Category Archives: Freedom

December 1, 2019 marked the 60th anniversary of the signing in Washington of the Antarctic Treaty, the main legal instrument for managing practical activities and regulating interstate relations in the territory 60parallel South.

On May 2, 1958, the U.S. State Department sent invitations to the governments of Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Chile, France, Japan, Great Britain, New Zealand, Norway, the then South African Union and the USSR for the International Antarctic Conference. It was proposed to convene it in Washington in 1959. The group of participants at the Conference was limited to the countries that had carried out Antarctic projects as part of the International Geophysical Year (IGY) (July 1957-December 1958).

The Soviet Union supported the idea of convening a Conference. In a letter of reply, the Kremlin stressed that the outcome of the Conference should be the International Treaty on Antarctica with the following basic principles: peaceful use of Antarctica with a total ban on military activities in the region and freedom of scientific research and exchange of information between the Parties to the Treaty.

The Soviet government also proposed expanding the group of participants at the Conference to include all parties interested in the issue.

In those years, the international legal resolution of the Antarctic problem had become an urgent task. In the first half of the 20th century, territorial claims to Antarctica had been expressed by Australia, Argentina, Chile, France, Great Britain, New Zealand and Norway.

In response to the Soviet proposal, the United States kept all the territorial claims of various countries on the agenda, but it undertook to freeze them. Russia, however, believed that third parties territorial claims had to be denied. At the same time, the position of both States coincided almost entirely insofar as the right to make territorial claims for the ownership of the entire continent could be retained only as pioneers.

The USSR relied on the findings of the expedition by Russian Admiral F.G.Th. von Bellingshausen and his compatriot Captain M.P. Lazarev on the sloops-of-war Vostok and Mirnyj in 1819-1821, while the United States relied on the explorations of N.B. Palmers expedition on the sloop Hero in 1820.

The Conference opened on October 15, 1959 in Washington DC. It was attended by delegations from twelve countries that had carried out studies as part of IGYs programmes in Antarctica.

The Conference ended on December 1, 1959 with the signing of the Antarctic Treaty. This is the main international law instrument governing the planets Southern polar region.

The basic principles of the Treaty are the following: peaceful use of the region, as well as broad support for international cooperation and freedom of scientific research. Antarctica has been declared a nuclear-free zone. Previously announced territorial claims in Antarctica have been maintained but frozen and no new territorial claims are to be accepted. The principle of freedom to exchange information and the possibility to inspect the activities of the Parties to the Antarctic Treaty have been proclaimed. The agreement is open to accession by any UN Member State and has no period of validity.

Over time, it has been proposed that the political and legal principles of the Treaty be further developed in the framework of regularly convened consultative meetings. Decisions at these meetings can only be taken by the Parties to the Treaty that have a permanent expedition station in Antarctica.

All decisions are taken exclusively by consensus, in the absence of reasoned objections. The first Antarctic Treaty Consultative Meeting was held in the Australian capital, Canberra, from 10 to 24 July 1961.

Until 1994 (when the 18th Consultative Meeting was held in Kyoto), meetings were held every one or two years, but since the 19th Meeting held in Seoul in 1995 they have begun to be convened on a yearly basis. The most recent Meeting, the 42nd one, was held in Prague from 11 to 19 July 2019. The 43rdConsultative Meeting will be hosted in Paris on 14-24 June, 2021: the suspension of the Meeting that was to be held in Helsinki from 24 May to 5 June 2020 was due to the Covid-19 pandemic. The 17th Meeting was held in Venice, Italy, on November 11-20, 1992.

The main decisions of the Meetings until 1995 were called recommendations and since 1996 ATCM measures. They come into force following the ratification procedure by the Consultative Parties. A total of 198 recommendations and 194 measures have been adopted.

Over sixty years, the number of Parties to the Antarctic Treaty has increased from twelve founders in 1959 to 54 in 2019. These include 29 countries in Europe, nine in Asia, eight in South America, four in North and Central America, three in Oceania and one in Africa.

