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Mayor of Amsterdam, Eberhard van der Laan
Montessori Lyceum
Eberhard van der Laan
Ouahib Omri
Wrister Grommers
Theo Thijssen school
School honours teen killed by inhaling lighter fluid; Amsterdam mayor to help pay funeral costs
The Montessori Lyceum on Van Ostadestraat in Amsterdam set up a meorial place for 13-year-old student Ouahib Omri, who died this weekend after inhaling lighter fluid. Amsterdam Mayor Eberhard van der Laan is giving Ouahib's family financial support so that the boy can be buried in Morocco as the family wants.
The memorial place at the school consists of a photo of Ouahib, some candles and flowers and a book in which people can leave messages. The last one was written by a teacher, rector Wrister Grommers said to AT5. It reads: "Dear Ouahib, rest in peace". "There are many students here who knew him well. And who find it incomprehensible that he is gone.", Grommers said.
The primary school Ouahib attended, the Theo Thijssen School, started a fundraiser to pay for the boy's funeral, as his family can't afford it. Mayor Eberhard van der Laan decided to contribute, a spokesperson said to Het Parool. "The mayor has his own pot of money to help people in difficult situations", the spokesperson said. "It falls under his own jurisdiction and usually involves a few hundred euros. Each year the mayor uses this power about ten times."
Only if he wants to give more than 5 thousand euros does Van der Laan need the approval of the rest of the college of mayor and aldermen.
Montessori Lyceum and the Moroccan consulate also contributed to the fundraising campaign, according to the newspaper.
The Amsterdam boy died on Sunday after inhaling lighter fluid. According to AT5, Ouahib and his friends used nitrous oxide (laughing gas) on Saturday and wanted to do it again on Sunday. They used lighter fluid on the assumption that it would have the same effect.
Ouahib went into cardiac arrest. Attempts to resuscitate hi were to no avail.


Does anyone else gravitate towards pieces almost identical to items you already own? I swear, every time I am on the hunt for something vibrant and new, I can't help but reach for something that feels familiar. No matter how much I questioned my obsession with white, ruffle, ethereal-esk pieces, I couldn't resist this top. As Matt would call them, my "chiquita banana" tops….
I paired my top with these stunning earrings from Tiffany & Co's new Hardward Collection. I mentioned them recently on Instagram– they are the most lightweight, beautiful earrings ever. The ethereal vibes lit up my afternoon with these two new pieces– light, feminine and romantic.


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13 Best Apps to Hide Photos/Videos on Android in 2020
Onsa MustafaLast Updated: Feb 13, 2020
Technology is revolutionizing day by day and we came across new features in the mobile devices. The smartphones are equipped with the fingerprint scanner, facial recognition, PIN or password to make the data in your phone more secure. However, there are many phones who do not provide more security, once you unlock the phone. Also, some people take photos or make videos that they do not want to share with all. In this article, we will tell you 10 Best Apps to Hide Photos/Videos on Android in 2020 for those who want more security in their phones. Also, the apps are beneficial if your device gets lost or some mishap happens. These apps will prevent your photos and videos to get leaked.
Top Apps to Hide Photos and Videos on Android
Secret Photo Vault
When it comes to security, Secret Photo Vault is considered as one of the best Apps to Hide Photos and videos. It is a double layered password security app. The app allows you to secure your photos or videos with a four-digit pin. Moreover, the users can also secure individual albums with a password. The app also allows you to lock your stuff with the fingerprint. One of the best features of this app is that its Stealth Mode makes the app disappear from recent apps list so no one else can open it. The app saves your photos and videos in a hidden folder so no one can access them using file manager or explorer.
The App is available on Play Store. You can get the link by Clicking Here
Vault-Hide
This app brings along all the necessary features you would prefer to have in a privacy-focused app used for hiding personal stuff. It is one stop solution for all your needs of hiding stuff on your device. you can hide all your photos, and videos. Not only this, but you can also hide your call logs as well. So that no one else can get access to your data. Furthermore, if you want to reset your password, you have to use your email id. Moreover, you can hide the app as well using stealth mode. Also, you can create a secure back up for your data if you want to take it.
3. 1Gallery:
1Gallery is a recently launched gallery vault app. The app includes a blend of regular gallery and a gallery vault function. It implies that you can see your photos, GIFs and other stuff as you normally do and you can also keep them in secrecy, under a certain lock. The vault of 1Gallery app is fully encrypted for each file. In addition to that, there are three separate ways to access the vault. These ways include a pin password, pattern lock and fingerprint(if available). The app operates with RAW, SVG and panoramic images. There are some additional features in this app as well. It encompasses a basic photo/video editor and some free themes to choose from. This app has two versions, and the premium version is not free.
4. AppLock by DoMobile Lab:
AppLock by DoMobile Lab is one of the most renowned app to hide photos/videos. It is primarily designed for Android. The most interesting function of this app is that it can convert any app into a vault app. The app has a wide range of security precautions and measures. Like, you can conceal it from app drawer. Along with that, the app locks your cloud storage apps, gallery, and any other application that can access your private files. It is considered as the best counter app for snooping individuals. The app has a free version but along with a lot of advertisements. So, you should also try the premium version which is paid.
5. LockMyPix:
As the name suggests, this app has a basic motive to hide our personal photos. LockMyPix is a decent and effective gallery vault app. There is an array of interesting features in the app. Like, it operates in a completely offline mode. There is a full AES encryption, fingerprint scanner support and also operates on the files of micro SD card. Another very distinctive and brilliant feature of this app is that you can make a fake vault as well. Especially, for your close ones who can sometimes force you to open the lock. But the feedback related to this feature is not that great. There is a free version of this app and also a premium version which is paid.
6. Keepsafe Photo Vault
Keepsafe is one of the popular and best Apps to Hide Photos on Android. Using this app you can hide photos and videos from others. The app also allows you to secure your photos using a password or a fingerprint. No doubt, it is a good option to add fingerprint support as most of the smartphones now have a fingerprint scanner. Furthermore, you can also make an encrypted backup of your data on the cloud. One of the best parts of this app is that it also allows you to share the pictures from within the app.
7. Photox
Photox is among the most reliable apps to Hide photos and videos. As smartphones are becoming more advanced, the app is also up to date. To make your photos and videos more secure, the app allows you to set face unlock for photos and videos. The best thing about the app is that when others want to access the app, it shows a fake crash message. Hence, they will think that the app is not working properly but you can use it when required. Just like other apps, this app also allows you to take secure backup of your hide photos.
8. Gallery Lock
For those who want an app with a simple interface, Gallery lock is the best option for them. Just like above-mentioned apps, you can hide your photos and videos using password and pin lock. Furthermore, in Stealth mode, the app hides itself from the list of recent apps.
9. Safe Gallery
This app is just like same as we have mentioned above to hide your photos. It is also a video hider app for android. Because of its simple interface, we consider it as one of the best apps to hide your photos. Furthermore, you can also take backup of your data on the cloud. You may restore it if something goes wrong with the device. It also comes with a stealth mode that does not show the app on the home screen of your device.
10. Private Photo Vault
For those users who are more concerned with the security of their data and want a double check, this app is more suitable for them. Private Photo Vault has two levels of security. First, you need to put a password to access the app and another password for the album. I consider it as one of the best and more secure apps to hide photos and videos on Android. Because it allows you to change the cover of hidden albums as per your choice which makes it more secure. Furthermore, the app also allows you to share photos and videos from within the app.
11. Private Zone
For privacy-obsessed people, this app brings a lot of features. You can hide your photos and videos or even apps. The app provides free Private VPN service. You can use this app as your custom Lock screen app also. The app also contains phone Anti-theft Features and Harassment/ Spam Call Intercept. The app contains a lot of useful features. However, there is a frustrating thing about the app which is the app is filled with ads. However, users can avoid the ads by picking up the premium subscription.
12. F-Stop Gallery
The app brings along a lot of features that will improve your gallery browsing, sorting, and tagging experience. You can sort images simply dragging and dropping the files. You can protect single media files using the password. This secure folder is accessible from the hamburger menu on the left. I consider it one of the best apps to hide photos because it is a full-fledged gallery app. You also get an image editor within the app. The app also includes filters, privacy protection and a lot more.
check out? Best Weather Websites With Most Accurate Forecast in 2020
13. Hide Something
The app has more than 5 million downloads and is one of the most trouble-free apps to hide photos and videos on Android. You can put PIN, password, or the fingerprint to hide photos and videos. You also get access to a mini collection of beautiful themes, support for a variety of media file types, an advanced image viewer and fake login mode to further protect your privacy. Just like other, the app also takes backup of your important data.
It is right of a human being to have a private space. According to a research, privacy is important for mental security and growth. But, as we are living in a tech world. Here everything is intermingled and privacy can easily be distorted by just accessing anyone's mobile phone. Therefore, the above mentioned apps are promoted to counter this violation. My preferences among these is number one and three. Because I found secret photo vault app and 1Gallery app as the most authentic and affective in maintaining privacy of our smartphones.
Onsa Mustafa
Onsa is a Software Engineer and a tech blogger focuses on providing the latest information regarding the innovations happening in the IT world. She likes reading, photography, travelling and exploring nature.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Cabbage Savoy Perfection Brassica Oleracea is an open pollinated cabbage that has solid, round heads. Cabbage Savoy Perfection seeds can be started indoors 6 weeks before the last frost and transplanted 3-4 weeks before the last frost. The plants should be spaced 10-20 inches apart.
Cabbage Savoy Perfection can be planted for late summer or fall harvests. For a late harvest Brassica Oleracea seeds have to be planted directly outdoors in mid spring. Cabbage Savoy Perfection has a mild flavor that makes it superb for making coleslaw, sauerkraut, or it can be steamed and stir-fried. Cabbage Savoy is at its best after a frost, and its dark-blue, green finely curled leaves make good wrappers.


