First and foremost, this article is not written as an attack on Reformed believers. I know of many Reformed that love the Lord dearly. I also have made use of Reformed ministries like Alpha and Omega, CRTA, and CARM. I welcome a challenge from James White, CRTA or Matt Slick if they are up to rebutting and answering my questions that I have in this article. I am not against all of Reformed theology as CERM holds to some Calvinist doctrines but neglects Reformed eschatological views and the doctrine of Limited Atonement, which I will explaining why in this article. Unfortunately, many Reformed believers will probably claim that I have little or no understanding of this doctrine. Typically, those that disagree with me claim this. I have debated Catholics (http://www.cerm.info/debates/catholicism.pdf) and King James Version Only types (http://www.cerm.info/debates/KJVO.pdf) and both groups claim that I misunderstand their views. KJVO types also claim that James White misunderstands their arguments, and likewise do Catholics claim that John MacArthur misunderstands their arguments. I am well qualified to write this article as I earned a BA in Church Educational Ministries from an Evangelical University in 2005, have completed 1 year of MDiv training at the time of this writing at a Fundamentalist seminary, have taught Sunday school, helped create youth ministry curriculum for a well known Evangelical Para-church ministry, formally debated various theological and Apologetic topics over the Internet, among other things. I have written articles on Free Will or Predestination (http://www.cerm.info/bible_studies/Theological/freewill_predestination.htm), and Babies and DD people going to Heaven after death (http://www.cerm.info/bible_studies/Theological/DD_people_in_heaven.htm). However, this article will be focusing on one of Calvinism's core doctrines known as Limited Atonement. I'll address the support of this doctrine and what those that hold to it believe, and I will address the many unbiblical interpretations and out of context scripture passages that Reformed use. Then I will exegete and explain four main scripture passages that provide a complete rebuttal of this doctrine. I welcome constructive criticism, but I ignore character attacks so feel free to email me (http://www.cerm.info/email_cerm.htm) after you completely read this article. All scripture quotations unless otherwise indicated will be from the King James Version (KJV).
Sin controls every part of man. He is spiritually dead and blind, and unable to obey, believe or repent. He continually sins, for his nature is completely evil.
God chose the elect solely on the basis of His free grace, not anything in them. He has a special love for the elect. God left the rest to be damned for their sins.
Christ died especially for the elect, and paid a definite price for them that guaranteed their salvation.
Saving grace is irresistible, for the Holy Spirit is invincible and intervenes in Man's heart. He sovereignly gives the new birth, faith and repentance to the elect.
God preserves all the elect and causes them to persevere in faith and obedience to the end. None are continually back-slidden or finally lost.
Sometimes called "particular redemption," the view that Jesus' death secured *salvation for only a limited number of persons (the elect), in contrast to the idea that the work of the cross is intended for all humankind (as in "unlimited atonement"). This view resulted from the post-Reformation development of the doctrine of *election in Calvinist circles. Proponents claim that because not everyone is saved, God could not have intended that Christ die for everyone.
Limited Atonement is a doctrine offered in answer to the question, "for whose sins did Christ atone?" The Bible teaches that Christ died for those whom God gave him to save (John 17:9). Christ died, indeed, for many people, but not all (Matthew 26:28). Specifically, Christ died for the invisible Church -- the sum total of all those who would ever rightly bear the name "Christian" (Ephesians 5:25).This doctrine often finds many objections, mostly from those who think that Limited Atonement does damage to evangelism. We have already seen that Christ will not lose any that the father has given to him (John 6:37). Christ's death was not a death of potential atonement for all people. Believing that Jesus' death was a potential, symbolic atonement for anyone who might possibly, in the future, accept him trivializes Christ's act of atonement. Christ died to atone for specific sins of specific sinners. Christ died to make holy the church. He did not atone for all men, because obviously all men are not saved. Evangelism is actually lifted up in this doctrine, for the evangelist may tell his congregation that Christ died for sinners, and that he will not lose any of those for whom he died!
Reformed/Calvinist believers generally agree that the death of Christ is efficient only for the elect. They deny General Atonement (meaning that Christ paid for the sins of the whole world). Charles H. Spurgeon in his article Particular Redemption described General Atonement with these words "General Atonement is like a great wide bridge with only half an arch; it does not go across the stream, it only profess to go halfway; it does not secure the salvation of anybody." The first thing to consider is the purpose and meaning behind the death of Christ. A look at Hebrews 10:9 reveals his will and this was to do the will of his father. Numerous times in the gospels does Jesus also state this. Looking at scripture from a logical mindset Reformed believe that God the father chose some to be saved and let the rest be reprobated to hell and eternal separation from God. This purpose is clearly stated in Matt 1:21 "And she shall bring forth a son, and thou shalt call his name JESUS: for he shall save his people from their sins." Also do many Reformed use Eph 5:25 which says "Christ also loved the Church, and gave himself for it." A man loves all other persons, but has a special love for his wife, or significant other. A good Christian man will have a love for everyone, but a special and deep love for his bride. Therefore, they use this type of logic to conclude that Christ died and did something for all men at the cross, but his death on the cross-meant something special for the elect. Reformed also use many other verses to aid their defense of Limited Atonement. John 10:15, 17 and 18 are others. These verses say that Christ died for "the sheep." This phrase would mean "the elect" and cannot be interpreted as Christ dying for men everywhere. In verse 26 does Christ say that not everyone is one of his sheep. Christ never died for the snakes and scorpions nor the goats or wolves, but he died for the elect "his sheep." Then in John 15:13-14 does Christ say that he would lay down his life for his friends, but not everyone is one of his friends. Isaiah 53:8 is very important to this doctrine as it contains an Old Testament prophecy of Christ dying only for God's people.
"I admit there is; but beauty may be often associated with falsehood.
"God forbid that we should ever think thus of Jehovah, the just and wise.
In conclusion, the bible teaches that the death of Christ is the foundation of the Christians hope. Once one has been elected by the Grace of God or chosen by God (as RC Sproul says) that person is bound and cannot resist coming to Christ. Jesus is the redeemer and does deliver his people from their sins. It makes no sense according to the Reformed mindset to allow many to be lost to him forever.
Problems with this kind of thinking and reasoning are all over the Bible. Arguing from logic alone a Calvinist wins, but Grace is something that Calvinists who believe in Limited Atonement may ignore. Next, I will be providing the support against the doctrine of Limited Atonement from the Bible and various other resources.
In contrast with the foregoing position is the contention that God intended the atonement to make salvation possible for all persons. Christ died for all persons, but his atoning death becomes effective only when accepted by the individual. While this is the view of all Arminians, it is also the position of some Calvinists, who are sometimes referred to as sublapsarians (Erickson, 846).
There are a number of arguments against the doctrine of Limited Atonement throughout the scriptures. I'll be addressing and explaining four primary scripture verses that I believe clearly indicate that Christ died for all mankind and not ONLY for the elect. Before I dive into my primary verses I want to rebut some of the verses that Reformed use in support of their doctrine. Reformed often will use Acts 20:28 and Eph 5:25-27. In response to these verses I point to Gal 2:20 where Paul says that Christ loves him and gave himself for him. Reformed do not suggest by looking at this verse alone that Christ only died for Paul. So in the same way the verses in Acts and Ephesians do not teach that Christ died for the church alone (Houghton). Hebrews 2:10 states that Christ died to bring "many sons" to glory. And in verse 9 of the same chapter does the author of Hebrews state that Christ should taste death for "every man." If Limited Atonement was taught in the Bible then can any Reformed tell me why would Hebrews 2:9 states that Christ should taste death for everyman? If Limited Atonement was true, can any Reformed explain 2 Pet 2:1 to me which says "denying the Lord that bought them." If Christ had only died for the church as Reformed claim Acts 20:28 teaches then why would 2 Pet 2:1 state that Christ also died for the false teachers? Louis Igou Hodges recognizes the problem this verse poses for those that teach limited atonement and he states, "Particularly troubling is 2 Pet 2:1. Reformed interpretation of this text needs further study." (Hodges, pg 188). Next I will be diving into my four scripture rebuts of Limited Atonement. These passages are not exhaustive of the many scripture contradictions of Limited Atonement.
This verse clearly explains that the motives are the Lord are to bring everyone to repentance. There are many passages like this one in the canon of scripture and anyone who reads the Bible will see that its is the will of God to bring everyone to salvation. But if this was not his will, then the Lord would not have commanded us to go out and evangelize to the lost unsaved world (Mt 28:18-20). If God only wanted certain people to be saved and to come to knowledge of the truth, then can any Calvinist, tell me why this verse was included in the New Testament? The context of the verse is in reference to the day of the Lord. The LANTC commentary says that "God does not want anyone to perish, so he is giving more time for everyone to repent. He wants as many people as will to come to faith in him." God does not want anyone to perish and his love is purely the reason that God delays the destruction of the world (LANTC). Can any Calvinist/Reformed explain 2 Peter chapter 3 in context? Reformed read far too much into the word of God and may sometimes misunderstand central themes because they are too logically orientated. In a former article where I explained why babies and severe mentally Disabled go to heaven when they die I used Matt 20:1-16 as a text to explain the concept of grace. Logically speaking in the parable the master of the vineyard did not need to pay everyone the same but did so anyways out of grace. I believe the Lord used this parable to teach us grace and teach us not to rely entirely on logic which sadly is what many Reformed do. Logic can be important, but also remember that by logic no man should enter the kingdom of Heaven. But God is full of compassion and mercy (Jas 5:11).
The word "atoning" is mentioned some three times in the NIV translation. The KJV and ESV use the word "propitiation" instead of atoning. The Greek word used in this verse is hilasmos which is from the root word hilaskomai. The KJV and ESV formally translate the verse superior according to the Greek, however I believe the NIV makes the word clearer to the modern reader. For atonement means 'the reconciliation between God and man through Jesus Christ.' Propitiation also means this, however I believe that atoning may be clearer to the modern reader. So, what does the author mean by the Greek word hilasmos? This word is found in only two places in the NT and a overall six times in the LXX (Lev 25:9; Num 5:8; Ps 129:4; 130:4; Ezek 44:27; Amos 8:14), and in every case with the exception of Amos 8:14 do the passages relate to the removal of guilt because of sin (Kruse). Colin Kruse in his commentary on 1 John says "The author is not content to say that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice 'for our sins' (meaning the sins committed by believers; cf. 2:1), but ads, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world" (Kruse, 74). Interpretating the word world and what is meant in the context of 1 John can be difficult. But what can be suggested is that Jesus Christ is the atoning sacrifice for the sins of the whole world, but his sacrifice only becomes effective when people believe in him (Kruse, 75). I believe that this verse explains away the doctrine of Limited Atonement. For there are two groups mentioned in this verse and which are believers and unbelievers. Each group can accept Christ's sacrifice for their sins. When a worldly person accepts Christ's sacrifice for his sins, then that person becomes a new creation (2 Cor 5:17). For Christ did die for the sins of the whole world and everyone has the opportunity to accept him as their savior (Jn 3:16).
God desires the salvation of all people. On the other hand, the Bible indicates that God chooses some (not all) people to be saved (1 Pet 1:2). Some interpreters understand such passages to teach that God has chosen those He, in his foreknowledge, knew would believe when confronted with the gospel and enabled to believe.
I believe the Bible is quite clear in that God desires the salvation of all people but foreknew that not everyone would turn to him. I have examined several commentaries on this verse including some incredibly technical ones. I have to wonder why would God give us a passage that appears easy for the laymen to understand, but make it difficult to understand, that only someone with an advanced knowledge of the original languages can comprehend? I do not think this is the way that God operates. God gave us the Bible, and understanding it does not necessarily require the usage of a commentary some 641 pages on the Pastoral Epistles alone. God loves the world and wants all to be saved and to come unto the knowledge of the truth. The Bible speaks of God's universal love, and this does not simply specify the elect. Martin Luther once said that he was glad that God said that he loved the world, rather than "God so loved Martin Luther." God loved the world so much that he gave his unique son.
For therefore we both labour and sufer reproach, because we trust in the living God, who is the Saviour of all men, specially of those that believe.
Some who look at this passage believe that it teaches universalism. This does not teach universalism which is a clear rejection of the scriptures. The verse here teaches that God offers salvation to all, and all who come to him will be saved. The work of Christ on the cross was sufficient to provide salvation for all people of all times in history. However, the effects of salvation only benefits those that believe and those that reject it will go to hell and spend an eternity separated from God. I consulted several commentaries but the New Testament Commentary explained this passage best and made the most sense.
The final phrase "especially of those that believe" clearly indicates that the term is here given a twofold application. Of all men God is the savior, but of some men, namely believers he is the savior in a deeper, more glorious sense than he is of others. This clearly implies that when he is called the Savior of all men, this cannot mean that he imparts to all everlasting life, as he does to believers. The term savior, then must have a meaning which we today generally do not immediately attach to it. And that is exactly the cause of our difficulty. One must study the term in the light not only of the New Testament but also of the Old Testament and of Archaeology (Hendriksen, 154).
Reformed/Calvinist commentators will overcomplicate this verse to make the Bible say what they want to hear, but the intended meaning is as clear as crystal in this verse. Why would God give us a Bible and then make it so hard to understand that one must have a mastery of the original languages to understand what His book says?
The only way anyone would ever question that 'world' in this verse meant anything other than every human being is that he comes to this verse with a theological conviction that will not allow him to believe that. In this case the burden of proof is on the person who wants to place a restriction upon the scope of the word 'world'(Forlines, 406).
I also believe that if the intended meaning of 2 Pet 3:9 is true and that God wants all to come to salvation (not wanting anyone to perish, NIV). God allowed John 3:16 to the most well known verse in the Bible for good meaning. If I was an unbeliever looking for answers and I read that God loved me so much that he sent his very son to die for my sins, so that I could receive eternal life, then I would believe. This is exactly what I did when I was five years old. I asked Christ to come into my life and to cleanse me form my sins. Granted I was not perfect in Christ at that time, but was striving in my sanctification (separation from sin). Sanctification is progressive and it was not until 1995 at the young age of seventeen while attending a Christian & Missionary Alliance (CM&A) youth camp that a young female helped me rededicate my life to the Lord. Lord bless that female as she may have been an angel. I never saw this girl before meeting her, nor did I see her again. Nevertheless, the Lord used her to help me. If I was at a Reformed camp they probably would have said that since I showed sinful evidence of backsliding then I was not a part of the "elect" and so my salvation and calling upon the name of the Lord at age five was not legit and I was deceived. However, according to the Word of God, 'whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved' (Rom 10:13). This means that all of mankind has the capability to receive the gift of salvation. God does not reprobate (non judicially) anyone to Hell without their not wanting to go there in the first place. God only ratifies the sinner's will and most choose destruction (Mt 7:13) rather than eternal life.
If Limited Atonement is a correct doctrine then can you explain 2 Pet 2:1 which says "denying the Lord that bought them." If Christ had only died for the church as you claim Acts 20:28 teaches then why would 2 Pet 2:1 state that Christ also died for the false teachers?
If God only wanted certain people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth, then can you tell me why 2 Pet 3:9 was included in the New Testament?
If God did not want all men to be saved (2 Pet 3:9), why then did he allow John 3:16 to be the most popular and well known verse in the world today? Why would God have a hidden meaning and agenda to a verse that is easy for anyone to understand? "For God so love the world that He gave his one and only son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life" (NIV).
Why preach 'repent or perish' when the non-elect cannot repent and the elect can't perish?
Particular Redemption. Spurgeon, Charles, H.
Those for Whom Christ Died: Some Reflections. Houghton, Myron, J. Faith Baptist Theological Seminary, Sept 1996.
Pocket Dictionary of Theological Terms. Intervarsity Press.
Christian Theology. Erickson, Millard J.
The Quest for Truth. Forlines, Leroy.
New Testament Commentary: An exposition of Thes, the Pastorals, & Hebrews. Hendriksen, William. & Kistemaker, Simon J.