The number of Consultative Parties to the Treaty that have national expeditions in Antarctica keeps on growing: Australia, Argentina, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Chile, the Peoples Republic of China, (South) Korea, Ecuador, Finland, France, Germany, Japan, Great Britain, India, Italy, Norway, New Zealand, the Netherlands, Peru, Poland, Russia, Spain, South Africa, Sweden, Ukraine, Uruguay and the United States of America.

The remaining 25 Antarctic Treaty countries with Non-Consultative Party status are invited to attend relevant meetings, but are not included in the decision-making process.

In the 1970s and 1980s, the desire to join the Treaty was reinforced by the desire of many countries to develop Antarcticas biological and mineral resources. Growing practical interest in Antarctica and its resources led to the need to adopt additional environmental documents.

During that period, recommendations for the protection of Antarcticas nature were adopted almost every year at the Consultative Meetings. They served as starting material for the creation of three Conventions, which protect the natural environment: 1) the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Seals; 2) the Convention for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources; and 3) the Convention for the Regulation of Antarctic Mineral Resources.

Later, based on the recommendations and Conventions adopted, the Protocol on Environmental Protection to the Antarctic Treaty was drafted. It became an environmental part of the Treaty and was signed on October 4, 1991 for a period of 50 years at the Madrid Consultative Meeting hence it is also called the Madrid Protocol.

According to the Protocol, Antarctica is declared a natural reserve for peace and science and should be preserved for future generations. After 1991, the new countries that adhered to the Treaty started to show interest in participating in large-scale international research projects on global climate change and environmental protection.

Considering the above, Antarctica can be described as a global scientific laboratory: there are about 77 stations on the continent, which have supplied their scientists from 29 countries. They explore the continent itself, the patterns of climate change on Earth and the space itself.

However, how did it happen that the territories of the sixth continent became the target of scientists from all over the world?

In 1908, Great Britain announced that Graham Land (the Antarctic peninsula south of Ushuaia) and several islands around Antarctica were under the authority of the Governor of the Falkland/Malvinas Islands (claimed by Argentina). The reason for this was that they were/are close to the archipelago.

Furthermore, Great Britain and the United States preferred not to acknowledge that Antarctica had been discovered by the Russian explorers Bellingshausen and Lazarev. According to their version, the discoverer of the continent was James Cook, who saw the impenetrable sea ice of Antarctica, but at the same time confidently insisted that there was no continent south of the Earth.

A dozen years later, the appetites of the British Empire grew and in 1917 it decided to seize a large sector of Antarctica between 20 and 80meridian West as far as the South Pole. Six years later, Great Britain added to its possessions the territory between 150meridian East and 160meridian West, discovered in 1841 by the explorer Capt. J.C. Ross, and assigned it to the administration of its New Zealands colony.

The British Dominion of Australia received a plot of land between 44 and 160 meridian East in 1933. In turn, France claimed its rights to the area between 136 and 142 meridian East in 1924: that area was discovered in 1840 and named Adlie Land by Capt. J. Dumont dUrville. Great Britain did not mind, and the Australian sector was not disputed by France.

In 1939, Norway decided to have a piece of the Antarctic pie, declaring that the territory between 20 meridian West and 44 meridian East, namely Queen Maud Land, was its own. In 1940 and 1942, Chile and Argentina entered the dispute and the lands they chose not only partially overlapped, but also invaded Britains Antarctic territories.

Chile submitted a request for an area between 53 and 90 meridian West; Argentina, for an area between 25 and 74meridian West. The situation began to heat up.

Furthermore, in 1939, Germany announced the creation of the German Antarctic Sector, namely New Swabia, while Japan also formalised its claims to a substantial area of Antarctic ice.