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David Eskenazi
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BY Art Thiel 10:25PM 02/16/2015
Seahawks' Baldwin apologizes for Super foul
For the first time since the Super Bowl, Seahawks WR Doug Baldwin publicly apologized Monday night for the vulgar gesture that drew a 15-yard personal foul penalty and criticism from some fans and media.
"I do regret the fact that it cost my team 15 yards and to the fans, ultimately I apologize to anybody I offended in any way," said Baldwin on the 710 ESPN Seattle radio show, The Barber Shop. "It wasn't about that. I just think it was a competitive situation. So to all the 12s, all the fans, that's not what it's about. So I apologize to anyone if I offended you."
Baldwin scored a touchdown in the third quarter on a three-yard pass reception — his only catch of the game — and then mimed squatting on a toilet in the end zone. Until Monday, he refused to disclose the target of the gesture, but allowed as to how it was New England's All-Pro CB Darrelle Revis.
"In that moment it was just a reaction," Baldwin said. "So obviously if I could go back, I would take it back.
"I spent a lot of time those two weeks prior to getting ready for that game just focused on my individual match-up with him. I put a lot into it and in that moment, I guess you could say it was just kind of a built-up frustration I was letting out in that sequence between him and I. Obviously, there was competitive stuff going on in that game and in that moment I just let out what I felt personally."
Baldwin added he was frustrated about not getting more balls in his direction, saying the matchup against Revis was "a measurement for myself to go up against one of the best players in the league."
Baldwin said he thought some of the anger directed at him was misplaced because of the loss: "(Fans) want to find something to kind of latch on to, and that's understandable. It's human nature. But personally I didn't mean anything by it. "
The day after the loss in the locker room at the team's practice facility, Baldwin wasn't ready to apologize, saying he had no regrets.
"Nah, just out there having fun — there's no explanation," he said. "I can get criticized. That's fine; everyone has an opinion. In the moment, just having fun.
"The only people I have to apologize to are my teammates and coaches. But they know. They didn't say anything. Not even an issue or a worry. We lost the game . . . there's so many other things to be concerned with . . (than) something stupid like that."
Follow Art Thiel on Twitter at @Art_Thiel
YourThoughts
jafabian
I wasn't offended as opposed to being disappointed. He's supposed to be a professional. Act like it. And was it worth a 15 yard penalty in the Super Bowl? Considering the closeness of the game, the number of injuries on the team and how time was winding down there really wasn't time for that.
You make a point that Doug missed in his apology. I doubt many were offended as much as disappointed.
I think he chose his words carefully. He doesn't seem to regret the action itself. Be interesting to see if he has that same train of thought when he's in his 40s. He's young and plays with a chip on his shoulder which has served him well.
I'm not thrilled with the apology phrase, " . . . if I offended you." That puts on the onus on the listener to justify a standard. He's not accepting that the act was wrong on its own.
Talkjoc
Baldwin's act is getting to the point where his "Angry Doug" routine makes me wish that he'd just go away. 89 should act more like 80. Largent didn't get the respect he deserved but things ended up OK I'd say.
He doesn't deserve to be fired, particularly after he swallowed his pride and admitted he was wrong.
Just think we could have been treated to a double deuce. No thanks.
I'm guessing treat time has passed for Doug.
Without ever having met the guy, Doug Baldwin seems like a pretty intelligent and sensitive dude. It's clear he's thought about the PR backlash he's been receiving. But man… I'm reading these posts and I'm thinking "Jeez, guys… Is that what he gets for saying he's sorry?"
I get that his end zone display lands firmly in the WTF category, and I didn't care much for his post conf. campionship media rant either. But overall, I think Baldwin has conducted himself as a pretty exceptional young man throughout his career.
The overall tone of Art's report read pretty unforgiving to me (e.g. re-running Baldwin's quotes from the day after the loss at the end of the piece). Granted, Art must know these guys a lot better than we typical sports fans. But still… when a guy comes forward to apologize (many do not), I think it's classless to keep beating him up.
We're better 12s than that.
rosetta_stoned
Speak for yourself, please. Baldwin's schtick has long run its course.
He needs to grow up or go away.
He's growing up.
My earlier column on Baldwin was before his radio apology, and after I was part of a group interview with him at the VMAC in which he was asked if he had any regrets. He said no. So I called him out, based on the end zone squat as well as media confrontations. Especially for the hypocrisy of saying he doesn't care what outsiders think, then acting very much like he does.
I am not among those who are still beating him up. I think the apology was helpful and sufficient. Doug is a smart guy, a big asset to the team and has, as they say in human resources, an anger management problem.
Angry Doug Baldwin's
Been loathe to repeat
Weird motivations
He needs to compete.
But something he's missed
While acting so pissed:
He's losing respect
From the fan on the street.
I'm sure you have inspired him.
Glad you apologized, Doug, we like ya, even angry, but you have to do it with class . . .
I think most fans would agree.
Its onlySports(DavidWakefield)
Back when the Seahakws were stumbling through their former regime Jim Mora was concerned about bringing in more "Dirtbags" he had a man crush on a receiver named TJ Houshmandzadeh.
Far as I know, he didn't pull a Harvin, so some slack is available.
David Michel
one catch for 3 yards, and he does that. He is supposed to be our best receiver. It takes him 2 weeks to apologize? I am over him.
I get that, but slamming the door permanently can make it hard to accept a game-winning touchdown catch this fall.
maoling
And with that simple apology, Dookygate is now behind us.
notaboomer
it's ok, Dump, we forgive you.
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Gokyo Ridge is also located in Khumbu region on the west side of the Ngozumpa Glacier at the altitude of 5357 meters, which is the largest and reputed glacier in Nepal as well as in the whole Himalayas. Everest Gokyo Ri is the best trek destination as it is the best, closest view point to the earth's four highest mountains: Everest, Lhotse, Makalu, and Cho Oye. Gokyo valley is an excellent valley from where you can see not only the highest mountain of the world but the beautiful greenish- blue lakes and other glaciers.
Trek to Gokyo Ri also starts from the Lukla as it is the gateway to Everest. But the route parts from the Namche Bazaar and heads west up the Dodh Koshi through where trekking moves towards Gokyo Ridge.
Day 03: Fly to Lukla (2804 meters) trek to Phakding (2610 meters) 3 hours.
Day 12: Trek to Lukla (2804 meters) 6 hours.
Day 14: Leisure day and farewell dinner in Kathmandu.
After breakfast at hotel you get transmit to an airport in Kathmandu to catch the flight to Lukla (2,800m) where from our trek starts. The 35 minutes flight to Tenzing- Hillary airport Lukla is in dramatic landscape and surrounded by high mountains peaks. We meet our other porters in Lukla then we manage some arrangements, we begin our walk to Phakding for 4 hours then we stay at the lodge.
After the early morning breakfast trek to Namche Bazar is a steep climb through forests of rhododendron around the Sagarmatha National Park. After crossing several suspension bridges and four hours of walking we reach the Sherpa market of Namche Bazaar.
The main aim today is to allow your body to acclimatize, it is important to drink lots of water and take some gentle exercise. Namche is a growing town tucked into a neat little valley, there are lots going on in the center with market days on Friday and Saturday. There are some interesting museums and shops. There is also an internet and a sauna! You could venture further afield, take a visit to Khumjung where the Hillary school sits and Khunde nearby, on the way back to Namche you could visit the Shyangboche airstrip, (3790m) the highest in the world nearby is the Everest View Hotel for stunning views.
As we start a trip to Dole from Namche the first part until Sagnasa leads easily and pretty flat. After we cross this town we meet the junction then we fallow left up to the trail to Dole. In the springtime, this part will be bright when all the flowers bloom. Stay overnight at Dole.
Today we head for the holy lake at Gokyo following the picturesque trail to Pangka (4,545m) and we descend slightly fallowing one of the hostile fed streams which flows down the west of Ngozumba Glacier. After that ascend a vertical stony dispose into the gorge by the surface of the glacier crossing the first lake soon arrives the second lake. Crossing the path which heads across the glacier to the Cho-La (An additional rough path to Lobuche and further than to Everest Base camp) looming to the third lake known as Dhudh Pokgari and on its east coast is the summer residence of Gokyo at 4,760m height. On foot by the side of the lake, the panorama is wonderful with the lake of Cho-Oyu and Gyachung Kang mirrored in its bright green water.
Gokyo Ri is a small hill rising from the North of a glacier and requires a 3-hour ascent. Once atop the Gokyo Ri, we can see more of Everest magnificently framed by the Makalu, Nuptse, and Changtse.
Climbing to the top of Gokyo Ri (4150m) is a must. It will take you a few hours and you will find your breathing is laboured but the views from the top make it all worthwhile, it is spectacular with Everest, Lhotse, Makalu and Cho Oyo in clear view amongst many other snowcapped peaks, it is breathtaking particularly if you make it for sunrise. After breakfast back at your lodge you will begin your descent to Machermo, as you have already experienced, it is an easy walk and will take you only a few hours.
After breakfast, we trek down to Namche crossing Dole today. As we start from along the side of valley, and arrives Dole first. Fallowing the Forest we climb up to Mong danda and gentlt down to sansa and normal flat fallowing tunings to Namche. Stay overnight at Namche.
On our way back, we cross suspension bridges over the Dudh Koshi River, make our way through steep descends and walk past numerous tea houses before finally arriving at Lukla.