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text:
Fostering Civic Engagement Among Youth in K-12 Schools
by Green Schools National Network | Feb 19, 2020
'What Does It Mean To Be A Citizen In The 21st Century? – Fostering Civic Engagement Among Youth in K-12 Schools'.
"[T]he young are idealistic, have an underdeveloped sense of their own mortality, and are afflicted with an exaggerated thirst for justice." – Margaret Atwood, The Testaments, 2019, p. 411
On August 14, 2019, Greta Thunberg set sail for the United States to participate in a United Nations climate summit held in late September in New York City. Thunberg spurned use of an airplane for her trans-Atlantic trip due to air travel's contributions to global warming. Upon arriving in New York City after several weeks at sea, she commented: "It is insane that a sixteen-year-old had to cross the Atlantic Ocean to make a stand" (Witt, 2019). Whether "insane" or not, Thunberg's actions symbolize an approach to citizenship and citizenship education greatly in need of revitalization in the 21st century. Such ideas about citizen engagement, that is, moving the needle from knowledge to action, have been embraced by millions of young people worldwide regarding the climate crisis and other pressing social problems such as gun control. The intent of this article is to explore new ways of thinking about citizen engagement and argue for new forms of civic education that encourage – and even require – students to "make a stand."
This article aims to:
provide an overview of citizenship and citizenship education;
highlight new approaches to civic education that culminate in taking action;
provide several examples of youth civic engagement that illustrate this emphasis on action; and
offer suggestions and examples of promising practices for educators and parents that have been shown to produce lifelong commitments to active citizenship.
Although active citizenship is important because healthy democracies depend on citizen involvement through voting and other means, civic engagement should encourage positive, democratic social change that considers the common good of all of Earth's inhabitants. Happily, evidence exists that among youth today, such a transformation toward action on these issues has already begun (Kaplan and Gustin, 2019). Capitalizing on this momentum by promoting active civic engagement in schools can enhance learning, making it more authentic and relevant to students' futures as fully participatory, democratically-oriented 21st century citizens. By no means am I suggesting that young people have to bear the burden of transforming the world on their own since many allies can be found among older generations (Milman, 2019). However, as the Atwood quote suggests, youth bring a unique constellation of traits such as passion, energy, and idealism that can, in effect, change the world.
Citizenship and Citizenship Education: An Overview
Ideas about citizenship have a long history. Of particular importance has been the question of who gets to be considered a full citizen, with all the rights and responsibilities this status includes. How an individual may think about his or her role as a citizen and his or her commitments – whether to state, nation, world, none, or all of these – varies from person to person and across time and space. Unsurprisingly, marginalized groups often have very ambivalent feelings about what has conventionally been called "patriotism" or participation in the political process (Levinson, 2014; Epstein, 2008).
Today, ideas about citizenship are in flux worldwide. Globalization and transnational problems such as the climate crisis point to the need to think about citizenship in more inclusive and comprehensive ways. Large-scale efforts to address biodiversity, species extinction, and the degradation of the ocean, for example, will require new ways of thinking about individuals' and nations' shared responsibility for finding solutions. The responsibilities of citizenship will need to transcend local and national obligations toward a sense of global solidarity and intergenerational responsibility to save the planet (Gaudelli, 2016).
A brief excursion into the history of citizenship highlights the degree to which the status of citizenship has been both ambiguous and fraught. Historians tell us that even in ancient democracies such as Greece only a small percentage of inhabitants were considered citizens; that is, individuals with a stake in society and the right to exercise decision-making authority (Heater, 2004). In the United States, a similar story can be told (Keyssar, 2000). Originally, white male property holders were the only ones who could vote in many states. The 19th century saw a gradual expansion of the franchise. By the time of the Civil War, most white men could vote, whether they owned property or not. After the Civil War, the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments changed the legal status of former slaves, prohibited consideration of race in defining citizenship, and gave former slaves the right to vote. The 14th Amendment also established the concept of birthright citizenship under U.S. law. Despite these amendments, southern states devised ways to disenfranchise their Black populations, effectively ending the right to vote until passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1965 and even beyond.
For certain groups, the situation of citizenship and voting was even more complicated. The 1875 Supreme Court case, Minor v. Happersett, confirmed women's status as citizens, but said that women were "a special category of nonvoting citizens – 'members of the state'" (Weiss, 2018, p. 89). Throughout the 20th century, aspects of women's citizenship remained contested. In some states, women could not serve on juries or marry a non-citizen without losing their citizenship (Kerber, 1999). For groups such as Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Latinx, efforts to keep these groups marginalized as citizens and voters persisted well into the 20th century.
What it means to be a good citizen in a democracy has been subject to debate among political scientists and civic educators for several decades, with some models promoting more activism than others. Concerns about the perceived suitability of some groups to enact the role of democratic citizen date to the beginning of the republic when Thomas Jefferson and later Horace Mann called for establishment of public schools so that children could be educated for responsible democratic participation. When millions of individuals immigrated to the United States, beginning in the mid-19th century and continuing into the early 20th century, public school educators called for creation of a new school subject, "social studies," to take on the task of citizenship education as part of a process of "Americanization."
Since the 1920s, social studies (typically history, geography, civics, and economics) has been most prominently associated with civic education in American public schools. In recent years, other nations around the world have adopted social studies as a means of doing citizenship education as their nations' populations have become more diverse. Even older democracies such as England and Australia have given fresh attention to citizenship education (Heater, 2004). In newer democracies such as South Korea, Taiwan, and Japan, efforts to incorporate forms of citizenship education in schooling have also arisen.
Although not a democracy, China has adopted an approach called "moral education" aimed at creating law-abiding citizens and occasionally including attention to environmental education. Across all continents, the important role of the citizen, whether defined narrowly or expansively, has achieved heightened recognition since it is seen as important in shaping the capacity of nations to succeed in a globalizing and environmentally threatened world (Wood et al., 2018; Wood and Kallio, 2019).
In the face of the climate crisis, new ideas have arisen about the responsibilities of individual citizens, including green citizenship (Wood and Kallio, 2019) – sometimes called environmental citizenship (Dobson and Bell, 2005) – and ecological democracy (Houser, 2009), that take a less anthropocentric and more environmentally conscious view of our obligations as citizens to each other and the planet (Kissling and Bell, 2019). Likewise, other models of citizenship can be found, some emphasizing individual virtue and others emphasizing communal responsibilities. Scholars Joel Westheimer and Joseph Kahne (2004) introduced a model that has achieved broad visibility internationally. The model posits three kinds of citizen enactment: the personally responsible citizen, the participatory citizen, and the justice-oriented citizen.
Personally responsible citizens are those who follow the norms and obligations of being a citizen in their nation (e.g., paying taxes, voting regularly, and following laws). Participatory citizens are individuals who go beyond this level of engagement by getting involved more actively in local or national politics, working for a candidate, or supporting legislative initiatives through interest group participation. Justice-oriented citizens may do all these things but also involve themselves in broader efforts to promote fundamental change and structural reform toward equity and social justice.
By no means is this the only model of citizenship discourse circulating today in the scholarly literature (Abowitz and Hamish, 2006). However, the Westheimer and Kahne (2004) typology gets at one dimension of difference found in other models as well – a continuum from minimal to more maximal engagement with civic life. These models point to civic education that treats youth as civic actors who can effect change by engaging in authentic civic action even before they can vote in elections. Civic action can be carried out through a variety of formal (e.g., writing a state legislator about an issue) and informal (e.g., working on a service-learning project) means, some of which have nothing to do with politics.
Activities such as these enhance personal learning and development as well as a commitment to the common good. Students have been shown to benefit in multiple ways from what has been called "authentic instruction." Likewise, tackling topics that matter to youth (e.g., Noddings, 2007) brings with it a sense of civic purpose (Malin, Ballard, and Damon, 2015), which has been defined as "a sustained intention to contribute to the world beyond the self through civic or political action" (p. 103). In short, good civic education is congruent with what is known about effective teaching and learning.
Youth Civic Engagement: A Sense of Urgency
The Center for Information on Civic Learning and Engagement (CIRCLE) (2019) reports that the proportion of young people under 30 who vote in national elections has declined in recent decades. A similar situation exists across European Union countries (Kitanova, 2019). Various efforts have been undertaken to address this problem with some success recently in ameliorating this situation, including pre-registration of young people before their 18th birthdays (Diavolo, 2019).
To engage young people in participatory, social justice-oriented citizenship that extends beyond voting, civic education also needs improvement. Understandably, young people have less civic knowledge than older groups (Pew Research Center, 2018). Research indicates that good civic education, with an emphasis on knowledge and participation, can produce a long-term commitment to remaining engaged in civic life (Niemi and Junn, 2005; Kahne and Sporte, 2009).
Empirical studies of adolescents in a variety of nations worldwide have shown (e.g., Hahn, 1998; Sherrod, Torney-Purta, Flanagan, 2010) that student engagement in authentic and intensive forms of learning aimed at inquiry about public policy issues and agency and activism in response to these investigations can produce deeper learning and foster higher-order thinking (Campbell and Levinson, 2012; Parker et al., 2013). An open classroom climate in which students feel free to share their views is also essential (Hess, 2009; Hess and McAvoy, 2015).
Examples of these approaches to civic education include traditional forms of classroom instruction and online programs outside of school. For example, the Center for Civic Education's Project Citizen is an effort to engage students with public policy at the local level. Likewise, informal learning environments – online in digital spaces (e.g., iCivics); through youth groups such as the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts of America, and 4H; and other examples found on the website Youth.gov – can also create interest in public policy issues.
Over the last decade, "schooling for sustainable development," albeit in most places along the lines of personal and participatory models of citizenship education, has gathered momentum in North America (McKeown and Nolet, 2013), Europe (European Commission/EACEA/Eurydice, 2017), Australia, and New Zealand. In New Zealand, a 2013 mandate requires that students undertake a "personal social action" as part of their social studies coursework (Wood and Kallio, 2019). Although earlier research showed a decline in student interest in environmental topics (Wray-Lake, Flanagan, and Osgood, 2010), such school-based efforts and the leadership of individuals such as Greta Thunberg offer strong evidence that a tipping point in youth interest has occurred. Many of the examples that follow illustrate the Westheimer and Kahne approach of justice-oriented citizenship or what others might call an activist approach to citizenship; that is, one promoting social change.
A New Era of Youth Agency and Activism
When we think about the history of environmental issues in the United States, names such as John Muir, Wendell Berry, and Rachel Carson (Crocco, Shuttleworth, and Chandler, 2016) may come to mind. Indeed, when we think about change efforts, whether it be the Civil Rights Movement or another example, we often teach about individuals such as Martin Luther King Jr. who come to symbolize these movements. Sometimes, youth play a role in the stories we tell of these reform movements (e.g., the young people who sat in at the Woolworth's counter in Greensboro, North Carolina in 1960). Nevertheless, we tend to adopt explanations of the past that might be described as the "great man" theory of historical change. All too often, we ignore women, youth, and the countless numbers of foot soldiers who make a movement for systemic, structural change a reality.
When it comes to civic engagement, young people, and change, we appear to be turning away from what seemed youthful apathy about politics just a decade or so ago toward embrace of a vision of citizenship engagement that resembles Westheimer and Kahne's social justice-oriented model. The current historical moment is notable for its extraordinary, perhaps unprecedented, level of youth activism. The examples are numerous. The survivors of the Parkland, Florida school shooting used Facebook and Twitter to bring together thousands of people in the "Never Again Marjory Stoneman Douglass" movement for gun control, which gained widespread international attention through its march on Washington, D.C. on March 24, 2018. This movement inspired Greta Thunberg's efforts to take action in the wake of the 2018 Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report on the climate crisis. Even before Thunberg's dramatic trip across the Atlantic Ocean to speak to world leaders at the United Nations, other young people have been working together to address the climate crisis. Some of these young activists include the Zero Hour group, led by Jamie Margolin; Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, an Indigenous environmental activist and hip-hop artist who serves as youth director of Earth Guardians, a conservationist group; the Sunrise movement, founded by young people in their twenties, who focus on local youth leadership (e.g., Ashton Clatterbuck in Lancaster, Pennsylvania) to address the climate crisis; and the 21 young plaintiffs in the court case Juliana v. the United States who are suing the federal government for inadequate response to the climate crisis. Indeed, many young people are clamoring for their elders to move aside and make room for their vision, energy, and leadership in politics and other civic spaces (Taylor, 2019).
The Global Climate Strikes that took place across the world on September 20, 2019 involved thousands of young people who left school to march for action on the climate crisis or participated in activities at their schools. More than 5,000 strikes were reported around the world on that day, kicking off a week of activity (Johnson, 2019). Many participants in these actions were members of civic action groups such as Citizens Climate Lobby, 350.org, and the League of Women Voters. The extraordinary level of activities worldwide, many of which involved students, seems to demonstrate that student civic engagement has reached a new milestone of activity. To buttress this claim, a Washington Post-Kaiser Family Foundation poll (Kaplan and Guskin, 2019) found that one in four youth have taken some action related to the climate crisis and one in seven have participated in a school walkout on this issue. Likewise, new research just released from CIRCLE indicates that in half the U.S. states, youth voting increased in 2018, moving the needle to 23% of the 18- to 21-year-old cohort participating in this off-year election.
While these newer change efforts are, one hopes, shaking up the status quo, other related campaigns addressing the climate crisis are making incremental progress toward their goals. After years of organizing and picketing by civic groups, the University of California – an enormous system with extensive holdings – announced in September 2019 that it will divest from its investment in fossil fuels, one of over 1,000 institutions that have moved in this direction in the last decade.
These examples of student activism and justice oriented citizenship illustrate the idealism, impatience, and sense of urgency found widely among youth today. They also demonstrate a judgment that political leaders in both parties, beholden to corporate contributions and the influence of lobbyists (Farrell, McConnell, and Brulle, 2019), have failed the public, who overwhelmingly desire a response to the crisis (Hertel-Fernandez, Mildenberger, and Stokes, 2018). Social movements such as the examples offered here do affect public opinion, creating awareness, sympathy, and solidarity for their causes. Many people respect what these young citizens are doing to prevent the development of an "uninhabitable earth" (Wallace-Wells, 2019).
Pedagogies of Possibility: Thinking Locally and Globally
Given these individual and group models of activist, social-justice oriented citizenship, this section offers ideas, exemplars, and resources that educators can consider for their classrooms.
Over many years, the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has promulgated what it calls "educating for sustainable development," an idea firmly rooted in comprehensive considerations of social justice as they relate to sustainability and the environment. In some ways, the Green New Deal (H.R. 109 and S.R. 59), introduced in the United States by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Senator Edward Markey (D-MA), acknowledges that climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies must prioritize the needs of those individuals and families with the least resources worldwide since they are often the hardest hit by environmental degradation.