Again in 1939, for the first time the USSR expressed as a premise and postulate that Antarctica belonged to all mankind. After the end of World War II, all legal acts of the Third Reich were abandoned and Japan renounced all its overseas territorial claims under the San Francisco Peace Treaty. According to unofficial Japanese statements, however, the country claims its own technical equipment: according to its own version, the deposits lie so deep that no one except Japan possesses the technology to recover and develop them.

By the middle of the 20th century, disputes over Antarctica became particularly acute: three out of seven countries claiming the lands were unable to divide up the areas by mutual agreement. The situation caused considerable discontent among other States, and hampered scientific research. Hence it came time to implement that idea, the results of which have been outlined above.

In 1998, the Protocol on Environmental Protection was added to the Antarctic Treaty. In 1988, the Convention on the Management of Antarctic Mineral Resources had also be opened for signature, but it did not enter into force due to the refusal of the democratic Australian and French governments to sign it. That Convention, however, enshrined great respect for the environment, which laid the foundations for the Protocol on Environmental Protection. Article 7 of that Protocol prohibits any activity relating to mineral resources in Antarctica other than scientific activity. The duration of the Protocol is set at 50 years, i.e. until 2048.

Most likely, its period of validity will be extended, but we have to be prepared for any development of events. Earths resources are inevitably running out and it is much cheaper to extract oil and coal in Antarctica than in space. So an oxymoronically near distant dystopian future awaits us.

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Freedom of Navigation Operation by US War Ships and UNCLOS 1982 - Modern Diplomacy

After the battering handed out by Little Marvins horror anthology Them and the virus, I was in no frame of mind to indulge in more vicarious viewing of the amount of punishment a body could take. Barry Jenkins adaptation of Colson Whiteheads The Underground Railway, however, is a moving testament to the power of freedom.

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In an interview with this writer, Jenkins spoke of how the adapting the Pulitzer Prize-winning novel was a matter of curation, of deciding what to keep, what to leave out and what to flesh out. Adapting a slim, 320-page novel into a 10-part series, makes one wonder about the wisdom of padding out a story that is effective in its minimalism.

In the same interview, Jenkins talks of how the show is its own beast, and it most certainly is. The novel and the show are both set in the 19th century and tell of a slave Cora (Thuso Mbedu), who escapes from a plantation in Georgia with a fellow slave, Caesar (Aaron Pierre). The two uses the Underground Railroad, historically a system of safe houses to help runaway slaves.

The novel and series, however, depict the railroad as an actual railway with engines and tracks, engineers and station masters. Coras journey from Georgia through the Carolinas, Tennessee and Indiana from the book is beautifully picturised. The additions include Grace (Mychal-Bella Bowman) who hides in the crawl space with Cora in North Carolina and a fleshing out of slave catcher Ridgeways (Joel Edgerton), and Coras mother, Mabels (Sheila Atim) back story.

The Underground Railroad

While the cast is all around brilliant, Edgerton is riveting as Ridgeway, creating a slave catcher who is no caricature, rather a flesh-and-blood human being desperately trying to justify his actions. His relationship with his father, his jealousy of Mack (Iron E Singleton), who his father admires, and, which drives him (Ridgeway) to his first act of cruelty are all brought to frightening relief in a bravura performance. His relationship with Homer (Chase W. Dillon) the black boy he bought for five dollars and immediately set free is fascinating.

Thuso as Cora is the beating heart of the story and imbues her with a quiet strength and enterprise. As Jenkins mentioned, The Underground Railroad is also about parents and children. When Mabel runs away, Cora feels an acute sense of abandonment which she carries in her heart from then on. Also Mabel is the slave that got away for Ridgeway, driving him to an Ahab-like pursuit of Cora. Pierre as Caesar, who was promised manumission but did not get it, William Jackson Harper as Royal, an Underground Railroad operative who has a romantic relationship with Cora, Gloria (Amber Gray) and John Valentine (Peter de Jersey) who run the prosperous Valentine farm, which offers Cora shelter for a time are all unforgettable characters thanks to the cast.