During the many years that our companies have been doing business with each other, we have built strong personal relationships with Anton Heunis and his team. This relationship, leading to open and honest communication as well as mutual collaboration, has proven to be advantageous during both difficult and prosperous times.
Heunis Steel has proven year after year that they believe in exceptional quality and good old-fashioned customer service. Both of these attributes are highly valued by FH Chamberlain. They distinguish themselves from their competitors by going the extra mile — not only for us, but also for our customers. By ensuring that their factory remains state of the art, Heunis Steel has given us confidence in their long-term quality commitment.
I believe that our business relationship is beneficial to both parties. Heunis Steel understands the steel market and provides forward thinking and specialised insights, which in turn enables us to stay competitive and relevant in the extremely competitive and forever-changing market. Their continued drive to improve and always ensure that quality is at the forefront allows their customers to focus on sales. The candidness of discussions ensures that there are no nasty surprises. Sharing their ideas of product innovation allows us to plan forward and stay abreast of new developments.
A unique characteristic of Heunis Steel is that they always strive to improve their production and business processes. The openness to discuss potential solutions, even aimed at their customers' business processes, is welcomed. This is in line with Cashbuild's culture and ethos.
The on-time deliveries and lack of 'issues' in the factory provides us with the assurance that we will be in a position to serve our customers. The real benefit here for Cashbuild is that we can focus on our retail business and not become entangled in logistical issues. I would definitely recommend Heunis Steel. It is rare to find this commitment and passion in today's rat race.
Heunis Steel holds suppliers' trust with honest communication, listening to our concerns, and being a vested partner in our business. This is what I believe has created the success in our relationship. They are a strategic, world-class local supplier that is a valuable integrated partner for our company.


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Suhoj Superjet 100 je moderni, regionalni mlazni avion kategorije 75 do 95 mjesta. Izrađuje ga ruska tvrtka Suhoj u suradnji s podružnicom talijanske industrijske grupe Finmeccanica "Alenia Aeronautica". Zadatak talijanske dizajnerske grupe "Pininfarina" je projektiranje unutrašnjosti.

Dizajn i razvoj
Superjet 100 odnosi se na Russian Regional Jet (rus. Самолёт Российский Региональный Сухого), ili "Suhoj RRJ". Naziv je promijenjen 17.  srpnja 2006.
Mlažnjak je po prvi puta prikazan 26. rujna 2007. godine na svojem službenom predstavljanju u Zračnoj luci Dzemgi, u Komsomolsk na Amuru. Prvi probni let bio je 19. svibnja 2008. godine također na Zračnoj luci Dzemgi.  Superjet je u zraku proveo 45 minuta i dostigao visinu od 1200 metara.

Veći kooperanati su Boeing, Iljušin, Jakovljev i PowerJet. Boeing pruža konzalting u područjima kao što su projektni menadžment, planiranje tržišta, certifikacija i korisnička podrška. Francuska Snecma sudjeluje u dijelu financiranja projekta. Hindustan aeronautics je pregovarao o učešću u projektu i čak je uložilo 100 milijuna USD u fond, ali je kasnije povukao ulog u korist taktičkog transportnog zrakoplova  Iljušina IL-214 .

Isporuke aviona trebale su početi 2008. godine. Suhoj predviđa kako će 163 aviona svih inačica Superjet 100 biti isporučena do kraja 2016. Potencialni korisnici su Air France, SAS, Liberia, UTair Aviation, MDLR Airlines i Merpati Nusantara Airlines.

Operativna služba
Prvi Suhoj Superjet dostavljen je zrakoplovnoj tvrtki Armavia 19. travnja 2011. godine. Svečana primopredaja održana je na Međunarodnoj zračnoj luci Zvartnots u Erevanu istog dana. Avion je dobio naziv "Jurij Gagarin" u sjećanje na prvog čovjeka koji je gotovo točno 50 godina prije boravio u svemiru.

Avion je vrlo brzo nakon isporuke uključen u komercijalne letove. Već 21. travnja 2011. armavijski Superjet 100 slijeće s 90 putnika na Međunarodnu zračnu luku Šeremetjevo na svom prvom komercijalnom letu iz Erevana Let je trajao 2 sata i 55 minuta. U prvom tjednu SSJ-100 napravio je 24 leta leteći za Moskvu, Atenu, Donetsk, Alep, Teheran, Tel Aviv i Astrahan.

Aeroflot je sa svoja 3 SSJ-100 aviona (u 2011. godini) od 15. svibnja do 25. studenog 2011. obavio 1000 komercijalnih letova.