To maximize student interest and agency and promote critical thinking, teaching about environmental issues through an inquiry-oriented, place-based approach is encouraged. The National Council for the Social Studies (NCSS), an organization comprised of teachers, administrators, and scholars, has developed an approach to teaching that relies on an inquiry-oriented approach well-suited to teaching environmental issues. In this four-step process, known as the C3 (College, Career, and Civic Life) Framework, teachers utilize an "Inquiry Arc" in which students explore compelling questions that drive interdisciplinary investigations. Drawing upon disciplinary tools and concepts, students assemble and assess evidence from a range of primary sources to arrive at answers to their questions. After coming to conclusions about their questions, students are encouraged to communicate their understandings and take action in response to their inquiries. In the process of investigating difficult and perhaps overwhelming topics such as the climate crisis, students will assuredly come face-to-face with diverse viewpoints, even antagonistic standpoints. Even many adults within established organizations like the Sierra Club or the Natural Resources Defense Council differ markedly in terms of their emphasis on environmental priorities, strategies, and tactics. To deal with these diverse, often passionately held, viewpoints, teachers can find guidance in books such as Diana Hess's Controversy in the Classroom (2009) or Nel Noddings and Laurie Brooks's Teaching Controversial Issues (2017). What is important here is the promotion of student inquiry and active engagement with compelling problems – not landing on a predetermined position on any of the particular issues confronting citizens, young and old, today. This critical pedagogical orientation and active participation in authentic questions will keep students from becoming overwhelmed and paralyzed by the prospect of a bleak future for themselves and the planet. Likewise, engaging students as voices of authority in considering how to effect change will nurture long-term commitment to civic action that is at the heart of effective citizenship education.
One example of this approach that may be familiar to readers of this journal is the Southeast Michigan Stewardship (SEMIS) Coalition. This partnership program has served for over a decade as an outstanding example of the ways in which students become civic leaders by researching and responding to local issues of concern. In Volume II of this journal, Johnny Lupinacci and his co-authors (2017) describe the ways in which an elementary school teacher organized her students to rehabilitate a nearby vacant lot and turn it into an outdoor garden. In partnership with community groups, these students started by conducting surveys of neighborhood priorities. With help from their partners, teachers and parents were able to transform the blighted lot into a sanctuary of green space. In another article about the SEMIS Coalition's work, Ethan Lowenstein (2016), along with his teacher and student co-authors, describes working with adolescents on place-based education. In this case, students become Youth Ambassadors and serve as the voice for their peers regarding problems related to their school and community, many of which deal with environmental and social justice issues. At the annual SEMIS conference, which brings together teachers, pre-service teachers, administrators, parents, and professors, Youth Ambassadors describe their research and change efforts to a broader audience. The long-term goal is to have these Youth Ambassadors continue to serve as important civic actors after they graduate from high school. In all this work, teachers emphasize finding solutions rather than just identifying problems. Emphasizing partnerships with community-based organizations and parents may require that teachers develop new skills related to outreach and engagement. Lupinacci, Lowenstein, and their co-authors would acknowledge that this work stretches teachers and takes time. However, they also argue that, in the long run, such investments in forging partnerships may even be efficient and will certainly yield massive dividends in terms of helping students experience self-efficacy and making change.
Place-based, inquiry-oriented work can be broadly interdisciplinary, pulling in science, social studies, language arts, and the visual arts. Place-based education can begin in preschool through investigation of problems that students notice around their schools and playgrounds, for example, erosion of the soil after a heavy rainfall (Lowenstein and Smith, 2017). Gardens (Casey, DiCarlo, and Sheldon, 2019) and field trips to local farms (Pope and Patterson, 2012) provide opportunities for raising questions about where food comes from, how it is produced, and whether it is healthy – for humans and the land. Students in elementary schools can read works of fiction such as Dr. Seuss's story of the Lorax (Burroughs, in press) to think and talk about the sharing of resources. These early lessons in scarcity, abundance, and decision-making about natural resources might prompt conversations about such issues in the community like those described above. On the SEMIS website, teachers can find lesson plans that might be adopted and adapted for their own use. The NCSS-sponsored journal, Social Studies and the Young Learner (Libresco and Balantic, 2016), offered an entire issue entitled "Have You Hugged Your Mother (Earth) Today?" featuring a number of creative teaching ideas on environmental issues for grades K-6.
As students mature, tackling environmental issues in the news of the day as case studies in politics, economics, history, geography, and sociology/anthropology can help them understand that these problems are complex and respect no state or national boundaries. The local and global, historical and contemporary aspects of human civilization making, for better or worse, converge across the disciplines. Looked at from an environmental or geographic perspective, the history of the Fertile Crescent in ancient Mesopotamia can be considered an exercise in sustainability (Shuttleworth, in press) and civilization building. Adolescents might research the different ways in which Indigenous groups in their areas think about land and water use and its contrast with American legal tradition. Investigating case studies, such as the Flint (Michigan) Water Crisis (Heath and Kenreich, in press) or the Dakota Access Pipeline (Passe and Sepulveda, in press), can serve as reminders of the acute socioeconomic and race-based disparities in how environmental degradation affects different citizens across the country. They might also examine the history of social movements in this and other countries to question how they got started, gained momentum, and whether they produced lasting social change. Drawing on other school subjects, students can respond to their inquiries through poetry, art, creative writing, and music. They can hone their skills in public speaking at a city council meeting and engage in persuasive letter writing to politicians or the local newspaper. They can sponsor a local conference or reach out cross-generationally or across different groups in their communities to forge alliances aimed at change. Each of these teaching strategies should promote critical reflection, a deeper understanding of the complexity of many public policy issues, and the regular compromises that get made to get something done.
To complement place-based education focused on local settings with global perspectives and cases, teachers might consult a variety of other sources: UNESCO's Education for Sustainable Development standards, the Cloud Institute for Sustainability Education's Education for Sustainability Standards, and the US Partnership for Education for Sustainable Development's National Education for Sustainability K-12 Student Learning Standards, Version 3.
Teachers might find two additional resources helpful for general guidance in linking the local to the global. The first suggestion is somewhat dated but still useful: the Education for Sustainable Development Toolkit. The second is Victor Nolet's (2016) wonderful book, Educating for Sustainability: Principles and Practices for Teachers. Of course, good teachers adapt ideas found elsewhere to their own school and classroom contexts. Nevertheless, these standards and pedagogical suggestions will surely stimulate the process of adaptation due to the deep thinking that has gone into each of these publications.
As noted earlier, effective civic education with long-lasting impact in terms of civic engagement rests upon involving students in inquiries about topics they care about and structuring these inquiries toward culminating activities that are authentic, meaningful, and aimed at taking some sort of action. Today, these activities might be conducted in or out of school, online (Middaugh and Kirshner, 2014), or in the public square (Gallay et al., 2016). The recent good news about rising student interest and involvement in citizen action and justice-oriented citizenship on the climate crisis suggests that young people are eager to confront this problem and contribute, even lead the rest of us, to a solution, recognizing that the future is theirs. Certainly, educators, parents, and other adults need to support their energy and idealism in any way we can as today's youth seek to create a better, more sustainable world for all living things.
Author Bio – Margaret Smith Crocco (croccom@msu.edu) is professor emerita from Teachers College, Columbia University. She has also served on the faculties of Michigan State University and the University of Iowa. Besides teaching about the place of environmental issues and sustainability in social studies, her scholarly interests include the teaching of women's history and American history.
Article originally published in the winter issue of the Green Schools Catalyst Quarterly, and reprinted with permission from the Green Schools National Network.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We operate two lifestyle showrooms, two warehouse/assembly studios, and a workshop/design studio where carpentry and furniture restoration work are done.
Exclusive to our main lifestyle showroom at Tan Boon Liat is the complete range of Luxe Hotel Collection, our in-house line of home accessories, and Bespoke Boutique Collection, our in-house line of furniture. You can also shop a range of artwork, textiles, and collectibles in store. Our online store is set to launch in Q3 2018.
Conveniently located three units away is our dedicated outdoor living space, which pays tribute to tropical living with an extensive range of affordable, versatile, and all-weather outdoor furniture. The showroom also carries complementary outdoor accessories from hurricane lanterns and table pieces to statement mirrors and patterned outdoor rugs.
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Flare up in Nagorno-Karabakh – Why Now?
In an official statement, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has shared the "deep concern" expressed by the co-chairs of the OSCE Minsk Group and other international partners about growing tensions, and acts of violence, along the Armenian-Azerbaijani border. These have resulted in numerous casualties, reports RIA Novosti, a leading and respected Russian news agency.
What the Minsk Group is referring to is the conflict in Nagorno-Karabakh, the region of Azerbaijan occupied by Armenia. This has been simmering for years, as the territory still belongs to Azerbaijan under international law despite the Armenian military victory and the proclamation of a "Nagorno-Karabakh Republic". Though a frozen conflict, it has always had the potential to inflame once again, as no solution to this anomalous situation has been found.
Ban Ki-moon is urging all parties to respect the ceasefire agreement, refrain from further violence and reduce tensions and continue dialogue in order to achieve a rapid and peaceful settlement. He has also expressed his full support for the OSCE Minsk Group, charged with this peace process. The US Co-Chair of the Minsk Group, James Warlick, has also urged both Baku and Yerevan to stop the violence and called on the Azerbaijani and Armenian presidents to meet to discuss ways to resolve the conflict.
Well they would, wouldn't they? But why is Nagorno-Karabakh being highlighted now, when the conflict has been going on for over twenty years?
Consequently, although a ceasefire was agreed in 1994, a permanent peace deal has never been signed because the suspended state of war suits all sides. Both Armenia and Azerbaijan have a history of corrupt and authoritarian rule, which fighting each other both justifies and detracts attention from. Russia and the West likewise have an ace in the hole they can play to accuse each other, for their own ends, at any given time.
So what has changed now? Not the reasons why all sides want the frozen conflict to stay as it is. If it is now being unfrozen – approximately 20 people have died in the past two weeks, according to Russia Today, most being Azeri soldiers – some new factor is at work.
Still neither Russia nor the West really wants war over Karabakh. Its inhabitants are another "faraway people about whom we know nothing", as British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain called the Czechs when the Nazis invaded their country. It would be difficult to whip up public support for, or even interest in, a conflict in such a remote place, where neither side could claim a victory anyone cared about.
But what both sides are interested in is apportioning blame. As we have seen in Ukraine, the US has a habit of using the pretext of who started a conflict to justify any number of actions it would never get away with at home. If one side can be blamed, the US can get away with doing anything it wants to support the other side, claiming it is correcting an injustice and acting in the name of peace and democracy. Peace and state building comes at the end of a barrel under the new NATO and American Defence policy.
It is difficult to see which side the West would support in any Karabakh conflict, as its usual "territorial integrity" rhetoric cuts no ice with the much better organised international Armenian lobby. However, Moscow supports the Armenian position on Karabakh unconditionally, and is one of the few countries not to support the economic embargo imposed on Armenia after the initial shooting conflict started years ago.
Perhaps the Soviet-era agenda of "freeing Armenia from Russian dominance" will be used by the US to portray the Karabakh conflict as a product of that dominance, which must be brought to an end for the greater good. From the Russian viewpoint, any such attempt would make the US the aggressor, and support its claims that Western encroachment in the US sphere of influence is a bad thing.
Furthermore, the Turkish factor cannot be overlooked. Azerbaijan is a member of the Turkic Council, an instrument Turkey uses to press its claims for greater regional influence. If Turkey is serious about being a big noise it has to win a war for once – a martial nation which has had and lost a vast empire, and was once known as the "Sick Man of Europe", does not regain influence without showing it can back its pretensions with force, and is prepared to do so.
As a Western ally, Turkey has allowed NATO to establish strategic military bases on its territory. This gives it a reason to transport arms, legally and otherwise, through its hinterland to wherever they are needed. Arms supplies to various US-inserted "terrorist" groups in the Middle East, such as ISIS, have long passed through Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi. Despite being part of Georgia, Adjaria and the Port of Batumi is in fact controlled by Turkey, under the 1921 Treaty of Kars which it would be very difficult to alter, assuming either side wanted to.
There is now increasing interest in what has always been going on at the port, and the Free Industrial Zones in close proximity, fuelled by the investigations of local journalists in West Georgia. As there is abundant evidence to support claims of illegal trafficking, this route may not be viable much longer, but there is still a need to send arms to the Middle East, Iran, Central Asia and any other place where the US is seeking to disrupt the country to pursue its aims, including Ukraine and Azerbaijan.
So are the great powers preparing for a limited war which would secure supply lines to US operations elsewhere? Sending arms and troops in support of a Turkish ally in another conflict zone would be a very convenient way to carry on breaking international law without being called to account by pesky journalists. It would also get Turkey off the hook of any investigation, and enforce some sort of solution to the conflict, guaranteed by troops, which will open new supply lines for the foreseeable future.
There is another reason why arms and troops need to be sent to Karabakh. The main diplomatic tool in the region is the various energy pipeline schemes. With Russia dominating energy supplies to Europe, Western countries are continually seeking new supply routes which bypass Russia, thereby engaging in open economic conflict with it. Countries are included in, or excluded from, these pipeline projects for political reasons, acceptance being a seal of their political reliability.
The Western pipelines will rely on Azeri gas. As such, the projects cannot include Armenia until a solution is found to the Karabakh conflict. Armenia can however be a part of Russian projects such as South Stream, which will maintain and increase its dominance of the energy supply market.
Two problems have arisen here. Firstly, the West is losing the energy war. The Nabucco project, once touted as the prime Western solution, is still mired in political difficulties and is unlikely to be realised on the stated terms. Nor is the BTC (Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan) project delivering as expected. It was filled with oil on May 18, 2005, but only now is enough passing through the pipeline (133.17 million barrels of oil in the first half of this year) to make it something like economically viable.
Secondly, the latest version of the Russian military doctrine states that Russia can send troops to defend both Russian citizens and Russian interests wherever they may be. State energy giant Gazprom has long used contractors to guard pipelines, terminals, wells etcetera. The idea that Russia might send state troops, on government orders, to keep its pipelines safe has caused alarm in the West, which has a different culture. It might employ police for such a purpose, but not troops, and there would be little public support for sending armies to patrol energy pipelines in peacetime.
If Russia maintains its energy dominance and supports it with troops the West will have increasingly less to offer regional countries, than who will be better off in the Russian camp. If the West cannot counter by building bigger and better pipelines, and offering its partner countries more as a result, it has to respond in some other way.
Sending Western troops to the area would not only be a deterrent, it would protect Western supplies in another way. For many years, Azeri light and oil from Central Asia has been diverted somewhere between pumping station one, on the Georgian side, and pumping station two, and flogged off for a hefty profit to international buyers. Some of this oil is then replaced with lower grade oil, and control samples falsified.
Such practices provide governments with additional benefits, but also bring them into conflict when everyone wants their share. Ensuring that share is distributed equally, without completely destroying the pipeline projects and supply arrangements, is also essential in protecting the West's energy and geopolitical interests.
Neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia is equipped to fight a war over Nagorno-Karabakh. Whoever started it would be subject to international retaliation, due to the presence of the OSCE Minsk Group, and even if the great powers took different sides neither Azerbaijan nor Armenia wants to risk taking on Russia on the one hand, or the West on the other.
If conflict is flaring in Karabakh, when the reasons for keeping it frozen have not changed, there is a reason why the balance of force there needs to change. Karabakh itself does not provide that reason, as the existing situation has suited everyone for twenty years. There can only be an external factor, and this is likely to be connected with troops and arms themselves, as it is standard practice to secure conflict resolution by introducing external troops to maintain order.
In this context, a trilateral meeting in Sochi of the presidents of Russia, Azerbaijan and Armenia organized by Vladimir Putin was a timely step that once again showed the beneficial nature of Russia's approach to the resolution of this conflict in comparison to the Western one. The presidents at the above mentioned meeting agreed that the conflict can only be resolved by peaceful means. "We should display patience, wisdom and respect for each other to find a solution, Even the most difficult situations can be resolved if the good will is there. I think that the people of Azerbaijan and the people of Armenia do have this good will." – Vladimir Putin said.
Seth Ferris, investigative journalist and political scientist, expert on Middle Eastern affairs together with Dutch National, On Special Assignment, Marcel Marie Brandsma, Holland exclusively for the online magazine "New Eastern Outlook".