Coras journey is like a pilgrims progress through the USA, and a way of looking at the countrys troubled history. While on the one hand you have Ridgeway holding forth to Homer on the American imperative, which calls for subjugation and If not subjugate, eradicate, exterminate, you also have Valentine say, America too, is a delusion, the grandest one of all. This nation shouldnt exist, for its foundations are murder, theft, and cruelty.

There are people like Sam (Will Poulter) who help Cora on her journey, others like Martin (Damon Herriman) who do not wish to get involved and still others like Ethel (Lily Rabe) whose help brings disastrous consequences. Beautifully shot, though The Underground Railroad does not shy away from the cruelties heaped upon human beings, there is not a gratuitous shot in all that horrific violence.

The pacing is excellent with ruminative episodes alternating with action-packed onesthe ninth and tenth episodes illustrate this so well. After the sound and fury of Valentines Farm in Indiana in the ninth episode which is almost a mini movie at 77 minutes, the tenth episode, Mabel seems almost dreamlike. With hardly any dialogue, it links back metaphorically and literally to the first episode, to the beginning, which is the end. The snake in the first and last episode brings to mind the circular nature of things in what is easily the best television of the year.

The Underground Railroad is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video

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The Underground Railroad review: Moving testament to the power of freedom - The Hindu

Presented by:Christopher Boggs, Supervising Attorney, Illinois Attorney Generals Office

Noon-1PM, Thursday, May 20, 2021

University of Illinois Extension Community and Economic Development will air a live webinar on Freedom of Information Act on Thursday, May 20, 2021, from Noon 1:00 p.m. Christopher Boggs, Assistant Attorney General from the Illinois Attorney Generals Office, will updated information and tools required to implement this policy at the local level and avoid violations.

Supervising Attorney Christopher R. Boggshas been with the Public Access Bureau in the Office of the Illinois Attorney General since September 2012. Prior to joining the Attorney Generals Office, Mr. Boggs served as a Post-Doctoral Legal Fellow in the Office of University Counsel for the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Mr. Boggs has also previously clerked for Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigans Office of Special Counsel, The Honorable Joe Billy McDade of the Central District of Illinois, and United States Senator Barack Obama. Mr. Boggs received his Juris Doctorate,cum laude, and bachelors degree in Political Science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

University of Illinois Extension provides equal opportunities in programs and employment. If you need a reasonable accommodation to participate in this program, please contact Nancy Esarey Ouedraogo at[emailprotected].

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Local Government Education: Freedom Of Information Act - Edgar County Watchdogs

Freedom and Liberty High School seniors celebrated their prom Friday night at the SteelStacks campus in Bethlehem.

Last year, proms were canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, but this year, many local schools were determined to find a way to celebrate it.

Due to decreased student interest in attending and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the Bethlehem Area School District decided to hold a joint outdoor prom for its students this year.

This years prom looked much different than past years. All students had to wear masks, there was no traditional sit-down dinner and no dance floor.

Students were entertained by their favorite music from a number of speakers as they strolled the Hoover Mason Trestle.

Scroll through the photos above, and to see students arrive all dressed up.

If these photos have you looking for more prom, check out the photos from 2019:

Freedom High School prom 2019

Liberty High School prom 2019

Dont forget to check back to lehighvalleylive.com/prom for full coverage of the celebrations across our region.

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Saed Hindash may be reached at shindash@lehighvalleylive.com.

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Freedom and Liberty seniors celebrate their 2021 prom together (PHOTOS) - lehighvalleylive.com

FREEDOM Trisha Speicher sat perched on a bucket near the Freedom softball dugout, diligently keeping score as her younger sister Tara and the Bulldogstook on Beaver Falls in early April.

The Bulldogs were six outs away from getting their first victory of the season. But just as a new batter was about to step into the box, everything stopped.

I was sitting on the bucket keeping score and I heard my grandma say, David, Trisha Speicher recalled. She never calls him that unless hes in trouble.