Galerija

Izvori

Vanjske poveznice

 Službena stranica superjetinternational.com
 Suhoj službena stranica sukhoi.org/

Uskotrupni zrakoplovi
Superjet 100

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We all react differently to Jane Austen's books: some of us love them, obsess, and some think she just wrote really unrealistic love stories. Japan, however, developed a unique relationship with the famous writer. Unlike her fellow countrymen's ambivalence about her talents, Austen was welcomed during the early Meiji Restoration period. Early Japanese scholars and authors believed Austen depicted her works so accurately that she must had been highly regarded in her time. Unbeknownst to them was the fact that Austen was largely unrecognized as a writer during her life; it was not until 1817 that her works amassed a larger readership building the path for what would later be dubbed Austenmania.
Japan was partially closed off under the Shogun rule until 1868 when it became open to Westerners again. Besides making its ports accessible, Japanese officials decided that the country needed to integrate Western ideas, customs, and business models. The campaign was meant to foster creativity and revive the country's culture that had not contributed to the world ever since it exiled foreigners. Japan even expunged all foreign influence by relocating any Non-Japanese to Dejima, a 130-acre artificial island built in 1634 in Nagasaki. It sounds unlikely that Japanese during the Meiji restoration would even undertake translating or reading Austen's works; after all, her focus centers on marriages, family dynamics, and social constrictions. How could the newly engaged Japan connect with these scenarios? The time frame between Jane Austen's death in 1817 to Japan reopening its ports in 1868 is also another point that potentially could had stilted her fame from germinating as her works could had been lost, forgotten, or never been introduced to any eminent university in Japan.
Japanese students in Tokyo University were presented works by Flaubert and Zola and the social and existential ideas of Tolstoy and Dostoevsky that by the time Lafcadio Hearn, an early English literature professor at Tokyo University in 1896, gave lectures on Jane Austen's "genius" Japanese students resisted him. They thought Austen works were outdated, trivial. Hearn also had his own reservations about introducing the Pride & Prejudice author to Japan, voicing: "I am not sure whether you [the Japanese] could like Austen or not. . . [T]he kind of life described, the suffering and the follies described, would probably seem very strange to most of you." Hearn was obvious in signaling out that Japanese readers would not understand the nuances around marriages, proposals, and courtships because that was not the culture they followed. Austen's descrition can muzzle any audience from understanding what is important because some relative background about the time period is needed to notice undertoned jokes. For example, in Emma, Jane Fairfax (the impoverished Miss Bates's niece whom Emma dislikes) and her aunts arrive after the other guests have dined because they are impoverished gentry, but Emma can dine first as she is gentry. In other words, Emma is the cool lead in the lunch table and no one else can sit until she sits down. Not knowing the social customs, however, did not prevent Japanese readers from engaging with Austen's wit.
Hearn campaigned for Jane Austen's canonization in Japan, but it was Natsume Sōseki's (夏目漱石) that established Japan's love for her works. Sōseki had a tremendous impact on Japanese culture that he was honored by being printed on Japan's currency until 2004. Sōseki considered Austen's writing superior that of any "advanced writer," declaring she captured reality's undertone beauty. Sōseki fell for Austen's writing because it mirrored his idea that nature (that is everyday life) must be presented to readers objectively rather than in florid banter and psychological runoffs. He nurtured Austen's image in Japan and even based the literary ideal of 側転 きょうし (follow Heaven, forsake the self) on Austen's novels.
Machiko tells the story of a modern Japanese Elizabeth Bennet, Machiko, who must decide whether to marry the cultural industrialist Kawai (Mr. Darcy) whom she "judg[es] to be incapable of distinguishing" his friends from his enemies or the revolutionary activist Seki (Mr. Wickham), who "attracts her strongly both ideologically and physically." Machiko, however, unlike Pride and Prejudice, uses the industrial Japan in the throes of economic crisis and workers' militancy as the main background that propels Machiko to decide between being a industrialist or a revolutionary. Yaeko's Machiko is one of the earliest spinoffs of Jane Austen's work in Japan. The second was Kurahashi Yumiko's 夢の浮橋 (The Bridge of Dreams, 1971) where she fused the Austen story with classical Japanese narratives.
In Japan, it was not until 1950 that Iwanami, a prestigious publishing house, made available a second Pride & Prejudice translation by Akira Tomita. This particular translator saw the book as an educational novel and "the best social novel in the world." Though Japanese admired Austen's works and satirical voice, they also made dialogue changes to fit verbal expressions that a Japanese audience would understand better. These translations were commercially successful because they maintained Austen's witty spirit without changing the entire novel's flow or adding any archaic language.
The history of Austen's translated adaptations is important because it let's us see that even though we are different ethnicities, culturally we value similar customs: morality, justice, and marriage.. Japan made Austen Japanese because her works connected with their literary and cultural beliefs. It was her early admirers and translators that initiated her fame that had it not been for them she would had remained unknown in Japan. Today it seems unrealistic for someone to not know Austen. Japan made her their own, Spain the same, and Americans too, nurturing new readerships and even greater devotees.
The eagerly-awaited new novel from Haruki Murakami set for release this week will have an initial hardback printrun of half a million copies, the Japanese publisher said Tuesday.
The new novel is expected to hit bookstores on Friday, with major outlets planning to open early at 8:00 am (2300 GMT, Thursday), while at least one large seller in Tokyo will fling open its doors at midnight.
Online book giant Amazon Japan had received more than 20,000 pre-orders for the new novel as of Saturday, faster than any other book by Murakami, publishing house Bungeishunju Ltd. said.
Half a million copies is the largest initial hardback printrun for the Japanese publisher, one of the country's biggest.
Read the rest of the story: Murakami novel has 500,000 pre-release print run.
Maki Kashimada has won the 147th Akutagawa Prize for up-and-coming authors of serious fiction for her work "Meido Meguri," while the 147th Naoki Prize, mainly for midlevel popular fiction writers, has gone to Mizuki Tsujimura for "Kagi no Nai Yume o Miru," the awards' selection committees have announced.
The title of Kashimada's work translates literally as "Touring the land of the dead," while Tsujimura's title translates as "Having a dream without a key."
Tokyo native Kashimada, 35, began her career as a professional writer in 1998 while a student at Shirayuri College, winning Kawade Shobo Shinsha's Bungei Prize for "Nihiki" (Two animals).
Kishi Yusuke's bestselling suspense novel "Aku no Kyoten" ("Lesson of the Evil") is being turned into a live-action movie. The movie will star actor Ito Hideaki (36) and be directed by Miike Takashi (51), bringing them together again for the first time since "Sukiyaki Western Django" in 2007.
The novel was published in 2010 and ranked #1 in both the "Kono Mystery ga Sugoi!" and the "Shukan Bunshun Mystery Best 10″ rankings.
Ito plays Hasumi Seiji, a teacher beloved by his students and trusted by his peers. However, in reality he is a psychopath who was born without the ability to empathize with others. Surrounded by various typical school problems such as bullying, he determines that the most effective way to resolve them is to murder his students one by one.
Filming is scheduled to last between April and June, with the aim of having the movie completed in time for the possibility of screening at the Venice International Film Festival in August. Theatrical release in Japan is scheduled for November.
In its first week on sale in Japan, Walter Isaacson's biography of Apple Inc. co-founder Steve Jobs is flying off the shelves. Japan's publisher Kodansha announced that sales of the book, titled "Steve Jobs," has exceeded 1 million copies as of November 2.
Volume 1 of the book that came out on October 24, has sold 550,000 copies, and Volume 2 has sold 470,000 copies.
Read the rest of the story: Steve Jobs book sales top 1 million copies in Japan.
Read the rest of the story: The Fierce Imagination of Haruki Murakami.
It was recently announced that two works by author Minato Kanae ("Kokuhaku") are getting live-action adaptations. Today, yet another one has been announced, based on her newest novel before the book has even been released.
Titled "Kyogu," the novel is scheduled for release next month on October 7th. TV Asahi will air a drama special with the same title sometime this winter, starring actresses Matsuyuki Yasuko and Ryo. The drama will be directed by award-winning movie director Wakamatsu Setsuro ("Shizumanu Taiyo").
Matsuyuki plays Yoko, a mother of a 5-year-old boy. She wins a new writer's prize for a children's picture book she wrote, based on the memories of her close friend Harumi (Ryo). Both of them were abandoned by their parents at a young age and raised in an orphanage.
Meanwhile, Yoko's husband (Sawamura Ikki), a local politician, is suspected of receiving illegal campaign contributions, so his mother (Shirakawa Yumi) and his head supporter (Kishibe Ittoku) are desperate to push Yoko to popularity. The reluctant Yoko receives some encouragement from Harumi, but one day her son Yuta is suddenly kidnapped. She receives a letter demanding her to "reveal the truth" if she wants Yuta back safely. Unable to contact the police for help, she turns to Harumi for help.
The cast also includes Ishida Ayumi, Tabata Tomoko, Ichikawa Yui, Tanimura Mitsuki, Nishimura Masahiko, Azusa Mikihisa, Nogiwa Yoko, Nagura Jun, and Ashina Sei.
Before the drama is broadcast this winter, TV Asahi is releasing a spinoff drama titled "Mou Hitotsu no Kyogu" through the show's official website. Set in an orphanage, the 7-episode story stars Duncan as a staff worker. The first episode was made available today.
Remembering Japan's quake-tsunami disaster, one child writes how the earth rumbled and roared, another recalls that the black wave stank and a third, who lost her friend, calls the tsunami "greedy".
The stories — simply written, touching and often heart-breaking — are among a collection of children's essays published in a book titled "Tsunami" that has touched a nerve in the traumatised nation.
The language is often innocent and unpolished, but the stories are so direct and powerful that to many readers they convey the horror of the disaster as deeply as anything else that has been written about March 11.
Read the rest of the story: Book recalls Japan tsunami through children's eyes.


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Much of the extended or distant family tree data contained on these pages was obtained through other online family trees and/or from the relatives themselves without the use of primary sources. I am not a professional genealogist, nor do I devote myself full time to the verification of these dates and facts; therefore, I have not been able to fully research this information or document primary sources other than as already referenced in these materials. Consequently, I do not warrant that this information is error free and I encourage anyone accessing this information for your own purposes to take whatever reasonable steps necessary to verify the information and document primary sources on your own. As time and circumstances permit, the information found on this site will be updated accordingly with corrections and/or primary source citations.
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Subject to future changes, the Family Newsletters will be published in an electronic format and e-mailed to all subscribers as well as posted on the web site. Any items or photos submitted for inclusion in a Family Newsletter should be written or scanned in an electronic format and submitted/attached through the newsletter submission form. If you are unable to provide an article or photograph submission in electronic form, but have a printed copy you wish to include in a newsletter, please indicate so and I can work out alternate arrangements.


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Legion: The Final Season Review
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Legion Series Finale: "Chapter 27" Review
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NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, "Legion" are present in this review Legion is rapidly approaching its ultimate endgame, but it seems that we still have a bit more character terri...
NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, "Legion", including multiple major character deaths, are present in this review The Time Eaters of the Legion universe may have been repelled, for...
NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, "Legion" are present in this review After taking a surprisingly straightforward trip into the past, Legion returns to its usual weirdness and unpr...
NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, "Legion" are present in this review Legion continues to present an unpredictable way to pan out its narrative, as "Chapter 22" yet again shifts fo...
NOTE: Full spoilers for this episode of, "Legion" are present in this review After an exciting, if reliably eccentric start to Legion's final season in the season premiere, the show moved...
NOTE: Full spoilers from this episode of, "Legion" are present in this review Legion has returned for its third and final season, and true to form, the show is wasting no time being as we...
Legion: Season One Review
NOTE: Spoilers from throughout the first season of, "Legion" are present in this review The latest landmark license-sharing deal between Marvel and a third party resulted in the Fox Enter...