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Tag: katey
Katey Sagal talks about the final season of hit FX series "Sons of Anarchy"
CR: James Minchin/FX
Katey Sagal plays the role of Gemma Teller on the hit FX series "Sons of Anarchy". With the show now in its final season we see several of the main characters standing at difficult cross roads due to the horrific events that closed out season 6. Media Mikes had the pleasure of speaking with the show matriarch recently to discuss her characters progression, challenges related to the role and what she is going to miss most about working on the show.
Adam Lawton: Over the course of seven seasons Gemma has shown a full range of good and bad. At what point do you think she really crossed the line or do you think that she hasn't crossed that line?
Katey Sagal: I think what we're seeing now is her own conscience finally grabbing her. I still think she believes that killing Tara at the end of Season 6 was not premeditated. She really did believe that Tara had turned the entire club in and it was the downfall of her entire existence. At that moment it was just sort of a perfect storm, and not that she doesn't realize the heinous nature of it, but I do believe that what's happening now is that in times before, she was able to compartmentalize and almost rationalize. I think this one was just too much for her.
AL: Can you talk about the scenes where Gemma is talking to Tara's ghost and why you think they're so important for Gemma?
KS: I think it's very indicative of her unraveling. They're super easy to do, because I felt very close to Maggie, who played Tara, and so it's easy for me, and Gemma felt very close to Tara. I think that they had such an intricate relationship, but also very mother/daughter, so I think that I just can put her there very easily and speak to her. It speaks to Gemma's own—as the season goes on, her remorseful moments get stronger and start to seep out and the walls start closing in. I think that it keeps her connected. It's like I keep reiterating it wasn't intentional what happened so it kind of shows her just continuing to connect.
AL: What has it been like not only playing Gemma over the course of the seven seasons, but also watching her transition from a fans perspective?
KS: It's fantastic. It was fantastic as an actor and it was super fun to watch and that's what I love to watch myself all the time. I definitely had my critical moments, but this was something I really wanted. I've worked in television for so many years in comedy and I really, really wanted to do more dramatic work because I never even think I'm funny. I always thought I'm supposed to be in a drama, so it's been very satisfying for me to push myself and go places I haven't gone. It's been great. It's been absolutely great. That's what you want.
AL: What were some of your high points from the series and, what were some of the challenges?
KS: It's constantly challenging, which as an actor you only hope for, so I felt every season brought a new set of things that I've never done before
CR: Prashant Gupta/FX
and needed exploring, so it was that kind of job where week to week, episode to episode there was always a little something that I felt like this will be great. I guess the overall challenge of it was playing somebody that was so very different from me. Her maternal instincts are similar to mine, but her ways and means of doing things were something very foreign to me. I don't live in an outlaw world and I don't carry a gun and I don't do those things. The high points were numerous, so it's difficult to zero in on—that's a hard question. I'm about to re-watch the whole thing.
AL: Have you gone through a little bit of a mourning period now that the show has wrapped?
KS: It's been interesting, we've all sort of known the end was coming, but I don't think any of us really acknowledged it till the last couple of weeks. We'd have moments on set where people would tear up and we'd say good-bye to one director, but the work really requires you to be pretty much where you are. It's complicated to keep everything in place in your brain and your character and where you are, so that pulled focused. I think Kurt and I are just—part of us are in denial and we have lots of other stuff in life, so it takes the onus off it. I'm sure at some point we'll probably crash from it all and we'll recognize it, but I think overwhelmingly we're both so grateful that its seven years and it's been such a great experience, so I don't know that you get too sad really. Things happen. I think it's ending at the perfect time, I really do.
AL: What will you miss most about being involved with the show?
KS: I'll miss so many things. It was a great working environment. I'll miss the people. That's what you really connect to and I'll miss the writing. I've been in television a long time and you don't find great parts that readily and you don't find great writing that readily. It's been just a great creative experience to be able to have both of those things, and it's a colorful bunch of people to work with, so going to work was never boring. I will miss them all terribly.
Atticus Shaffer talks about Season 6 of "The Middle"
Peta Murgatroyd talks about this season of "Dancing with the Stars"
Heather Locklear talks about joining Season 3 of "Franklin & Bash"
Jackson Publick & Doc Hammer talk about the 5th season of "The Venture Brothers"
Sam Huntington reflects on season two of Syfy's "Being Human"
Filed Under: Interviews, TV Interviews Tagged With: anarchy, final, fx, hit, katey, sagal, ...


