Undernews for 30 January 2009

UNDERNEWS
The news while there's still time to do something about it

THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW
Editor: Sam Smith

EMAIL US

REVIEW E-MAIL UPDATES
REVIEW INDEX
UNDERNEWS
XML FEED

30 January 2009
WORD

Though Americans talk a great deal about the virtue of being serious, they generally prefer people who are solemn over people who are serious. - Russell Baker

THE POOREST PLACE IN AMERICA

Matt King, Times Herald-Record, Middletown NY - Kiryas Joel is the poorest place in the country. According to the latest round of U.S. Census figures, released late last year, the village has the highest poverty rate in the nation, and the largest percentage of residents who receive food stamps. Only one other place in the 50 states has a lower median income. The median household income in Kiryas Joel is $15,848; in Carbondale, Ill., it's $15,799.

More than two-thirds of Kiryas Joel residents live below the federal poverty line and more than 40 percent receive food stamps, according to the American Community Survey, a U.S. Census Bureau study of every place in the country with 20,000 residents or more.

That makes the village poorer than crumbling big cities like Detroit and noted slums like East St. Louis, and by far the poorest place in the mid-Hudson. . .

Village officials did not return calls seeking comment, but an expert in Hasidic communities said the poverty figures are tied strongly to the village's religious culture and mores.

Pressure to have many children and the demand to send them to expensive private schools, combined with a low number of people who go to college or leave the village to get higher-paying jobs, produces a static and poor society, said Samuel Heilman, professor of Jewish studies at Queens College.

"This is a population that sees childbirth as a sign of high status and for women a fulfillment of their divine and socially sanctioned role in life," Heilman said. "They are also an insular community that see life on the inside superior to the outside."

THE LIST: POOREST PLACES IN THE COUNTRY

Poverty rate

Kiryas Joel, NY: 68 percent

Athens City, Ohio: 52 percent

State College, Pa.: 50 percent

Newburgh, NY: 28 percent

Kingston, NY: 19 percent

Middletown, NY : 17 percent

Sullivan County, NY: 13.9 percent

Ulster County, NY: 11.6 percent

Orange County: 10.9 percent

[US Census]

OBAMA LEANING TOWARDS ANOTHER RIGHT WINGER FOR HIS CABINET

The facts on Judd Gregg

Voted YES on barring HHS grants to organizations that perform abortions. (Oct 2007)
Voted NO on $100M to reduce teen pregnancy by education & contraceptives. (Mar 2005)
Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Rated 0% by NARAL
Voted YES on recommending Constitutional ban on flag desecration. (Jun 2006)
Voted YES on loosening restrictions on cell phone wiretapping. (Oct 2001)
Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex marriage. (Sep 1996)
Rated 20% by the ACLU
Rated 33% by the HRC
Rated 7% by the NAACP
Voted YES on restricting rules on personal bankruptcy. (Jul 2001)
Voted YES on limiting death penalty appeals. (Apr 1996)
Voted YES on restricting class-action lawsuits. (Dec 1995)
Rated 25% by CURE
Voted YES on increasing penalties for drug offenses. (Nov 1999)
Voted NO on tax incentives for energy production and conservation. (Jun 2008)
Voted NO on banning drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Mar 2005)
Rated 17% by the CAF
Rated 53% by the LCV
Rated 100% by the Christian Coalition
Voted NO on granting the District of Columbia a seat in Congress.
Voted YES on requiring photo ID to vote in federal elections.
Voted NO on including prescription drugs under Medicare. (Jun 2000)
Rated 25% by APHA, indicating a anti-public health voting record.
Voted NO on preserving habeas corpus for Guantanamo detainees. (Sep 2006)
Voted YES on reauthorizing the PATRIOT Act. (Mar 2006)
Voted YES on extending the PATRIOT Act's wiretap provision. (Dec 2005)
Voted NO on adopting the Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty. (Oct 1999)
Voted YES on prohibiting same-sex basic training. (Jun 1998)
Rated 0% by SANE, indicating a pro-military voting record. (Dec 2003)
Voted NO on restricting employer interference in union organizing. (Jun 2007)
Rated 0% by the AFL-CIO, indicating an anti-union voting record. (Dec 2003)
Voted with Republican Party 82.9% of 316 votes. (Sep 2007)
Rated 20% by the ARA, indicating an anti-senior voting record. (Dec 2003)
Rated 20% by the CTJ, indicating opposition to progressive taxation. (Dec 2006)

WAS THE BLAGO IMPEACHMENT FAIR?