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Rough-hewn and under-rehearsed, troupe fails its mission with Handel's early "Rodrigo"
By Judith Malafronte
Dísella Lárusdóttir sang the role of Esilena in operamission's performance of Handel's "Rodrigo" Tuesday night at the Gershwin Hotel.
Turn left at New York City's Museum of Sex to find the bright red façade of the trendy Gershwin Hotel, where Jennifer Peterson's operamission presented what was billed as the North American premiere of Handel's Rodrigo Tuesday night. Written for an Italian audience and specific Italian singers, the composer's second surviving opera bursts with musical imagination in a string of arias he would later pilfer and reuse throughout his long London theater career.
Scholars are unsure of the exact nature of the commission for this historical opera about the Visigoths in 8th century Spain, but the first performances, at Florence's Teatro Cocomero in the fall of 1707 under Handel's direction, were well received. Although a large musical fragment was recovered in 1983, the score still presents editorial challenges, and Peterson made well-informed choices.
The opera's subtitle, "Vincer se stesso è la maggior vittoria" (To overcome oneself is the greater victory), refers to the eventual self-mastery of the adulterous villain Rodrigo, with the help of his long-suffering wife Esilena, and the alliance of Rodrigo's discarded mistress Florinda with Evanco, son of the ruler Rodrigo had deposed. Florinda's bellicose brother Giuliano, and Rodrigo's minister Fernando are added to the confusing mix.
The playing space, a curtained-off section of the hotel's lobby, with high ceilings and Persian carpets, is challenged by intrusive columns, but director Jeff Caldwell's light touch provided variety and movement in the round without scenery, props or costumes. With the small period orchestra gathered around Peterson's harpsichord and the audience crammed everywhere else, the atmosphere felt like a first reading in the composer's own lodging, with the same excitement of friends and cognoscenti at hearing a new work.
Unfortunately, it sounded like a first reading as well, with countless musical mishaps, including cadenzas and da capo repeats taking everyone by surprise, in spite of Peterson's excellent musicianship and obvious knowledge of the score. Things will no doubt improve over the two remaining performances, but the bassoon player rushed throughout, and except in the well-played dance-suite overture, bass lines were shapeless in the choppy old-fashioned manner.
Kudos to Peterson for including all the music but, perhaps in an effort to keep the show under three and one-half hours, recitative cadences were plowed through without punctuation, and Handel's time-stopping slow movements never achieved grandeur or musical poise.
As the wronged queen Esilena, the excellent soprano Dísella Lárusdóttir suffered the most, with three potentially knock-out tragic adagios, especially the central Empio fato and Perche viva il caro sposo, with its rhapsodic, plunging cello line, taken too fast. Lárusdóttir needs more guidance with baroque style, and she was glued to the score in this performance, but her gorgeous, pointed sound and creamy middle voice are world-class.
Soprano Madeline Bender was impressive as the seduced and abandoned Florinda. Bender's full, lyric sound and nice feel for Handel's musical gestures and structure were on display in the vigorous Alle glorie, alle palme and the opening Pugneran con noi, better-known from its re-use in Rinaldo. As Giuliano, tenor John Carlo Pierce made the most of his robust, martial pieces, while countertenor Daniel Bubeck's musical assurance and smooth, even coloratura made one lament the early demise of the general Fernando.
In soprano roles, two other countertenors were less accomplished. Nicholas Tamagna's deft stage skills brought dramatic definition to the title role, but the high tessitura left him without variety of color or dynamics, and often sounded flat, especially in the intense, chromatic Sommi Dei. Even though he gets one of the best arias, Il dolce foco mio, Christopher Newcomer's offhand musical manner, limp rhythms and reliance on the score made nonsense of the role of Evanco.
With two North American premieres under its belt (last year's Almira was staged at the Gershwin Hotel), operamission has announced an intention to present all of Handel's operas in order of their composition. Will someone please drop a pile of money on this spunky outfit so the orchestra can rehearse? Otherwise let's be more accurate and call these "open readings" rather than finished performances.
Rodrigo runs through May 25th. operamission.org


During a blood meal, an infected blackfly (genus Simulium) introduces third-stage filarial larvae onto the skin of the human host, where they penetrate into the bite wound. In subcutaneous tissues the larvae develop into adult filariae, which commonly reside in nodules in subcutaneous connective tissues. Adults can live in the nodules for approximately 15 years. Some nodules may contain numerous male and female worms. Females measure 33 to 50 cm in length and 270 to 400 μm in diameter, while males measure 19 to 42 mm by 130 to 210 μm. In the subcutaneous nodules, the female worms are capable of producing microfilariae for approximately 9 years. The microfilariae, measuring 220 to 360 µm by 5 to 9 µm and unsheathed, have a life span that may reach 2 years. They are occasionally found in peripheral blood, urine, and sputum but are typically found in the skin and in the lymphatics of connective tissues. A blackfly ingests the microfilariae during a blood meal. After ingestion, the microfilariae migrate from the blackfly's midgut through the hemocoel to the thoracic muscles. There the microfilariae develop into first-stage larvae and subsequently into third-stage infective larvae. The third-stage infective larvae migrate to the blackfly's proboscis and can infect another human when the fly takes a blood meal.


I was preparing for the February 4 edition of ThisDay Live, a Sunday Talk Show I have been anchoring on Arise News TV, since August 2017 when the statement was released. It sounded like a bombshell. I immediately asked the Executive Editor of ThisDay Live, to restructure our programme content for the day and move Babangida's statement to the top. Now said to have been authored by or not by Ibrahim Babangida or by his spokesperson, Kassim Afegbua, the now controversial statement to use that famous phrase, "spoke truth to power". It was a well-calibrated, well-timed statement, which took the content of Obasanjo's earlier statement several steps further. It made the point that Nigeria is at a crossroads, certainly adrift and that it needed to be rescued by the younger generation - what he called "a digital leadership", as opposed to "analogue leadership." This was a brilliant point at a time when Nigerians were asking for a "Not-too-young-to-run", "third-force", alternative movement.
But we then stepped out of the studio only to hear that President Babangida had disowned this insightful statement. He was misquoted. He didn't say so. The statement was authored, we learnt, by Kassim Afegbua - Babangida's spokesman - who had gone to town without his principal's approval. The confusion threw the newsrooms into disarray. Journalists were even accused of misrepresenting the former military President. In due course, a second statement, presented as personally signed by Babangida hit the airwaves. This second statement was wishy-washy, written in barely readable prose, cowardly in every material particular, and I dare say, a PR disaster. So poor in conception and execution was this second statement that the media refused to withdraw the first statement, instead they chose to talk about the drama, the confusion, the controversy over Babangida's statement. The confusion became the story. The refutation was downplayed.
As at the time of this writing, he has not denied that he wants Afegbua arrested. But for what really? - For issuing a statement on behalf of his principal, or for expressing an opinion? If Babangida feels he has been impersonated, or misrepresented, it would be his duty, not that of the police to say so and to press charges or sack Afegbua. If Babangida disowns the statement, Kassim Afegbua can claim ownership and excuse Babangida, since in any case there is nothing in the statement that is of any threat to either public peace or national security. To ask Buhari not to run, or Nigerians not to vote for him is a matter of free expression, not a crime against the state. I'll return to this anon.
0 Response to "What exactly is Babangida saying? by Reuben Abati "


