government to start assisting the medical community to provide for the illegal immigrants infiltrating and overwhelming the system. They are already here and they require care. The government needs to provide translation services for hospitals and community clinics to ensure that patients are correctly diagnosed and treated. We need to provide clinics and doctors in Central America (where the majority of illegal immigrants originate from) with immunizations and vitamins to prevent many of the problems that can be resolved before they spiral out of control. Basic hygiene needs to be taught-as well as providing these people the means necessary to promote and practice it.

I started working in New York City while Ed Koch was still mayor. It was the New York City of the movies, dirty, smelly scummy and mean. I continued to work there during the early time of the Dinkins adminstration. It actually got worse, I can't explain how it could have possibily gotten any worse but it did. You were afraid to go anywhere after dark alone-like to the subway or the path station to get the hell out of dodge. I wasn't really interested in politics-I just wanted to be able to go into the City to go the Met or the Natural History Musuem, eat out, go to a show or Lincoln Center or a game. It seemed impossible not to be frightened of it.
I took a job in the country in Jersey (no, I am not being oxymoronic here, there really is country in Jersey, you just have to look a little harder). I stopped commuting the New York. Then Guiliani took over. He is a very polarizing figure. You either love his brash, total in your face New York persona, or you hate him. He was best known at that time as the Italian American who helped bring down the mob as a federal prosecutor. Then after he took over as mayor, instead of being tough on crime like people thought he would be, he went after quality of life issues. It was a case of WTF? Car alarms? Porn shops in Times Square? Squeegee guys? What is this guy doing?
It was a case of the broken window syndrome. If you have a neighborhood where one home has broken windows that never get fixed, someone else is less likely to mow their lawn. Then another home lets weeds grow. Its insidious. Pretty soon, the whole neighborhood looks like crap and no one really cares.
This was what had been happening with New York City for a long time-a lot of benign neglect. All of a sudden, Guiliani takes over and things slowly started improving. It got safer to go around the city. You didn't feel like you had to peer over your shoulder all the time. Broken windows got replaced. Graffiti disappeared. Times Square became a tourist destination for other reasons. (tourists you wanted to see, let's put it that way)
Guiliani did an amazing job in New York as mayor long before 9/11. But 9/11 will be his legacy, how he guided a city enveloped in grief tragedy and war to healing. Those of us wholost friends and family that day will never get over the losses entirely, but he was like a beneveloent father figure (even if his own kids hate him) who grieved with us.
Our ocuntry has a lot of broken windows. Maybe its time to call in the repairman.

If current estimates hold true, 10% of today’s children will be diagnosed with autism. It is a scary diagnosis for parents, as it takes away all their hopes for the future. Unfortunately, depending on where you live in the United States depends on the diagnositic measures used. In some parts of the country, direct observation methods are used, in others doctors rely on questionieres filled out by parents and caregivers. Standardization of care is necessary for this 10% of the population affected by this disorder. By combining methods, children can be diagnosed better and more efficiently.
Autism affects all aspects of a child’s life. It affects their social interactions, their education, and physical health. Many autistic children suffer from digestive issues (ranging from constipation to diarrhea), chronic ear infections and sleep disturbances. It is possible to treat each of these issues separately, and in a lot of cases only the physical symptoms are treated. Access to education is limited by where a child lives-the more affluent a community, the more likely it is for a child to receive therapies in school that will be beneficial to their lives. By implementing a national protocol for autism, special education and resource teachers will be able to use the same methods and research to benefit these children. We currently have national standards for education due to No Child Left Behind. However, our children who have been diagnosed as autistic are being left behind.
Autism is considered a spectrum disorder. That is, children diagnosed with it are on a continuum from being considered high functioning to locked in their own worlds. With a high functioning child, they can lead almost “normal” lives. However, the further down the spectrum a child goes, the less likely it is for them to be able to assimilate into society. By developing a set of protocols for autistic children, it will help guide schools and caregivers to appropriate methods of discipline, education and integration.
Since the rates of diagnosis are staggering (it is an epidemic), something needs to be done in order to manage the lives of these children. As they grow up into adulthood, special considerations will need to be made in our society to manage their disability. While under 18, most autistic children have an IEP (individualized education plan) that guarantees their right to an education and provide services and therapies to help them with their daily lives. These services include speech, occupational and physical therapies as well as classroom accommodations. As this generation grows up, there are no protections for them once they become of age. Instead of waiting for them to age out of the system and putting them into the great unknown, we should be brainstorming as a country for ways to integrate them into our world.
Standardizing care and developing protocols for autism is the first step in this general direction. There are treatment protocols for other childhood diseases and developmental issues (if you are in California and asthmatic, you receive similar care as if you were in New York). By standardizing the types of care and diagnositic tools, we are guaranteeing that these kids-our future-will receive the best care possible. More research needs to be done into what is causing this epidemic, funding that is extremely important to not only finding a cure, but discovering methods to help these children cope. Please consider funding for autism research as a top priority.