This is my happy song for today. This is Bob Marley's song. I don't know if you ever heard of Bob Marley? He was a Jamaican reggae singer-songwriter, musician and guitarist. His lyrics often carry some important messages and he was always an 'ambassador' of peace and love. He died from cancer at early age of 36. His final words to his son Ziggy in the hospital where he died were "Money can't buy life."
Life is about so much more. So live your life dear Atria and be happy. Life is beautiful.


Website of the International Chamber of Commerce in Lebanon. Profile, members, news, discussion forum, events and more.
Association of Lebanese Food Producers in Lebanon.
Official website of the Economic and Social Assembly for Lebanon, that provides scientific and applicable socio-economic solutions to the community, offering a healthy environment, fair treatment and continuous growth.
Association that seeks to maintain an environment favorable to industrial investment and growth. Administration, activities, members, index.
Lebanese industrial association manufacturing a line of tin plate cans that complies with European and International standards.
A non-profit organization committed to the development and growth of economic and commercial relations between Canada and Lebanon.
Business initiative aims to gather Lebanese entrepreneurs and providing them with an opportunity to connect with key players who will potentially help fuel their ideas and projects.
General Union of Chambers of Commerce, Industry and Agriculture for Arab Countries.
Association of Insurance companies in Lebanon.
Non-profit organization established with the support of the United Nations Development Programme UNDP ART GOLD North Lebanon Initiative.
Non governmental and non profit organization established in order to educate the youth about entrepreneurial and leadership skills to enhance their economic opportunities in Lebanon.