Josh Goodman, Governing - It's the question no one really wants to dwell on too much: Did Rod Blagojevich get a raw deal?

At this point, virtually everyone thinks that Illinois is better off without Blagojevich as the state's governor. He embarrassed the state, he distracted from serious work that needed to get done and he very well might have engaged in criminal behavior.

Plus, it's pretty clear that Illinois legislators were within their rights to remove Blagojevich from office. The Illinois Constitution doesn't require that the governor have committed high crimes and misdemeanors to be removed. It doesn't require proof beyond a reasonable doubt. It actually, so far as I can tell, doesn't require evidence of anything in particular for a governor to lose his job.

In a way, though, that makes evaluating the process of the Blagojevich proceedings more important. Without clear constitutional guidance, the legislature set a precedent as to what the standards will be to remove governors in the future. So, it's worth asking whether the standards they used were fair.

Blagojevich has made a bunch of arguments about the unfairness of the process, some of which are exaggerations. The Associated Press did a great job of checking the facts on many of the governor's claims. For example, he couldn't call witnesses on his own, but he could have asked for witnesses to be called. He didn't take advantage of that opportunity.

But, his antics aside, I do think Blagojevich has a point. The prospect of a criminal trial for the governor seriously limited his ability to defend himself during impeachment.

The governor was forbidden from calling as witnesses in the impeachment case some people who might be witnesses in the federal investigation against him -- in other words, the exact people who know best what Blagojevich did and didn't do.

Nor did any members of the Illinois legislature hear more than brief snippets of the recorded conversations that are the basis of the criminal complaint against Blagojevich. In other words, legislators in Illinois have, to a large extent, taken Patrick Fitzgerald at his word.

Even if that was a reasonable thing to do in this case, it's a questionable standard to set. It's easy to imagine a scenario where the governor is the ethical one and the U.S. Attorney is the one up to mischief. No criminal court in the United States would prevent a defendant from hearing the evidence against him or questioning the relevant witnesses.

Of course, the point that people make over and over again about Blagojevich's impeachment is that the process is political, not criminal. He's not going to jail (yet). He's merely being removed from office.

"Merely," though, isn't quite appropriate. Removing an elected official from office before his term is up, in effect suspending the standard rules of democracy, is a very serious thing. Why, exactly, shouldn't the standards of the 6th Amendment of the U.S. Constitution also apply to impeachment proceedings?

WHY YOU'RE SAFE READING THE PROGRESSIVE REVIEW

It's edited by a left-hander named Sam

Live Science - David E. Kalist and Daniel Y. Lee of Shippensburg University in Pennsylvania compared the first names of male juvenile delinquents to the first names of male juveniles in the population. The researchers constructed a popularity-name index for each name. For example, the PNI for Michael is 100, the most frequently given name during the period. The PNI for David is 50, a name given half as frequently as Michael. The PNI is approximately 1 for names such as Alec, Ernest, Ivan, Kareem, and Malcolm. Results show that, regardless of race, juveniles with unpopular names are more likely to engage in criminal activity. The least popular names were associated with juvenile delinquency among both blacks and whites. While the names are likely not the cause of crime, the researchers argue that "they are connected to factors that increase the tendency to commit crime, such as a disadvantaged home environment, residence in a county with low socioeconomic status, and households run by one parent."

Heather Whipps, Live Science - Obama is another notch for the column of left-handed presidents, now totaling eight - a proportion (out of 43) that is well above their representation in the total population, which hovers around 10 percent. . . In fact, every president since 1974 with the exception of Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush has been left-handed, as is Obama's former Republican opponent Sen. John McCain. Al Gore is too.

Some evolutionary advantage, whether overall greater intelligence or language skills, has kept a stable group of lefties for at least the past 200,000 years, said Chris McManus, professor of psychology and medical education at University College London. . .

The laundry list of lefties goes on through history, with records telling us that a number of famous ancient figures probably favored their southpaw as well, from Alexander the Great to Charlemagne, Holy Roman emperor. . .