It seems as if the murder rate in major cities as skyrocketed in the past few years. So far this year it seems as if in the city of brotherly love they have been averaging a murder a day. This is after a decade or so decline in the rates of violent crime across the country. Smaller communities are also not immune to this spike in violence. Law enforcement and the Justice Department seem at a loss at what’s driving this increase.

I however, have a few theories about it. The dropout and failure to graduate rates in major cities across the United States has been slowly increasing over the last decade, despite no child left behind and other legislations. In New York City, for example, the graduation rate is 43.5% in 2005. In San Antonio, TX the graduation rate was about 50% for the time period. In today’s society, it is virtually impossible to get a meaningful job without at least a high school diploma. Jobs in the inner city have been disappearing for years. Most of those who have dropped out of high school have no hope of starting a career that will pay them a living wage or benefits.

Why is there such a failure in our education system? Where is the disconnect? Part of the problem lies in school funding. Schools in the inner city are largely forgotten. The infrastructure is crumbling-the buildings are literally falling apart. Its not isolated in New York or Chicago or Los Angeles either. Schools in such diverse communities as St. Louis, Trenton and Miami are also suffering from a lack of building maintenance. Textbooks and other materials are hopelessly outdated and in short supply. Most inner city schools do not have computers, let alone high speed internet connections. In today’s digital world, a lack of computer skills means a dead end job. Teachers are mandated by No Child Left Behind to teach students how to pass the tests, rather than the critical thinking skills needed to learn. Many city school systems are overburdened and do not have the ability or funding to screen students for potential learning disabilities or other developmental delays. It is should be no surprise that the success stories are made into movies of the week and the day to day grind that these students deal with is largely forgotten.

It is not just a failure of our education system. Many of the social service programs put into place to help families in the margins have actually contributed to the destruction of the family unit. Women were told that they would receive more benefits if they remained unmarried, leading to a generation that were raised largely fatherless. The welfare to workfare programs in the 90’s were a great idea on paper, but in practice they helped add to the problems our cities are dealing with today. Most of the people who were thrown off the welfare rolls by this mandate were single parents, with little or no job skills for today’s marketplace. In order to work, someone would have to watch their children, but no daycare system was put into place. Children were left to fend for themselves in many instances, which created another level of problems. The lack of supervision has risen in direct proportion to a resurgence of gang activity. Adequate housing that is affordable is rare, and we have seen the demolotion of housing projects over the last 15 years. 81% of major cities were forced to turn away the homeless from emergency shelters due to a lack of room. Families line benches in the social services offices in New York City, where they wait for a cot in an emergency shelter. Some surveys have put the number of homeless families as high as 40% of the homeless population. These numbers will continue to grow as we deal with the disaster of the subprime housing market and the number of foreclosures.