The zero-sum game that is trading has traditionally been a tough sell for retailers, who may seldom come out on top in their daily tug-of-war with the deep-pocketed institutions that wrap most markets around their fingers. CryptoSlate, however, sat down with the chief executive of Rise, who is planning to repurpose its institutional-grade, AI-powered trading technology to level the playing field and help even the smallest fishes in crypto "invest like a billionaire".
To Rise chief whip and serial exited entrepreneur Stefan Tittel, the trading game has always been a bit of a stacked deck.
Tittel would know. Since 2012, his Germany-based firm has been developing "proven" artificially-intelligent, machine-learning trading algorithms, and licensing them out to institutional investors and high-net-worth individuals.
These types of initiatives—little-known to the masses—give the so-called 'smart money' "huge informational and technological advantage" and help them "consistently beat out retail investors" in markets of all description including crypto, Tittel explained.
Thrown in with the hushed narratives of rigged currency and monetary metals markets, one might start to wonder just how far the scales are tipped in favor of the heavyweights.
Yet when it comes to crypto, Tittel thinks it's time to let Average Joe swim with the whales.
With Rise's data-driven investment strategies—pitched as "free of emotional human bias" and steering clear of "pump-and-dump marketing or boom-and-bust cycles"—Tittel believes profitable trading will become an increasingly realistic expectation for the masses as they stock up on the secret sauce of Wall Street.
And delivering profits of 12-46 percent in the midst of a widely begrudged bear market, the algorithms would surely come as music to the ears of investors waiting for a nudge towards the nostalgic heights of January's $834 billion cryptocurrency market capitalization.
Our data scientists clean enormous sets of data—not only financial data but anything from fundamentals, earnings projections, to weather data that may have an impact on our trading systems. All systems are created by veteran traders and industry experts. Once a basis is created, technology takes the lead and learns to improve its own performance over time.
Opening up our ecosystem not only gives everyone access to tools that help to maximize profit from their capital investments regardless of net worth, but the more investors using our AI, the smarter it becomes. It's a win/win.
Securities and Dividends, Decentralization's New Best Friends?
With a steadily darkening cloud of regulatory question marks wafting its way over utility tokens, Rise's upcoming Security Token Offering (STO) would seem a logical choice in the decidedly stern domain of Germany's financial watchdog, BaFin.
Uncle Sam, for one, seems to have been cracking the whip with particular vigor in recent months, with the US Securities and Exchange Commission having in quick succession charged a number of cryptocurrency exchanges and post-ICO projects with issuing or dealing in unregistered securities, with Salt Lending and ShapeShift CEO Erik Voorhees being the latest to be homed in on by the hardline financial watchdog.
It was the ideal time to become a first-mover and create a BaFin-compliant security token as the market and investor focus began shifting in favor of regulation and compliant investment opportunities in blockchain and crypto.
In fact to the German entrepreneur, a token compliant with stern BaFin regulation would not just let his investors breathe easy, but entitle them to a "long-term passive income stream" rolling in from quarterly dividends derived from all arms of the Rise ecosystem including its algorithmic trading system, trading platform, investment fund, and even a portion of presumably handsome algorithm licensing revenues paid by institutional clients.
Perhaps what might perk up the ears of US investors, however, is the Rise Crypto-Traded Fund (CTF), which may give a taste of ETF-style basketed investment before the SEC bangs its gavel on any one of the Bitcoin ETFs currently pending regulatory approval.
Purportedly combining "the best of ETF investments and the high-profit potential of algorithmic trading", Rise's CTFs will permit RSE (Rise token) holders to simultaneously invest into a basket of traditional assets and cryptocurrencies, delivering an average 15-18 percent return paid out quarterly in ETH or RSE.
With Wall Street apparently poised to cut itself a hearty slice of the pie that is the crypto-market, such a scheme could not only ease widely voiced fears that old-school finance will morph crypto into the players-only club the nascent technology set out to circumvent, but give the suits an offer they can't refuse—adapt and adopt—or, be left peddling the very infrastructure that seems to have all but sparked the global hunger for cryptocurrency.


The Cowboys would love to relive the past.
Since then, Murray has only three 100-yard games. He is averaging 70.8 yards per game and 4.4 yards per rush — lower than his career average of 4.8 — in the 19 games he has played since.
Murray hasn't had a 100-yard game since he opened the 2012 season with 131 yards on 20 carries against the Giants.
The Cowboys vowed to run it more and run it better than they did last season when they set the team record for fewest rushing yards in a 16-game season. But they are running nowhere fast.
The Cowboys are tied for 26th in rushing, with 124 yards in two games, and they are averaging only 3.2 yards per rush. It begs the question: Does success in the running game come first or is it a commitment to run?
The Cowboys ended last week's 17-16 loss to the Chiefs with 12 consecutive passes. With Dez Bryant, Miles Austin and Jason Witten as receiving threats, it is tempting to get into a pass-first mentality.
Garrett, offensive coordinator Bill Callahan and quarterback Tony Romo all agree the Cowboys have to run it more than they have. Owner Jerry Jones cites Brian Waters, who is expected to take over at right guard soon, as a reason the running game will improve.
In the past 13 games, the Cowboys have averaged 68.5 rushing yards per game. They had no individual 100-yard rushers in that span, and only three times did they top 100 yards rushing as a team. Five times in the past 13 games the Cowboys had fewer than 50 yards rushing as a team.
Murray, a third-round pick in 2011, received more criticism last week than he has had carries this season. Former Philadelphia Eagles and Washington Redskins pro personnel director Louis Riddick, now an analyst for ESPN, said Murray doesn't do a good job avoiding tacklers.
Rams coach Jeff Fisher, who sat out the 2011 season, calls the game tape from two years ago irrelevant. The Rams have only 15 players left on their roster who played against Murray and the Cowboys in that 34-7 loss.
Still, Murray would love to use the Rams to prove he is as happy-go-skillfully as he is happy-go-lucky.


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North Bay Confronts Coal-By-Rail
by Leslie Stewart
Sonoma-Marin Transit (SMART) passenger train waiting at station. Credit: Creative Commons
Residents of the Bay Area have fought several battles over the past decade to prevent the movement of coal shipments along the region's rail lines and through the ports. So, when plans surfaced in August 2021 to ship coal to a proposed terminal on Humboldt Bay via rail lines passing through the North Bay, it's unsurprising that opposition quickly emerged.
The primary concerns are both global and local: burning coal exacerbates climate change, and railside neighbors are plagued by unhealthy dust as it is moved. The City of Oakland sued a terminal owner over plans to handle coal, while the City of Richmond drafted an ordinance to eliminate coal storage and shipment at the Levin Terminal. Environmental groups are concerned about coal dust contamination, and also the potential for derailments in slide-prone Eel River canyon.
Ownership of the rails, along with shipping rights, is a complex situation involving several agencies as well as private parties. In Marin and Sonoma counties, SMART (Sonoma-Marin Area Rapid Transit) operates passenger service on part of the route which would be involved in any coal transport. In May 2020, SMART acquired the authority for freight operations on rail lines in the two counties.The state-created North Coast Rail Authority, which owns the right-of-way, still controls the portion in Mendocino and Humboldt counties but will transfer ownership or maintenance of its Sonoma segments to SMART. SMART is also taking over equipment and freight operations of the Northwest Pacific Railroad Company, a private company which has been leasing the functional part of the line in the North Bay.
In Mendocino and Humboldt counties, years of natural disasters, financial troubles and neglect have practically eradicated the line in many locations. State Senator Mike McGuire (D-Healdsburg) has secured state funding to convert the rail right-of-way between Willits and Eureka to a scenic regional trail. However, the Northern California Rail Company, the new LLC hoping to use the line for coal shipments, has filed an objection with the US Surface Transportation Board. According to a staffer in McGuire's office, the agency "has put the process on hold and it is unclear when they will have a ruling."
100-car coal train. Credit: Creative Commons
Even if the company succeeds in killing the current rails-to-trails application, the significant costs of rebuilding rails and financing a new terminal may make its venture the latest in a series of failed attempts to resuscitate North Coast rail. Senator McGuire's bill, SB307, would block state funding for rail improvements along this corridor. US Representative Jared Huffman (D-Marin) told the Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, "I'm going to be urging [the US Department of Transportation] in a full-throated way not to loan that money." Partnership in Humboldt County has also disappeared; one Native American tribe withdrew support after learning the new terminal would be used for coal.
Meanwhile, in the East Bay, Richmond shippers and terminal owners have agreed to phase out all shipments of coal and petroleum products by 2024. However, Oakland's terminal, now with a new owner, is due back in court this spring, as coal producers continue to look for West Coast ports to handle their exports.
Eel River Canyon rail line. Credit: Creative Commons
The Magic of Winter Light