Despite its long history, left-handedness is a uniquely human trait. Chimpanzees and gorillas, with whom we share an ancestor and a number of common physical attributes, don't seem to favor one hand over the other.

The photo of Obama signing his first bill indicated that he has been a victim of sinister discrimination: right handed teachers who don't let lefties turn their page and so have to crimp their hand to write.. Your editor, on the other hand, was blessed by Miss Waddy, who let him turn his page sideways and write down it.

ICELAND'S NEW GAY PRIME MINISTER

Peter Popham, Independent UK - The first government collapse of the global economic crisis is about to yield the world's first openly-gay leader. Johanna Sigurdardottir, a former air hostess, is expected to be sworn in as Iceland's Prime Minister by the end of the week.

Her moment in the international spotlight comes at the most horrendous moment in her nation's recent history. As the global meltdown began, the collapse of Iceland's grossly over-leveraged economy was followed smartly by the implosion of its banks and currency. Now its government has gone the same way, the first to succumb to the backwash from the crisis.

Ms Sigurdardottir's party, the Social Democrat Alliance, was asked to form a new government but its leader is taking a leave of absence to recover from treatment for a benign tumour. And so, "Saint Johanna", as she has come to be known, has been propelled from the social affairs ministry - which she has presided over for a decade - to take centre stage in a choice hailed as "unexpected but brilliant".

The 66-year-old politician lives with her partner, Jonina Leosdottir, a journalist and playwright. The couple were joined in a civil ceremony in 2002. . . Though she is famous across the island, having been a top politician for years, her lesbian union was no big deal in this calmly progressive nation of only 300,000 people. . .

She will be Prime Minister of a minority caretaker government composed of her Social Democratic Alliance and the Left-Greens, with outside support. It is only expected to hold office for two or three months, until fresh elections are called.

"In opinion polls Johanna has repeatedly been chosen as the most popular politician in Iceland," said the government source. "She is a good choice, because one of the problems the government is facing is lack of trust. Getting Johanna to become Prime Minister was a way of saying trust is an issue.". . .

"She is often described as the only politician who really cares about the little guy," wrote Icelandic journalist Iris Erlingsdottir in a blog this week.

PROBLEMS WE HADN'T STARTED WORRYING ABOUT YET

Telegraph, UK - An 'immortal' jellyfish is swarming through the world's oceans, according to scientists. The Turritopsis Nutricula is able to revert back to a juvenile form once it mates after becoming sexually mature. Marine biologists say the jellyfish numbers are rocketing because they need not die. Dr Maria Miglietta of the Smithsonian Tropical Marine Institute said: "We are looking at a worldwide silent invasion."

Turritopsis Nutricula is technically known as a hydrozoan and is the only known animal that is capable of reverting completely to its younger self.
It does this through the cell development process of transdifferentiation.
Scientists believe the cycle can repeat indefinitely, rendering it potentially immortal.

GALLERY

This gigapan shot of the Inauguration by David Bergman is the best way to waste a morning on the Internet that we've seen of late. If you were there, you may be able to zoom in on yourself or you can just enjoy closeups of people like Clarence Thomas (below), described as taking "a religious moment to silently pray during President Barack Obama's swearing in ceremony. Witnesses say Thomas was so moved he prayed for nearly 20 continuous minutes, head occasionally falling over onto Judge Scalia's shoulder."

Bergman writes, "After a cab ride, three security checkpoints, and a lot of walking, I was finally in my photo position. I was in the very back row of the platform, standing on a chair behind an AOC photographer. She was nice enough to allow me to attach the Gigapan to the railing next her. The unit takes a series of overlapping images one at a time. In this case, I set it to shoot a grid that was 20 photos wide by 11 photos down. It took about 15 minutes to complete." Under the grand shot, you'll find over 1200 closeups you can zoom in on. Have a nice day and we'll see you tomorrow. Main Page Bergman's Blog

BREVITAS

OBAMALAND

Washington Post - Many attorneys from both parties also marvel at the sheer number of lawyers Obama has appointed or nominated so far, particularly at the White House counsel's office, which will have at least 22 attorneys working under counsel Greg Craig. That's more than twice as large as the office was under Bush, with three deputy counsels, the special ethics counsel and 18 associate and deputy associate counsels.