David Speicher is Tara and Trisha's grandfather. On April 6, he was sitting in his chair, right behind the home plate backstop, there to support Tara, who is the senior captain for the Bulldogs.

Just after the final out in the top of the fifth inning was recorded, something went wrong with David. His wife Beverly was the first to notice.

We were sitting there watching the game and he started making a strange noise, Beverly Speicher said. He was wearing a baseball cap and sunglasses so I couldnt see a lot of his face. I asked him if he was OK, and I got no answer.

David and Beverly have been married for a long time, and getting an answer from David on the first try isn't uncommon for Beverly. But on this occasion, David wasn't just having trouble hearing his wife.

I stood up and asked him again if he was OK and he still didnt respond, Beverly said. Then I flipped up his sunglasses and yelled his name. Thats when everyone else noticed that he needed help.

Amy Speicher Davids daughter-in-law was sitting right next to David and Beverly. As a registered nurse at Heritage Valley Beaver Hospital, it took just seconds to recognize that David needed medical assistance. She immediately sprang into action.

His eyes were open, but he was non-responsive, Amy said. I yelled for Chuck (Amys husband and assistant coach on the Freedom softball team) to help me get him down on the ground so we could start CPR.

David Speicher was having a heart attack. He was unresponsive with no pulse. But in a dark moment, the community sprang into action.

Amy immediately took control, ordering Trisha a sophomore at Slippery Rock University to run to her vehicle and grab a one-way valve mask to assist with CPR.

I was literally thinking, Man, I used to be a lot faster than this, Trisha recalled as she sprinted to her parents vehicle. I wasnt even completely sure what I was looking for. I just remember hearing glove box. I found a white bag inside and lucky thats what they needed.

After recognizing the situation taking place behind home plate, Greg Scheck and his father Jim Scheck, rushed to offer their help. Both are volunteer firefighters at Big Knob VFD in Rochester and have valuable experience in scenarios like this.

Corey Waggoner and Mike Guraly were two more parents of Freedom players who came to assist. Beaver Falls assistant coach Dave Clark also rushed out of the Tigers' dugout to lend a hand.

I was running the scoreboard and all of a sudden I heard my daughter yelling for me to come help, Scheck said. When I ran to Amy, she told me David didnt have a pulse. As soon as I heard that, my training kicked in.

As the six medical professionals in attendance did everything they could, valuable resources arrived shortly after. Trisha returned with the mask, then Freedom athletic trainer Alex Rawding arrived with an automated external defibrillator (AED). Together, their efforts ended up saving David Speichers life.

It was just amazing how quickly Amy, Greg and everyone else stepped up to help my dad, Chuck Speichersaid. In less than five minutes we had people giving him CPR and had an AED used on him. That quick response time is why my dad is still here.

It shocked him once and within a couple of minutes he was responsive again, Amy said. He even knew the score of the game. We asked him where he was and he responded, The last I recall, it was 5-1, which was the score.

While sudden life-saving situations might be more of a norm for the nurses and EMTs who helped that evening, Rawding said it was a first-time experience for her, despite being an athletic trainer for nearly a decade.

It was my first time using an AED on someone, Rawding said. In a moment like that, you just go on autopilot. It wasnt something I really even thought about. Everyone there did what they did because it had to be done.

Its now been over a month since David Speicher suffered a heart attack at his granddaughters softball game. He's feeling better - well enough, in fact, that he was in attendance to celebrate Tara's final game in a Freedom uniform on May 12.

After the AED helped David regain consciousness, he said he was told to lay on his side until an ambulance arrived. David was taken to Heritage Valley Beaver, where he spent the next five days after having a pacemaker installed.

As David continues to recover, all of those who were attendance that evening have started to reflect on everything that took place.

For Tara Speicher, the sight of her grandfather in pain was nearly unbearable. Yet, the support she received in the dugout from her teammates during one of the scariest moments of her life is something she says she wont forget.