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Aftermath of an anthrax attack
A film thriller recounting the gassing of a Kurdish community in the European Union has proven to be frighteningly topical. James Drew talks to its director, Kenny Glenaan
FOR Scottish film director Kenny Glenaan, uncertainties about asylum policy are a part of everyday life.
His grim documentary-style thriller, Gas Attack, has just been screened in Brussels as part of the British Council 'Image-A-Nation' film festival.
The timing could hardly have been more topical – and its depiction of an anthrax attack against Kurdish asylum-seekers in Glasgow proved too near-the-knuckle for the city's film licensing committee when it was premiered at the Edinburgh Film Festival in 2001.
Threats of censorship and even an outright ban gained momentum at a time when attempts were being made at 'bridge building' between locals and refugees. In the end, the council backed down – and Gas Attack won the festival's Michael Powell award for best new British film.
Of course, no one could have guessed how prescient the story would be. In a post-11 September 2001 world, and after the US crisis involving anthrax-laced letters, Glenaan's vision of a bureaucratic council powerless to contain an epidemic seems frighteningly realistic.
What could be the motivation for such an attack? And where does that level of hatred begin? Glenaan's background research on Glasgow's Sighthill estate, home to many Kurdish refugees, gave him a disturbing insight into a social time-bomb.
"It's literally on your doorstep in a city the size of Glasgow – we didn't have to search very hard. The word that kept coming back off the street to us from the Kurdish community was 'we're under siege and no one is protecting us'.
"There were kids getting beaten up all the time, and many of the adults we spoke to said that they felt unsafe during the day, and some simply wouldn't leave their houses after dark.
"There were people getting car battery acid thrown in their faces – and some local children were shooting at refugees with an air-gun. It all seemed to be part of a gradual acceptance that the Kurdish refugees were somehow sub-human."
Glenaan draws fine performances from his cast of predominantly non-professional actors, many from the local community, against a chilling backdrop of panic and social breakdown as the lethal epidemic takes hold, with authorities seemingly powerless to control it.
The director has first-hand experience of the lacunae in government preparedness: "As part of our research, we asked the nurses who showed us round Glasgow's Royal Infirmary what plan of action they would have in the event of a terrorist biological attack.
"'We don't have a plan' was the answer.
"If such an attack happened in mainland Britain today, the response would be shambolic. When we asked if the nurses and doctors even had any protective clothing, the nurse opened a cupboard, where broken monitors were stored. Behind them, there were four white protection suits.
"And that was it for the Royal Infirmary, which is responsible for a quarter of Glasgow."
And his attitude to immigration policy in the EU? "I think immigration is the big story of the 21st century, and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better – and why wouldn't it? People who have nothing, can see something better, want to be part of that. I think it comes down to human needs that are as simple as the need for water.
"Scotland's First Secretary and former Europe Minister Jack McConnell announced, before production began on the film, a government drive to attract immigrants to Scotland, as its population has been falling since 1974. But what I find very telling is that you have a cash-strapped council [in Glasgow] who, at the time the film was being made, were receiving two busloads of asylum-seekers every day from all over the country, from areas that didn't want them. Glasgow was the only city in Britain to say, unequivocally, 'we'll take them'.
"Now, on the one hand you have what appears to be a fantastic, progressive attitude but, if you look deeper, you discover that if the council takes a certain number of asylum-seekers, it qualifies for a European grant.
"Asylum-seekers are placed in houses that nobody else will live in, because they're shit – rising damp, high-rise blocks of flats with no nearby amenities, no shops, no swing parks for the kids. They then receive money for the flats to be repaired, with new windows, carpets, doors and locks fitted. I do believe there is a real humanity to this action, but on the other hand, the asylum-seekers are being used, in order to bring in revenue for a cash-strapped council which has its back against the wall when it comes to providing local services for all residents.
"Of course, when a neighbour sees all that is being done, he says 'look at that – why do they get new windows, carpets, doors and curtains?' And so prejudice begins because people have not been made aware of what is going on, or where the money is coming from.
"If EU grants are going to be awarded in this way, it would perhaps be wise to make their purpose more clearly known."
The current Iraq conflict poses similar challenges for Glenaan and, he believes, for all Western society.
"In a way, I'm glad that the war has actually started, as opposed to the tub-thumping which preceded it, because now we know it's not just a question of whether you are a Muslim. It's about commerce, it's about business. Anyone can get on their soap box and tub-thump away, but the question that I never hear being asked in the West is, if we want to live the way we want to live, to have all the facilities that we enjoy, if we are happy with that, then you should support George Bush, because that is the system he is trying to keep in place, that pays for the privilege of Western societies living the way we live.
"But, perhaps at the same time, we feel that we're happy to give some of this up, to let other people have a slightly better life, and not be exploited as much as they are, then we can't have it both ways, and the question of the people who are desperately seeking a better life must be addressed. Immigration brings the problem right to your front doorstep – and it has to be tackled head on."
For Glenaan, then, that would be business as usual.
Iraq	United Kingdom


The United States has raised concerned on the deaths resulting from clashes between Nigerian security forces and members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria in areas surrounding Abuja. The U.S in a statement by its Embassy in Nigeria urged the authorities of the Nigerian Government to conduct a thorough investigation on the events and to take appropriate action. The country urged the Nigerian government to hold accountable those responsible for violations of the country's law. U.S in the statement We called for restraint on all sides.