Adding to these tensions is a lack of concern over health care and proper nutrition. Many families in the inner city lack access to a supermarket. Their shopping choices are bodegas or convenience stores or fast food (there is a higher concentration of fast food outlets based on a lower per capita income). Having a lack of options has increased health care crisis in these communities, places who can least afford it. In a January, 2004 paper published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, research has shown that there is a correlation between the poorer a person is and how obese they are. Rising food prices are making it virtually impossible for a family to eat according to the USDA guidelines. The WIC program does not cover fresh produce, and in some cases families do not even access to fresh fruits and vegetables. By eating an unhealthy diet, families living in poverty are more likely to develop other health issues. Incidences of diabetes, stroke and heart disease are higher in the urban setting than in rural or suburban America. In addition to being at a higher risk for these health issues, many in the inner city do not have health insurance. The prohibitive cost of prescription medication (which may treat or even cure some of these problems) prevents many from treating illness at a curable stage, rather than waiting for some more severe complications. Additionally, many women lack vital prenatal care to prevent complications. Even something simple as prenatal vitamins may be out of reach for some. Many in the urban community rely on charity clinics for their routine medical care, failing that they turn to the emergency room. Most emergency rooms nationwide are overburdened, but this new level of subacute care may force those who serve the cities to close. This in turn, will cause another level of problems for those who live in the inner city.

It seems as if the only hope many in the urban environment is to turn to violent crime. The number of illegal guns on the streets have skyrocketed over the last decade. Gun control laws do not control the flow of illegal firearms on the city streets. For decades, guns have been run up and down the I-95 corridor. A decade ago, the New Jersey State Police attempted to crack down on these gun runners, with Christine Whitman in tow. What had started off as a publicity ploy ended up as a media disaster, with the State Police being rendered mute in attempting to stop the trafficking. The increase in gang activity, especially in cities like Trenton, has overwhelmed law enforcement not prepared to deal with it. Jails are overcrowded, the court system is overburdened, and unable to keep up with caseloads.

The crime rate seems to be growing exponentially, and unless something is done to address the root cause of problems, it will continue to grow. It seems as if a blind eye has been turned on those in most need of our attention. Marches can draw attention to the problem, but we need solutions.

Since Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize last week, I've been doing a lot of thinking about environmental concerns. Actually, I've been doing that for about 20 years now, but its finally really trendy. We've seen a shift in thinking in the last few years, and things are starting to get interesting. The general public is starting to be concerned about the impact their lives have on the rest of the world. Its like the butterfly effect-a butterfly in the Amazon flaps its wings and it effects Japan.

As a nation, we need to be concerned about the impact all that we do on the rest of the world. We are the largest, most prosperous country in terms of per capita income and consumption. We, as a nation, need to focus on what we can do in our everyday lives to make this world a better place.

First, and most obvious, decrease consumption. It does sound quite simple, doesn't it? In practice it is much more difficult, and expensive. However, by switching to just one energy efficient light bulb, you are saving 80 tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year. Just one lightbulb! Imagine if everyone in the United States switched to energy efficient light bulbs for half the lighting in their homes, in a year we would significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions by a greater number than if we all stopped driving. San Fransisco is pledging to turn off all the lights for an hour this upcoming Saturday. It is an interesting proposition, but the cynical side of me thinks that its reeking of a publicity stunt.

What would happen if we all turned off the lights for one hour in America? In the city, you would be able to see the stars. You could have a romantic dinner by candlelight. We could relive our pioneer days. I was always a Little House on the Prairie addict as a child and would pretend to be living back then. However, I don't know if I could do it for even a hour. Several weeks ago, we lost power for a few hours and it was hell. My son is afraid of the dark, so his crying and anxiety were killing me.

There are so many simple common sense answers to saving the planet. Recycle, reuse and reduce. There are better energy saving options-low flush toilets and showers, collecting rain water to water your lawn, carpooling. I would love to say that I do it all to save the planet, but it is baby steps for my family. Just getting my son to turn off the light or tv when he leaves the room is a minor triumph. Its like I won the Nobel prize myself