I really couldnt do much because I dont have the medical training other people there did, Tara said. I just remember my team being there for me the whole time. The whole team was praying for me at one point. That meant a lot.

Freedom head coach Bill Boggs was the first person to shine light on the entire situation, posting his praise on his Facebook page for all the individuals who stepped in to help. He believes the horrific circumstances ended up showing everything that is great about his community.

People normally come to our games to see the kids play and hope for a win, Boggs said. On that day, it was so much more than just a high school event. It was amazing.

Community pride was a common theme amongst all of those who were asked to speak about what took place on April 6. Another common theme expressed was gratitude. No one voiced their appreciation more than David and Beverly Speicher.

If this wouldve happened at any other place, I wouldnt be around, Dave said. The people there that evening are the reason Im still here.

We cant say enough how appreciative we are, Beverly said. It was a group effort that everyone there deserves credit for. We both have so much love for everyone that was involved.

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Community comes together to save life at Freedom softball game - The Times

About 100 demonstrators from all over Colorado flocked to the steps of the State Capitol Saturday afternoon to "stand up for freedom."

Those in attendance held signs reading "show your smile again," "no 2 mask, yes 2 freedom," and "unmask our children," and waving American, Don't Tread on Me and Trump 2020 flags. Additionally, a caravan of around six cars circled the capitol honking in time to the chants.

"This is really what it means to be American," said State Rep. Tonya Van Beber, R-Eaton. "People are here showing their support for the things that we hold dear and that's our constitutional right."

The rally was hosted by Colorado Rising UP (CRU), the state's chapter of Worldwide Demonstration. It was held in conjunction with other rallies held in over 100 cities around the world, said Mark Berger, a spokesperson for CRU.

Wesley Johnson and Kelly Fuge of Boulder were among those who participated in the event. Johnson said he felt obligated to stand up for freedom of speech, medical freedom and to encourage people to show others their smiles again.

"I'd feel pretty empty if I wasn't here, I'd be missing out on an important opportunity to raise awareness of everything going on," Johnson said. "This is so important and I hope the greater Denver and Colorado feels and sees what we're doing."

During the peaceful demonstration several speakers including Van Beber, addressed the crowd on the west side of the building. Following the speakers people sang, danced and enjoyed what was described as a "Freedom Party"

Some driving around downtown Denver honked their horns in support.

"Our rally started about 20 hours ago in the Philippines," said Andrea, an organizer who declined to give her last name while speaking to the group, "We are here to stand up for our rights and won't stop after today's event is over."

And many at the rally including Berger said Saturday's rally will create a domino affect not only in Colorado, but across the globe.

"This is only the beginning," Berger said. "People truly care about their freedoms and we will never stop standing up for what is right."

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About 100 people gather to 'stand for freedom' at Colorado State Capitol - OutThere Colorado

In the 1840s, a doctor at Vienna General Hospital became convinced that the reason for widespread deaths of mothers after childbirth was to be found on the hands of the doctors treating them.

This was well before the germ theory of disease transmission was commonly accepted. What Ignaz Semmelweis noticed, among other things, was that mothers in the wards overseen by midwives were not dying at the same high rates as those in wards overseen by the doctors who also were treating patients all over the rest of the hospital.

Semmelweis recognized that the doctors were contaminating the patients, and became an aggressive, sometimes abrasive proponent of something that many people in his field simply could not accept: hand-washing.

Other physicians all over the world published angry articles opposing Semmelweis ideas, writes Kari Nixon, a Whitworth professor who studies social reactions to disease, in her new book on pandemics through history. Many doctors suggested that Semmelweis was endangering women by encouraging them to indulge in worry and thus fear their doctors.

It sounds nearly unbelievable to modern ears. But this simple practice that is now accepted universally as a key practice for disease prevention was resisted with great passion a corollary, in some ways, to the vigorous debates over masking and other guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.