Christian Century - Anglicans Evangelical pastor Rick Warren has offered to open the campus of his California megachurch to conservative Anglicans who have broken with the Episcopal Church. . . "We stand in solidarity with them," Warren wrote in an e-mail posted online by Christianity Today, "and with all orthodox, evangelical Anglicans. I offer the campus of Saddleback Church to any Anglican congregation who need a place to meet, or if you want to plant a new congregation in south Orange County." In 2003, the Episcopal Church consecrated V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay man, as bishop of New Hampshire, precipitating a clash between liberals and conservatives in the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion.

WORK

NY Times - To crack down on businesses that pay below the minimum wage, fail to pay overtime or to pay wages altogether, steal tips or commit other labor violations, the New York State Department of Labor is starting an experimental program that will rely on community organizations to monitor compliance with labor laws. . . The six groups will conduct know-your-rights training, providing employers with information about compliance and distributing brochures to workers in supermarkets, laundromats, nail salons, day-labor sites and other work areas. They will have a designated contact in the Labor Department's Division of Labor Standards, which enforces wage and hour laws, to whom they can refer violations or detailed questions from employers. After the first experiment in New York City and on Long Island, the Labor Department will seek additional groups to sign up for the program.

IRAQ

Guardian, UK - The Times have an exclusive interview with Tony Blair in which the former prime minister comes close to admitting that he suffers doubts over his decision to invade Iraq. While asserting he was not haunted by the decision, he goes on to say: "But of course I reflect on it, and am troubled by it, and feel a great sense of responsibility for it." . . On the issue of whether history will vindicate him over the decision to invade, he said: "I don't know. Nobody knows."

DRUG BUSTS

USA Today - The major findings in a report by the Justice Department's National Gang Intelligence Center, which has not been publicly released, conclude gangs are the "primary retail-level distributors of most illicit drugs" and several are "capable" of competing with major U.S.-based Mexican drug-trafficking organizations. "A rising number of U.S.-based gangs are seemingly intent on developing working relationships" with U.S. and foreign drug-trafficking organizations and other criminal groups to "gain direct access to foreign sources of illicit drugs," the report concludes. The gang population estimate is up 200,000 since 2005. . The report says about 900,000 gang members live "within local communities across the country," and about 147,000 are in U.S. prisons or jails.

TRANSPORTATION

Street Films - Recently the San Francisco Transportation Authority found that during peak commute times vehicles run more efficiently when signals are timed at the speeds they actually travel during congestion -- 12 to 15 mph - rather than the current 25 mph.

CRIME BLOTTER

Annmarie Bricker, 23, of Valparaiso, IN has been arrested after attacking her newly wed sister at a reception honoring. The host claims Bricker yanked out clumps of her sister's hair and took her to the ground. The alleged problem: Bricker hadn't been invited to the wedding.

TC Palm, FL - A Port St. Lucie man found with an apparently urine-filled "tube device" under his armpit during a urine test at a probation and parole facility is facing charges after running from officials and being tackled, according to a police report. A correctional/probation officer told police that John M. Contreras, 25, was being given a urine test for "illegal substances" Thursday morning at the facility in the 3500 block of Okeechobee Road when the device was spotted. The officer said the "urine apparatus" had a tube extending toward the groin area, "consistent with an attempt to defraud a urine test," the report states. When the officer tried to speak to Contreras about this, Contreras ran through the building hallway but was tackled.

Live Leak - Hastings District Court surveillance video shows 2 men making a break for it but apparently forgetting they were handcuffed together. Disoriented after being pepper sprayed, their getaway plan ends in disaster with each guy blaming the other for hitting the pole.

NY Metro - A woman soccer fan from Hatfield, England has been banned from taking her pet parrot to soccer matches after the bird disrupted a game by constantly imitating the referee's whistle.

Guardian, UK - Irish police are being handicapped in a search for a stolen van, because they cannot issue a description. It's a Special Branch vehicle and they don't want the public to know what it looks like.

WHAT SHALL WE DO WITH A POLITICALLY CORRECT BRITISH CHARITY?