CHILLICOTHE – A tip that an attempted sale of stolen property was taking place Tuesday led to the arrest of a 23-year-old man.
According to the Ross County Sheriff's Office, a tip came in that Zachary Frey was going to be on South Bridge Street in the vicinity of the Marathon gas station attempting to sell stolen items. Deputies arrived and made contact with Frey, examining a vehicle containing several items that had been verified as stolen during prior sheriff's office investigations.
Many of the items were identified as having been reported stolen from vehicles in Ross County, according to the sheriff's office which is continuing its investigation.
Frey was arrested and charged with receiving stolen property.


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I know what you're doing right now, besides reading this piece of writing. You're going to read this, marvel at the pictures that are selected for this particular piece of writing, shut the tab and go back to your ordinary grind.
I have one question for you. Why go through the trouble of even reading this?
I mean: You can even google images of the most beautiful images, go there in your sails of the night (often known as your dreams), and come back blissfully happy.
Just don't read any further if you don't have the will to travel.
1.No Air Ticket is free, but the experience is priceless.
2.No Holiday Package is absolute, but the photos that you will preserve are perfect.
3.No Tour is free of cost and complimentary, but then a cost is attached to even the most blissful things in life.
The reason I am being brutally honest with you is for the simple reason that life in the 21st century cannot be pretentious. Even with you, dear reader, your corporate guard has to be put down in front of your family! There is a need for you to shed off your inhibitions, your fears, your terms and conditions - just like I have shed mine in this brutally honest piece.
No more asterisks in the corner of advertisements that scream out offers.
Life and travel are NOT synonymous. But if you decide to make them both one - you need to do so by shedding every aspect in your life that tells you "Its not safe!" and delve right into the midst of it.
From here on- Make a promise to yourself to live a life without asterisks. Travel accepting that things can go wrong. No flight can give you seamless service, and if they do- well, good for you- you just experienced a good day in travel!
But the bad days- well they happen almost everyday!
A mismanaged tour, a miscommunicated flight time, an overpriced tour, an insufficient food helping - this is what you experience and rant about on your social media pages.
But- during that mismanaged tour- did you experience anything besides obvious discomfort? The thrill of being left behind by a guided mandatory city tour ? The extra cost that made you take the local transport? Well - you just experienced something that no one in that guided tour has !
That Miscommunicated Flight time by that newbie who organised your trip? Well, where else but in an airport will you see people of different nationalities letting their guard down in an alien state?
That overpriced tour? Well, you were among the lucky ones to have had the money to pay for it in the first place.
Insufficient food helping at a restaurant? Well, did you talk to the locals asking about the restaurant? After experiencing this, you will!
STOP DREAMING. STOP ASSUMING. START TRAVELLING.
Someone who writes pretentiously for 364 days in a year.