What Nixon shows in her engaging, informative new book, Quarantine Life From Cholera to COVID-19, is that such resistance to public health measures is not unusual at all. Its the norm whenever theres a tension between personal freedom and public health, and when new ideas or practices challenge norms and traditions from hand-washing to enforced quarantines to speed limits to wearing masks.

She said that, as she examined the history of disease outbreaks and social responses, she had wondered how often such conflicts might arise.

Basically, the answer is every single one, she said last week in an interview. Every time. Always.

Nixons book, which will be published by Tiller Press on June 15 and is now available for preorder, delves into the many ways that the human experience echoes throughout the history of pandemics, and what we can learn from that. Her academic specialty combines an expertise in Victorian literature and the tension between isolation and community during disease outbreaks, a field that produces some fascinating headlines for journal articles, such as: Keep Bleeding: Hemmoraghic Sores, Trade and the Necessity of Leaky Boundaries in Defoes Journal of the Plague Year.

But Quarantine Life is not aimed at an academic audience. It includes disease history and the lessons of past pandemics, depictions of pandemics in literature, personal observations about the pandemic politics of the moment, and takeaway lessons from past mistakes and successes. The chief merit of the book is its readability it is never less than engaging, as Nixon shifts between subjects and styles.

Her sources are as likely to be her personal communications with a local pastor, plumber or artist literally as they are scholarly works on disease from the 1850s.

I just really felt like this was my time to try to speak to more people, she said. I have a deep conviction that scholars should use their expertise to communicate with people outside the ivory tower.

The book includes passages about past disease outbreaks, from cholera in the 1700s to the Spanish Flu in the early 1900s to Ebola in the 1990s, gleaning lessons from the mistakes and success of the past.

A key theme is the conflict between personal freedom and social responsibility, and the ways in which that conflict has been a part of every effort to contain the spread of disease. Nixons book shows that this isnt a coronavirus issue or one that reflects a unique character of the current moment so much as a condition of being human.

Its easy to think of somebody who lived in 1720 as living in some completely different reality than us, and in many ways, of course, they did, she said. But what I see is, people are people.

She urges people consider the fact that everyone is acting out of their own experience and a set of deep beliefs or habits. In trying to encourage measures to protect the public health, she writes, finding a point of common understanding and empathy will help produce better, more effective arguments than scolding.

Im not calling for plain old niceness, she writes. What Im calling for is effectiveness. (A)rguing about masks in particular, and health recommendations most generally, may go further if we dont personally see the opposition as our enemy.

Which brings us back to Semmelweis. The Viennese doctor who was so far ahead of his colleagues on the importance of hand-washing was infuriated by the resistance to his ideas. As Nixon writes, he was kind of a jerk about the hand-washing thing.

He could be haughty, self-righteous and self-aggrandizing. Can any of us on the pro-mask team relate? He attacked those who disagreed with him and called one dissenter a murderer.

As a result, his legacy is twofold: He landed on a crucial idea about disease transmission and a simple way to prevent it and he failed to help that prevention take hold, perhaps because of his approach.

He may have been right, Nixon wrote, but he wasnt particularly effective during his lifetime.

Contact the writer at shawnv@spokesman.com or (509) 459-5431.

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Shawn Vestal: When it comes to disease and freedom, Whitworth professor shows the past is prologue - The Spokesman-Review

WASHINGTON (AP) The Biden administration on Wednesday took aim at China and a number of other countries for repressing religious freedom as it forges ahead with its aim of restoring human rights as a primary focus of American foreign policy.

The condemnation was similar to that lodged by the Trump administration, which had been criticized for prioritizing religious freedom over other rights, and reflected continuity in the U.S. position that Chinas crackdown on Muslims and other religious minorities in western Xinjiang constitutes genocide. Yet, a senior official said religious freedom is just one element in the administrations broader human rights strategy.

Much as his predecessor did, Secretary of State Antony Blinken used the release of the State Departments annual International Religious Freedom Report to lambaste China for severe restrictions on its citizens ability to worship freely. He also announced a travel ban on a former senior Chinese official the U.S. accuses of persecuting members of the Falun Gong religious sect.