BBC - "Drunken sailors" have been removed from the lyrics of a nursery rhyme in a government-funded books project. But the Bookstart charity says the re-writing of What Shall We Do With the Drunken Sailor? has "absolutely nothing to do with political correctness". The charity says that the shift from drunken sailor to "grumpy pirate" was to make the rhyme fit a pirate theme, rather than censorship. "Put him in the brig until he's sober," has also been lost in the new version. . . Bookstart, a project that encourages parents to read with their young children, has produced a different version - with no references to alcohol-swigging sailors. . . The Drunken Sailor version familiar to children already leaves out some of the saltier verses. The original includes such suggestions as: "Shave his belly with a rusty razor", "Stick him in a bag and beat him senseless" and "Put him in the hold with the captain's daughter." The captain's daughter was a euphemism for a lashing from a cat o' nine tails.

INEXPLICABLE E-MAIL OF THE DAY

Received by the Review - Still on Bookers trail! Debbie said she didn't even remember what she had for breakfast much less the year Booker was bear-napped. If anyone has anything or remembers anything about Booker's bear-napping, Mary would be the one!.

READER COMMENTS

TOP SCIENTIST: CLIMATE CHANGE IRREVERSIBLE

Mother Earth has her own ways of healing from global warming. A few volcanoes blowing off some ash and steam, for example, would trigger a period of global cooling and more precipitation around equatorial zones, restoring glaciers to places such as Mount Kenya. - mark eloheim

OBAMA'S DRAFT

I'm 23. I'm serving in the military and I think this is a horrible idea. The backbone America was formed from was freedom of choice and this takes that away. And by requiring these young people to "citizen serve" they are calling for a youth rebellion. Now there are plenty of spoiled brats out there that just don't want to work but there are others that just wish to pursue other avenues that don't require working for the government. My elder brother is one of those. He's in pre-med and works harder than I ever have to make it through college. To me putting in policy like this one in place is just asking for trouble.

How can anyone see this as a waste of time? I am 28, and I consider what I did between the ages of 18 and 25 to be a complete and utter waste of time: college. Imagine, a nation of firefighters, EMTs, rescue workers; - a nation of people who know how to load, care for, store, and operate a gun safely and responsibly. A nation divided cannot stand, and divided we are. A democracy that doesn't fear its citizens is no democracy at all, and at present we as a people are no more a formidable foe than a flock of sheep with a mission statement.

THE POOREST PLACES IN AMERICA

I wonder if a few of these numbers are skewed by the presence of a large population of college students (Carbondale, Ill., State College, Pa.). Carbondale definitely has more than its share of poverty. But it also has a student population equal to that of the permanent one.

PBS PROGRAM CHARGES NSA MIGHT HAVE STOPPED 9/11

'At any time, had the FBI been notified, they could have found Hazmi in a matter of seconds.'

Because the two men were living in San Diego with an FBI informant. It's important to note that all the investigative tools needed to shut down the 911 plot were in existence prior to September 2001. The failure to do so has never been adequately explained.

LEMON SOCIALISM AT ITS WORST

The whole, entire, complete motivation for capitalism is that a few people, or perhaps only one person, own everything. Capitalism is not motivated by any desire to meet the needs of the population the capitalists exploit. If they could own everything without meeting a single need of anyone but themselves, they would. And in fact, that's exactly what they try to do all the time, by every possible means. They don't hesitate to impoverish the country to get another penny in the dollar. We need a different basis for our economic life - one that doesn't put all effective power into the hands of a greedy few. - Mairead

Posted by Mairead to UNDERNEWS at January 29, 2009 10:55 AM

POST PARTISAN DEPRESSION

It turns out, to the amazement of the Obama administration . . . that a lot of people besides the president have ideas as to how to handle the fiscal crisis.

Actually, when Obama announced it, he made it clear that it was a starting point. He's used the phrase "no pride of authorship" a number of times. Oh, and the Senate Appropriations version of the bill has the words "small business" seven times.

As I see this economic crisis, credit is based on the expectation of future wealth creation. Where does wealth come from? In the physical sense, the one that ultimately matters, wealth comes from the earth's resources. Oil, the critical resource to economic growth, has peaked and will enter into decline.

Obama has been briefed on this, but I'm sure it did not sink in. No president wants to announce the end of credit and economic growth as we've known them.

Instead he's "giving a man a fish, so that he eats for a day" in the hope that the economic system can be restarted. Saving that system is not as much wrong as futile. FDR came into office when the oil age was dawning, Obama enters as it twilights.