text:
How much does 'health tourism' actually cost the NHS?
It's been claimed the cost is around £2bn a year - but is that in any way true?
Mikey SmithPolitical Correspondent
An operation taking place at Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Birmingham (Image: PA)
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Hospitals could check patients' passports before treatment in an attempt to crack down on so-called "health tourism".
But how much does health tourism actually cost, and would checking passports actually save the NHS any money?
Chris Wormald, a top civil servant said yesterday that a Peterborough hospital was already checking people's passports, and it could be rolled out to the whole country.
He said: "On the general question of, are we looking at whether trusts should proactively ask people to prove their identity - yes we are looking at that."
So how much does 'health tourism' cost the NHS? And is checking passports worth it?
How much does 'health tourism' cost the NHS?
Professor J Meirion Thomas, speaking to the BBC this morning, cited Lord Bates as having said the cost of visitors to the NHS in 2012-13 £2bn, which is approximately 2% of the NHS budget.
Asked if we clawed any funding back from other countries, Professor Thomas said: "As far as I know, we didn't get anything back."
Neither of these claims are accurate.
The £2bn figure, seized upon by a string of right-wing politicians and newspapers, is - to be charitably - 'hand-wavy'.
First of all, it refers to all visitors, not just migrants.
That means it includes people here on holiday who injure themselves, international students and expats who return here to see their old, trusted GPs.
This, from a government study, only says health tourism costs £2bn if you don't read it very closely at all
And yes, it occasionally includes genuine 'health tourists' who come here from other countries with the sole purpose of obtaining NHS treatment for free.
The total cost of this is estimated at around £1.8 - 2bn a year.
Most of that is A&E visits, which we generally don't charge visitors for - and, it should be noted, wouldn't be covered by the 'passport' plan.
Non-emergency treatments add up to around £500m a year, about £100m of which is clawed back from other countries.
So how much does health tourism actually cost?
According to the same Government report which is being incorrectly cited by Professor Thomas , the estimated cost of deliberate health tourism is between £110 and £280m a year. Some estimates put it as high as £300m a year.
Put that into perspective for me…
It's around 0.3% of the total NHS budget.
The NHS spends around £200m more every year on stationery than it does on health tourism.
Is there a better way for the NHS to save money?
Well, missed GP appointments cost around £300m a year.
The NHS could save more money by reducing those in some way, perhaps by charging a deposit.
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text:
Q: How to make the following SQL code faster I am trying to write an Oracle SQL Developer code, which will summarize selected clinical events of each patient, which occurred at the day of admission, by the date of their admission (beg_effective_dt_tm) for certain services and nursing units. It requires many, many hours to run...
Wanted to reach out if anyone has any ideas, on how to speed-up the code. Thank you in advance
SELECT ENCNTR_ID, ROUND(BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM,'DDD'), max(ventilator), max(O2FLOW), max(FIO2), min(PAO2), min(SPO2) FROM (
SELECT UNIQUE
EN.ENCNTR_ID,
ELH.BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM,
max (CASE WHEN ce.event_cd = '43504571' THEN '1' ELSE '0' END) OVER (PARTITION BY elh.encntr_id, round(performed_dt_tm,'DDD')) AS ventilator,
max (case when ce.event_cd = '111123182' then ce.result_val else '' end) over (partition by elh.encntr_id, round(performed_dt_tm,'DDD'))  as O2FLOW,
max (case when ce.event_cd = '14611845' then ce.result_val else '' end) over (partition by elh.encntr_id, round(performed_dt_tm,'DDD'))  as FIO2,
min (case when ce.event_cd = '6758629' then ce.result_val else '' end) over (partition by elh.encntr_id, round(performed_dt_tm,'DDD'))  as PAO2,
MIN (Case When Ce.Event_cd = '51517102' Then Ce.Result_val Else '' End) OVER (PARTITION BY elh.ENCNTR_ID, ROUND(PERFORMED_DT_TM,'DDD'))  As SPO2

FROM
ENCOUNTER EN
join CLINICAL_EVENT CE on EN.ENCNTR_ID = CE.ENCNTR_ID
right JOIN ENCNTR_LOC_HIST ELH ON EN.ENCNTR_ID = EN.ENCNTR_ID

WHERE
CE.EVENT_CD IN ()

AND elh.MED_SERVICE_CD IN (29279,29280, 32177, 32182, 29243, 32187, 32201, 32202, 10795466, 32209)
AND elh.LOC_NURSE_UNIT_CD IN (95785229, 95785312, 95785470, 95785577, 95780475, 95780595, 95781786 ,95782289, 95784755, 95784860, 95785057, 95785139,95785789, 95785888, 95786353, 95786453)
AND CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM >= '01-JAN-2011'
AND CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM < '01-JAN-2012'
AND ROUND(CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM, 'DDD') = ROUND(ELH.BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM, 'DDD')

)
GROUP BY ENCNTR_ID, ROUND(BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM,'DDD')
ORDER BY ENCNTR_ID, ROUND(BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM,'DDD')

A: Using distinct with group by is always suspicious.  As is doing analytic functions and then aggregating.  I think you intend something like this:
SELECT EN.ENCNTR_ID, ROUND(ELH.BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM, 'DDD') as BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM,
       max(CASE WHEN ce.event_cd = '43504571' THEN 1 ELSE 0 END) AS ventilator,
       max(case when ce.event_cd = '111123182' then ce.result_val end) as O2FLOW,
       max(case when ce.event_cd = '14611845' then ce.result_val end) as FIO2,
       min(case when ce.event_cd = '6758629' then ce.result_val end)  as PAO2,
       MIN(Case When Ce.Event_cd = '51517102' Then Ce.Result_val As SPO2
FROM ENCOUNTER EN join
     CLINICAL_EVENT CE
     on EN.ENCNTR_ID = CE.ENCNTR_ID JOIN
     ENCNTR_LOC_HIST ELH
     ON EN.ENCNTR_ID = EN.ENCNTR_ID
WHERE CE.EVENT_CD IN () AND
      elh.MED_SERVICE_CD IN (29279,29280, 32177, 32182, 29243, 32187, 32201, 32202, 10795466, 32209) AND
      elh.LOC_NURSE_UNIT_CD IN (95785229, 95785312, 95785470, 95785577, 95780475, 95780595, 95781786 ,95782289, 95784755, 95784860, 95785057, 95785139,95785789, 95785888, 95786353, 95786453) AND
      CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM >= '01-JAN-2011' AND
      CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM < '01-JAN-2012' AND
      ROUND(CE.PERFORMED_DT_TM, 'DDD') = ROUND(ELH.BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM, 'DDD')
GROUP BY ENCNTR_ID, BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM
ORDER BY ENCNTR_ID, BEG_EFFECTIVE_DT_TM;

Some notes:

*

*The RIGHT JOIN is unnecessary because the WHERE clause turns it into an inner join.

*The analytic functions are all turned into simple aggregation.

*The last condition in the WHERE clause should go in an ON clause.

*The ELSE for the CASE statement is unnecessary, because aggregation functions automatically ignore NULL values.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
DNA vaccine: Methods and mechanisms
Saber Soltani1, Abbas Farahani2, Mahsa Dastranj2, Navid Momenifar3, Parviz Mohajeri4, Amir Darb Emamie1
1 Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah; Department of Pathobiology, School of Public Health, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
2 Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
3 Student Research Committee, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah; Faculty of Basic Sciences and Advanced Technologies in Biology, Department of Cell and Molecular Biology Science, University of Science and Culture, ACECR, Tehran, Iran
4 Department of Microbiology, School of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Kermanshah, Iran
Parviz Mohajeri
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Kermanshah University of Medical Sciences, Shirudi Shahid Boulevard, Daneshgah Street, Kermanshah 67148-69914
DOI: 10.4103/AIHB.AIHB_74_17
Infectious diseases are the biggest cause of mortality and morbidity in humans, especially in poor and developing countries. For many years, no new vaccine has been developed, which indicates the limitations of the development of common vaccines, including destruction and inactivation of the vaccine, weakened vaccines toxoids known as first-generation vaccines. Types of vaccines including: (1) First-generation vaccines, (2) second-generation vaccines or recombinant vaccines, (3) third-generation vaccines (gene vaccine). The study on DNA vaccines first began in the 1990s, when the plasmid DNA is injected into the skin or muscle was reported to induce antibody responses to antigens. Since DNA vaccines are easily designed and manufactured, they are easier to preserve them, and they are inexpensive, as one of the most desirable types of vaccine. However, more clinical trials are needed to prove the immune responses that immune to DNA vaccine in humans. Information on the vaccination method, adjuvant and the genetic structure of the vaccine is still not complete.
Soltani S
Farahani A
Dastranj M
Momenifar N
Mohajeri P
Emamie AD
DNA vaccine