China broadly criminalizes religious expression and continues to commit crimes against humanity and genocide against Muslim Uyghurs and members of other religious and ethnic minority groups, Blinken told reporters as he unveiled the report for the calendar year 2020.

The report itself said Christians, Muslims, Tibetan Buddhists and Falun Gong practitioners in China all suffer from severe societal discrimination in employment, housing, and business opportunities.

While Blinken did not spare China from criticism, his remarks were less extensive than those of former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo during previous religious freedom events. Pompeo was particularly harsh in his condemnation of Chinas treatment of the Uyghurs and other religious minorities, often devoting entire speeches to the subject.

In his comments, Blinken also lashed out at abuses of religious freedom in Iran, Myanmar, Russia. Nigeria and Saudi Arabia, all of which were identified in the report as offenders.

Daniel Nadel, a top official in the State Departments Office of International Religious Freedom, said Wednesdays report did not represent a shift in the way the U.S. views human rights but rather a recognition that religious rights are equally as important as political rights.

Its not a departure, certainly, from any prior concept, but its a clarification, because Secretary Pompeo did express his view that there was perhaps a hierarchy of rights concept. And thats a view that this administration does depart from, Nadel said.

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US hits China and others for repressing religious freedom - The Associated Press

Sven Jacobsens photographs ask interesting questions about innocence and bliss. A new book concentrates on images of youthful freedom; teenagers scale fences and climb trees and plunge into lakes, they skateboard and snog and do headstands and backflips and laugh like they will never, ever stop. Any of the pictures might lead advertising campaigns for spring water or blue jeans or perfume Jacobsen has worked as a commercial photographer for multinational corporations and knows all the seductive emotions but there is, too, an extra edge of intimacy and challenge at work. They invite you to recall moments when you felt as alive as the people family members, friends and models he depicts. He calls his collection Like Birds.

Jacobsen suggests that when he takes the pictures he is looking always for the flow of beauty that might unite the figure with the landscape, a sense of subject and background dissolved. He likens his process to surfing, letting a wave take over and seeing where it takes you. This picture of the underwater swimmer is typical. He captions it as a painting for good reason the scene carries visual reminders of a pre-Raphaelite Ophelia, but the young woman here is very much alive, in her element, not yet ready to break the glassy surface of the water, holding her breath for dear life.

Like Birds carefully excludes almost all reference to time and place; you look in vain for a screen or a pocketed phone or a trademark. The holiday mood hardly changes as the images progress; there seem few serpents in the small paradises that Jacobsen seeks. The images, in this sense, become something of a test for more world-weary eyes: what if life were always lived in the moment, like this? And: can you ever have too much of a good thing?

Like Birds by Sven Jacobsen is published by Hatje Cantz

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The big picture: in celebration of youthful freedom - The Guardian

Freedom House Womens Addiction Recovery Program

Freedom House provides residential treatment program for alcohol and/or drug dependent pregnant women and women with young children. This holistic and comprehensive program is designed to treat the womens chemical dependency, to break the cycle of addiction in families, to reunite families broken apart by addiction, and to promote the birth of healthy, drug-free babies.

Using an evidenced-based clinical services model of recovery and holistic, family-centered treatment, Freedom House addresses the cycle of addiction with children while simultaneously treating their mothers. The program offers individual, group, and family counseling; drug and alcohol dependency education; parenting classes; life skills training; nutrition classes; vocational training and employment services; and child care services. Since its creation, more than 200 babies have been born drug-free to women in the program, ensuring a healthy start to their lives.

Freedom House 1 and 21432 South Shelby StreetLouisville, KY 40217502-635-4530

Freedom House 31025 South Second StreetLouisville, KY 40203

Freedom House8467 N HWY 421Manchester, KY 40962

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Freedom House Womens Addiction Recovery Program ...