ENOUGH OF LINCOLN, ALREADY

Lincoln had to deal with a situation that no other person in that office, before or since, has had to deal with. That's a key fact, I think.

For all his shortcomings, for all the questions about how well he solved the problem - and even whether he should have - he didn't appoint many people to office who then stole the silver, he arguably didn't start the Civil War and certainly didn't do what he did out of personal greed, or to make cronies rich by handing over the Confederate lands to them. I think it's fair to say that he was a great improvement over most of his successors

CRASH TALK

5/6 of the world is in dire poverty and there's nobody left to sell to? - wellbasically

THINKING ABOUT OBAMA

This is one of your finest essays, and I loved it. I do, however, wish to make one small point. Logic does have one very important role to play. It doesn't tell us what exists, but it definitely can tell us what does not exist. I know with certainty there are no square circles anywhere in the universe, and I know this from a simple logical parsing of any and all statements that suggest the existence or possible existence of such entities. This comes up more frequently than one might think. The phrase 'Anything is possible' is one of those annoying idiocies that can be instantly shredded with pure logic. Of course, there are endless religious claims that can be destroyed with simple logic. A surprising number of political claims can also be disposed of with pure logic. And so on. - Richard L. Franklin

BAILOUT QUESTION

"Bailout question: Why not give money to homeowners to pay off their mortgages, instead of giving money to the banks? The banks get the money anyways, two birds with one stone, everybody wins. Please educate me as to why this is a bad idea."

It's a good idea for us, but not for the financial rulers. The whole point of the current "crash" is the same as the last one (the Great Depression) - to create a huge financial crisis, keep the "best" predatory banks and financial institutions on top via a kind of economic survival of the fittest, and transfer as much real estate and stock at the least cost from the bottom to the top (all the foreclosed properties will end up "owned" by the surviving financial institutions. Also have to do this without changing the underlying ability of the surviving predatory financial institutions to create massive fake wealth for their own benefit by the keeping alive of their mostly unlimited capacity to issue/print money.

There is one difference, however. This iteration of the game is designed to bring an end to as many nation states as possible, by collapsing governments and currencies during the chaos. - Joel A. Wendt

UN CRIME WATCHDOG SAYS DRUG MONEY HELPED IN FISCAL CRISIS

I'd say that is a huge argument for the decriminalization of Cannabis. It's the only illegal drug that will not cause huge social problems if allowed to help restart the economy. A great deal of cannabis is grown domestically by smaller producers, so the money doesn't go to offshore banks, or propping up careless major banks and their toxic assets, but into local stores, and other local tax paying businesses. Decriminalizing cannabis would support rebuilding the economy from the ground up.

The hard drugs that need to be shipped from South America or SE Asia are the ones that these banks call the "liquid investment capital" they have been depending on. The drugs that cause real harm, and these banks or better yet the executives that made the decisions should be held culpable for the problems of their "liquid capital" source.

THE SENATOR WHO WANTS TO KILL GOOD HEALTHCARE POLICY

I'm beginning to think that to become a member of the House or Senate, or the president, one should be required to live for 6 months working a minimum wage dead end job, with no additional money, support, or job benefits, as part of the election process. Just so they understand what it is like to live under the sort of policies they enact, and they must blog about it. I'd love to read the blogs of some of these spoiled rich fat cats stuck living like the rest of us do.

Seems to me the entire Senate has done a mighty good job of killing single payer for a long time.

THE END OF SOLITUDE

I (far past teens and twenties) would be driven stark raving mad if deprived of adequate hours of solitude for contemplation. Solitude is like an essential food group that sustains me. It's where you recalibrate, where you return to yourself, where you realize how much we just throw ourselves into whatever society is doing and let it carry us along, never taking time to consult our own inner guide, our own thoughtful sense of things going on in our culture. The irrationality we're awash in, exposes itself through sitting still and quieting the noise all around.

But I have to take issue with this sentence from the article: "Still, one is powerless to reverse the drift of the culture."

I don't believe that. Leadership and culture changes when people's ideas change (and not until), and I still think it's possible that working for equality of humankind despite inequality of gifts won in the birth lottery can effect the change of ideas we must have to restore our chance to have a future.

Solitude restores my strength and conviction to keep up the grassroots campaign for equal pay for equal sacrifice.

END

© Scoop Media