text:
e-paper Thu January 20, 2022
Writer's Archive View all Writers
Home-made machinery
By Engr. Hussain Ahmad Siddiqui
Mon, 01, 22
The government has launched an ambitious plan for transformation of the agriculture sector. It has embarked upon a short-term plan for the growth of agriculture sector, whereas long-term perspective plan is underway. Several measures have been adapted in this context. The State Bank of Pakistan has set the agriculture credit target of Rs1.7 trillion for the year 2022-23.
Farm modernisation and mechanisation is a crucial element of the programme, considered essential for enhanced crop productivity and diversification, aiming at national food security. Therefore, to encourage manufacturing of affordable tractors domestically, financial, and fiscal concessions have been allowed under the recently announced Auto Industry Development and Export Policy 2021-2026. The policy document also provides incentives for introduction of new products, either a new make or model, of agricultural tractors.
Punjab is providing subsidy of over Rs12 billion and various incentives to farmers for use of modern agricultural machinery under the National Plan, primarily to increase wheat production. Likewise, Sindh is providing Rs3 billion subsidy during the current fiscal year for small farmers, with focus on promoting the use of agricultural farm machinery. In line with the policies initiated by the federal government for the promotion of agriculture and farm yield, several financial and fiscal incentives are being offered to the farmers.
Farm mechanisation implies the use of mechanical technology in various farming operations. Currently, Pakistan has selective farm mechanisation, limited to use of imported combined harvesters and locally manufactured tractors. Thus, per hectare (ha) use of horsepower (hp) in the country remains one of the lowest in the region, at 1.02 hp/ha. Comparatively, China has 4.10 factor of hp/ha. Resultantly, harvests of almost all crops in Pakistan have been low in any year compared with that of the regional countries.
Mechanisation is critically important for ensuring timely field operations, increased productivity, minimised crop losses, and improved quality of produces. It is estimated that mechanisation can increase agriculture produce by 30 percent and reduce the cost by 20 percent. Currently, general-purpose tractors account for most of the farm machinery mechanisation. Local industry produces about 70,000 tractors annually, in the range of 55-85hp. However, there is underutilisation of tractors employed by the farmers due to absence of local availability of its implements for various agricultural activities.
Tractor industry somehow is not interested in manufacturing tractor attachments such as for seeding, sowing, planting, and ploughing. Agricultural tools and implements produced locally, mostly in informal sector, are limited in types and applications and are poor in quality, though cheaper than the imported ones. The farm machinery produced locally also includes power tiller, thresher, reaper, seeder, etc. On the other hand, some 25,000 combined harvesters are in use in the country, which are used for reaping, threshing, and winnowing/sifting operations. These units were imported during the last two decades or so. Most of these are outdated and old combined harvesters, while still working in the field, often breakdown, with availability of spares and after-sales service facility non-existent in Pakistan. This causes significant loss of crops.
One of the key components of modernisation strategy should be availability of farm machinery even to small- and medium-sized farmers who can play an important role in revolutionising agricultural produce and supply chain. Thus, there is profound need for the manufacturing of a variety of agricultural farm machinery locally. Development and adoption of modern, cost-effective agricultural machinery can enhance production and efficiency, and also lead to increasing farmers' profitability. Infrastructure for manufacturing agricultural machinery is already available, with need for only capital investment and incentives for entrepreneurs. There is no reliable data regarding market size, nonetheless great potential exists since it is an untapped market.
Realising the need for availability of affordable farm machinery, the State Engineering Corporation (SEC) had signed an agreement with the Chinese as early as in April 2000 for progressive manufacturing of farm machinery based on latest technology at one of the SEC industrial companies under technology transfer arrangements.
It was proposed to establish a joint venture with China National Complete Plant Import & Export Corporation (COMPLANT). In the first phase, manufacturing of agricultural machinery including small tractors (8-30 HP), farming vehicles (1-4 tonne capacity, specially designed for farmers) and other related machinery items was planned. Export of these products to the neighbouring countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka was also envisaged.
A specialised Pakistani marketing company operating in private sector was associated as partner to the joint venture. The two governments had also agreed to the proposal under the umbrella of Pak-China Joint Economic Commission, emphasising implementation of the project on priority. Nonetheless, the project could not materialise primarily due to lack of political will on Pakistan's side. Indeed, the proposed joint venture with the Chinese, if established, could have proved a milestone for the development of agriculture sector in Pakistan.
In July 2017, Belarus, which is already producing and marketing tractors here, had also offered Pakistan the cooperation for progressive manufacturing of farm machinery, including advanced harvesters and other agro-machinery. The proposal was revived by the government of Belarus in February 2019 showing keenness to produce farm machinery in Pakistan, but without any results.
At this juncture when the world is going for high-tech agricultural farm machinery, including eco-friendly electric tractors, and application of robotics, we, sadly, continue with outdated farming practices and poor farm management, pushing us back into primitive times.
The writer is retired chairman of State Engineering Corporation
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© 2022 THE NEWS INTERNATIONAL Back To Top


text:
When the red-carpet premiere at the Coolidge Corner Theatre in Brookline was over, some of the well-heeled and high-heeled crowd headed down Beacon Street, into Kenmore Square, for a party at a swanky bar.
Joe Crowley doesn't do bars anymore. He doesn't do booze anymore. And after watching a movie that featured his real-life experience of being sexually abused at the age of 15 by a priest, he wasn't in the mood for a party. So we left the theater and crossed Harvard Street to grab some pizza and just talk.
"Spotlight," the film about the Boston Globe's Pulitzer Prize-winning investigation of the coverup of sexual abuse by priests, is rightly drawing critical acclaim for the way it captures the tedious, unglamorous reality of what newspaper reporters do to hold the powerful accountable. It's a very good, very realistic movie.
But for people like Joe Crowley, the movie is not about process. It's more personal, far more visceral. They don't call Crowley and others abused by predators wearing Roman collars survivors for nothing.
Three weeks before the premiere, Crowley and Phil Saviano, another survivor who is portrayed in the film, watched the film in an 18-seat screening room in the South End. Tom McCarthy, who directed the film, and Josh Singer, who wrote the screenplay with McCarthy, arranged the private showing.
"Tom and Josh were concerned that the initial viewing of the film would be tough going for us," Joe Crowley said. "They were right to be concerned. There were 11 of us in that screening room, and from the very first scene, you could hear muted crying. Even the projectionist was weeping."
So was Joe Crowley.
At the premiere, he vowed to not cry. But the images on screen still overwhelmed him. He cried more than he expected.
"When Patrick McSorley's character came on the screen, I remembered going to Patrick's wake in Hyde Park," he said.
McSorley was 12 years old when a priest named John Geoghan began molesting him. Patrick had used booze and drugs and whatever else he thought might make him forget. But what happened to Patrick McSorley, what happened to Joe Crowley, is not something you forget. McSorley was just 29 when he died in 2004, two years after the Globe published Cardinal Bernard Law's sickening, fawning letter praising Geoghan, a serial pedophile.
"I didn't know Patrick," Joe Crowley said, "but I had to go to his wake. I had to tell his family and his friends how sorry I was."
When Crowley saw McSorley's character on screen, he cried again.
"I felt so sad for Patrick," he said. "I cried for Patrick and I cried for myself. It never should have happened. None of this should have happened."
After the premiere was over, Crowley hugged Michael Cyril Creighton, the actor who plays him in the film. Crowley and Creighton have become good friends as a result of the movie, just as Phil Saviano is good friends with Neal Huff, the actor who portrays him.
Crowley hugged Jim Scanlan, who was instrumental in seeing his abuser, Rev. James Talbot, sent to prison. Crowley had not met Scanlan before the premiere.
"A very courageous man," Crowley said of Scanlan, and the same could be said of Joe Crowley, who came forward to point the finger at Rev. Paul Shanley, the hip street priest who preyed on kids. Shanley raped Joe Crowley, then passed him on to other men, who plied a 15-year-old boy with booze and cigarettes and shame.
Shanley was convicted of sexual abuse on the day that Joe Crowley commemorated his ninth year of sobriety, and the courtroom erupted. But Crowley did not.
"Watching Shanley answer to criminal charges was the real beginning of my recovery," he said.
The film is also part of that recovery. I don't know anybody who knows as much about movies as Joe Crowley. He can tell you everything about movies and movie stars. He never thought his story would be included in a major motion picture. And his only real pleasure in all this is that it might help someone who was abused as he was.
The night after the premiere of "Spotlight," Joe Crowley was inside a movie theater again, this one in the Fenway. He and Saviano hosted a screening for abuse survivors, their advocates, and their friends.
Crowley thought he had gotten his emotions out of his system at the first two screenings. But this was different. This was his crowd, his people. The emotion was palpable, completely different from the red carpet night. In the dark, the muffled crying grew louder as the film progressed.
"Everyone in the theater seemed as though they were reliving some horrible moment," he said.
As the credits rolled, Joe Crowley ran up to the front of the theater with his portable oxygen tank. He looked out into a sea of faces, many of them wet with tears.
"I knew this would be a highly emotional night for everyone so I want you to know I brought extra oxygen for anyone who needs it," he told the audience. They roared.
An elderly woman came up to him after the Q&A and asked him how she could have entrusted her son to the priest who abused him. How could she have been so blind?
"I didn't say anything. I just held her gaze," he said. "I was hoping my dumbfounded inability to grasp a word would somehow comfort her."
He met survivors he never knew. He hugged and was hugged. He left the theater with 20 new telephone numbers.
Joe Crowley knows movies and he thinks this one is well-made, well-acted, well done in every way. But more importantly, it is a cinematic vindication of those like him, who suffered in silence for years, who still suffer, who live with memories that don't fade when the screen goes dark and the lights come on.
Kevin Cullen is a Globe columnist. He can be reached at cullen@globe.com. Follow him on Twitter @GlobeCullen.