When Reform Rabbis Meet: What Really Happens at Those Regional Conferences?
The Quad Cities temperature was 7 degrees above 0, with a wind chill of about 19 degrees below, early last Saturday morning when I drove to the airport to catch my flight to Phoenix, Arizona – more precisely Scottsdale – and the annual conference of the Mid West Association of Reform Rabbis. I would be lying if I told you that I was not looking forward to escaping the brutal winter cold for the desert warmth, even if just for those few days. Indeed, I was. As it turned out, arriving in Scottsdale I encountered some of the worst winter weather that area has endured for a while. Indeed, in the 11 years our organization had been holding its January meetings in Scottsdale, the weather has never been that foul. On all but one day it rained, and the temperatures ranged from the low 60's in the day to the mid to upper 40's at night. So it must have been an odd sight for the locals to see this bunch of mid western rabbis continually exclaiming how wonderful was the weather! Everything is relative!
Now I expect that there are those, in each of our congregations, who earnestly believe that the only reason we rabbis and our wives go to this conference is because of the weather; that this is some sort of rabbinic junket. But truth be told, they are wrong – dead wrong. There are many reasons why my colleagues and I attend this conference. The weather just happens to be a great fringe benefit.
Aside from the weather, why do we go?
One reason is that we go to study with a true Jewish scholar on a professional level that we simply cannot achieve at home. At home we spend a good part of our lives being teachers of Judaism and as such, the resident Jewish experts; the top of the local Jewish learning food chain. However, at these conferences we revel in not being teachers but rather being students. We gladly surrender our place on the top of the Jewish learning food chain to our scholar. And then we marvel at the wonderful insights our colleagues contribute to our classroom discussions. For those who love the very act of learning, our study sessions are festivals in intellectual renewal.
So what do we study and how relevant is it to our work back home? The main topic varies from year to year. Sometimes we study various aspects of our classical texts. At those times most of our studying is done in Hebrew and Aramaic. At other times we may be studying matters of theology or history or ethics or any number of Jewishly related topics. Sometimes the content of our study is directly relevant to what we do in our congregations. Sometimes it is indirectly relevant, and sometimes it is purely study for study's sake, with no relevance to our roles as congregational rabbis. Our tradition calls such study Torah LeShma – the Study of Torah for Its Own Sake – and considers it the highest form of study; the greatest study mitzvah there can be, for it is study for the sake of heaven and not for the sake of personal and professional gain.
This year we studied about early Christianity, its relationship to ancient Judaism, and how the rise of Christianity altered the then traditional Jewish attitudes toward Gentiles. Our scholar was a young assistant professor at the Hebrew Union College in Los Angeles. He was brilliant, informative, entertaining, and personable. We thoroughly enjoyed him, but he made me and my contemporaries feel old, especially when he spoke about growing up in the congregation of one of our classmates; my good friend and rabbinical school car pool buddy, Rabbi Alan Katz. Was what we learned directly relevant to my work here? Could I take my notes from his lectures and offer a class in our adult education program? Not really, for in order to appreciate what he was teaching, one needs to have a somewhat significant background in Jewish knowledge. But on the other hand, it was indirectly relevant to my life back here in the Quad Cities, for from his lectures, his handouts, and our discussions, I did obtain a deeper understanding and appreciation of Jewish-Christian relations; one that will enhance my interactions with our Christian neighbors.
Another reason is that we go to pray together. As you know, we rabbis pray all the time, much of it from the bimah. Prayer is important to us, and we try to communicate our love of prayer to our congregants. But to be honest, congregational prayer, as many of you know, is also political. One congregant wants our prayers to be this way. Another congregant wants our prayer to be that way. Sometimes we rabbis find ourselves simply praying that we can magically make everyone happy. But when we gather as rabbis to pray, the only ones who we have to make happy are ourselves. We are free to lose ourselves in prayer, knowing that everyone else in the room is likewise praying with abandon. As our voices rise up in song – for most of our prayers are sung – we can sense our souls rising along with them. Rabbis in prayer are a powerful prayer community.
Another reason is that we go to meet with and learn from representatives of some of the significant Reform Jewish organizations; organizations like the Central Conference of American Rabbis, the Union for Reform Judaism, the Rabbinic Placement Commission, and the Reform Pension Board. They advise us as to what is going on, and what is on the horizon, in their various organizations. Through them we get a snapshot of the state of our movement, and of its future.
So, for example, we learned how the Central Conference of American Rabbis is getting ready to field test its new High Holy Day prayer book. We also discussed how the landscape of the contemporary rabbinate has been altered by the rise of so many independent rabbinic seminaries, ranging anywhere from offering serious rabbinic education to online seminaries that offer almost instantaneous ordination. Questions now arise as to which rabbinic degrees are to be considered legitimate and which not. So we learned that our own organization – the Central Conference of American Rabbis – when considering legitimacy for serving Reform pulpits, has divided the seminaries into three categories: 1) Those that provide a competent rabbinic education and demonstrate a commitment to the ideals of Reform Judaism; 2) Those that provide a competent rabbinic education but whose commitment to Reform Jewish ideals are questionable; and 3) Those that do not provide a competent rabbinic education and whose commitment to Reform Jewish ideals are questionable. The more we discussed this matter, the more I realize that our congregations need to come to terms with it as well. For with budgetary constraints, there is a great allure to hiring rabbis on the cheap. But when a congregation places financial considerations above ideological ones, what are they letting themselves in for?
From the URJ representative we learned that the Union is going to be moving forward with its emphasis on new technologies. What I heard described was something akin to an Iphone Siri that will provide guidance on all sorts of Jewishly related subjects from studying Talmud to synagogues with solar panels. Also, interestingly enough, the Union is feeling the ill effects of having eliminated its regional structure. So now they will be looking to re-create it, in a fashion, but with lay leadership instead of rabbinic.
Yet another reason that we go – and perhaps the most important reason – is for our sense of hevruta, community. There is a special bond that ties rabbis together, especially if we are of the same ideological ilk. We are a family, and as such, we understand, appreciate, and care for each other as no one else can. We need each other for no one understands rabbis like other rabbis. We love our congregations and the people who populate them. We all have been fortunate to have in our congregations and in our communities friends whom we hold as especially dear, but still, at the end of the day, each of us is "The Rabbi" with all the expectations and limitations that go along with that title. Only among our colleagues can we fully let our hair down; can we lower our guard and not be "The Rabbi" but simply be a thinking, feeling, flawed human being, and with it all, be unconditionally accepted and loved. No, we are not just colleagues. We are family, and such meetings are emotionally charged family reunions. We know that we can reach out to each other anytime and be confident that the others will be there for us. So, for example, when Rev. Ron Quay was diagnosed with lymphoma and was told that the doctor he needed to see – the best in the field – was in Omaha, I knew that if I picked up the phone and called Rabbi Aryeh Azriel in Omaha, and if he had the right connections, he would make it happen. And so I did. And so he did, with Rev. Quay receiving a call the very next day from the office of that doctor. So we know that we are there for each other all the time, and that only makes it all the more powerful when we can be there for each other in person, rather than at a distance.
So every year the Cantor and I eagerly look forward to our January sojourn in Scottsdale. Of course we enjoy stepping out of the mid western winter into the realm of the desert. Even as the sun renews us, we are all the more renewed and revitalized by all that we share with our colleagues during those too few days in the Arizona sun.
If you wonder why I have not posted on this blog in some time, the answer is simple: High Holy Days preparation. Writing sermons and tending to countless other details prior to the advent of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur occupy nearly the totality of every congregational rabbi's time. So in my next few posts, I will be sharing with you the texts of the sermons that I presented to my congregation during the Holy Days. Below is the text of my Rosh Hashanah Eve sermon.
There are New Years and then there are New Years, and this is certainly a New Year for us here at Temple Emanuel. For us, this Rosh Hashanah not only marks the beginning of the Jewish year of 5771, but it also marks the beginning of the celebration of our 150th anniversary as a congregation.
150 years! That is no small accomplishment. While ours was not the first synagogue established in the state of Iowa – for there were synagogues which preceded ours in both Dubuque and Keokuk – ours is the oldest Jewish congregation in continual existence in the state. Of that we can most justifiably be proud.
We sit here this evening in this fine 57 year old building, which, by the way, was the first house of worship in the Quad Cities which was constructed utilizing the designs of modern architecture. We sit here, not only as a viable but also as a vibrant congregation. There is so much about Temple Emanuel life which we take for granted, as if it was always so. But it was not. What we benefit from and enjoy today was handed down to us as the result of the dedication and labor of so many others who came before us; who strove to make Temple Emanuel possible, nevertheless vital and vibrant. Over the next 13 months, we will be celebrating their gifts to us, as we begin to learn more about our past and rededicate ourselves to the future of the congregation which they bequeathed to us.
Sitting here this evening, considering the life of Temple Emanuel today, let us try to imagine what Jewish life in this community was like for our founders back in 1861. In those days, the total population of Davenport was a meager 500. Of those 500, there were a scant one dozen Jewish families. Most, if not all of them were German Jews who had arrived in this community during the preceding ten years. They came to America, seeking freedom and democracy. They were part of a greater wave of German Jewish immigration that came to our shores fleeing Germany and Austria after the failures of the liberal revolutions of 1848. Yes, even then, Jews were social liberals. In fact, in our congregation today, we have direct descendants of one such famous socially liberal Jewish refugee who didn't come to our area, but rather to Kansas. His name was August Bondi. Bringing to America his socially liberal values, August Bondi rode with the abolitionist John Brown, only to break with Brown for ethical reasons after the Potowatamy Massacre. Later, he would earn the Congressional Medal of Honor while serving the Union during the Civil War. He earned that honor by risking his life to bring wounded soldiers from both sides off of the battlefield and to safety. Hart Bondi, Greg Schermer, and their children, are his direct descendants. Those early German Jews who settled here, while maybe not as heroic as August Bondi, most certainly shared with him their motivation for coming to this country and their vision of what America should be.
So on Wednesday evening September 4, 1861 – Erev Rosh Hashanah, 5622 – our congregation held its first High Holy Day service. They had no building. They had no rabbi. So the services were led by a knowledgeable Jew by the name of Max Feder. Shortly after that, on October 21, 1861, they formally voted Congregation B'nai Israel into existence.
That's right, Congregation B'nai Israel. That was, until recently, our original and official name. So where does the name Temple Emanuel come from? Back in 1885, we finally erected our first synagogue building. It was on Ripley Street, between 4th and 5th Avenues. At that time, belonging to our congregation was a very wealthy family by the name of Rothschild. In exchange for a major donation to the building fund, the congregation agreed to name the building after the patriarch of that family, Moses Emanuel Rothschild, who had recently passed away. So originally it was our building which was called Temple Emanuel, but with the passage of time, it was that name that stuck.
So our congregation came into being. Our first Board President was Isaac Berneis, and initially membership dues were a whopping $5.00 a year. Until we built that building in 1885, we rented space in which to meet, our first being a third floor room in a building at 3rd & Perry.
It was not until 1875 that our congregation acquired the services of a rabbi. Our first rabbi was Rabbi Isaac Fall. He served our congregation until 1890, which made him the longest serving rabbi of our congregation until yours truly. He is also the only rabbi buried in Mt. Nebo Cemetery. As part of our anniversary celebration, next October we will be holding a special ceremony at his grave. That ceremony, researched by the Cantor, is called a Hilu La Ceremony.
You might find this hard to believe, but Rabbi Fall was an Orthodox rabbi. That is not as strange as it might seem, considering the fact that in 1875 we were an Orthodox congregation. Granted, we were a liberal Orthodox congregation, but we were Orthodox nonetheless. But even at that time, we were seriously considering change. The Union of American Hebrew Congregations – which today we call the Union for Reform Judaism – the official North American organization of Reform congregations, was founded in 1873. Whether or not our congregation should join it, leave Orthodoxy and officially become a Reform congregation, was the subject of heated debate. It was not until 1879 that we decided to make that move. But even as the congregation voted to join the Reform movement, the president of our congregation at that time, John Ochs – you may have seen the Ochs mausoleum in our cemetery – resigned his post as president because of it.
Nor did the struggle over our Reform identity end with that vote. It went on for many years, painfully dividing our congregation. The planning of the dedication ceremony for our first building was embraced by the proponents of Reform as an opportunity to bring the practices of our congregation closer to their way of thinking. It was in that spirit that the Board voted that no hats were to be worn during the ceremony. They also invited a rabbi from Chicago to deliver the main address, in English. You have to understand. Up until that point, only Hebrew and German were spoken on our bimah. With this act, they introduced the use of English into our service. Later, in August of 1889, the Board voted to affirm the decision of the Central Conference of American Rabbis, to include the counting of women in the minyan.
It should be noted that through all of this, Rabbi Fall tried to be responsive to all his congregants. As an Orthodox rabbi, he demonstrated himself to be extremely flexible and open to the changes proposed by the proponents of Reform. But he was walking a tight rope, with some finding him too open to change and others finding him not open enough to change. Finally, in August of 1890, the Board released him and turned around, engaging the services of their first rabbi who was a graduate of the Hebrew Union College.
Rabbi Samuel Freuder was ordained from the Hebrew Union College in 1886. He came to our community, having previously served a congregation in San Diego. However, his tenure at Temple Emanuel was short lived. He was a living example of the caution, "Beware lest you get what you asked for." The congregation felt that they wanted someone more progressive than Rabbi Fall, and in Rabbi Freuder they found him. However, Rabbi Freuder went too far in the other direction. As one chronicler put it, whatever was forbidden, he considered permitted. The dissatisfaction with him was so great that in July of 1891, the Board released him. However, you could imagine their dismay when the local newspaper published an article in which Rabbi Freuder announced that he had resigned and was renouncing the Jewish faith altogether.
In our lobby, you will find a handwritten letter to our congregation from Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise, the father of American Reform Judaism; the founding president of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the founding president of the Hebrew Union College, and the founding president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. In it he expressed his apologies for not being able to provide us with a student rabbi to conduct our High Holy Day services, but recommended that we contact an unemployed rabbi living in New York. On the surface, this is a very disappointing letter. Indeed, when Joan McGee found that letter in our records, as she was organizing our 125th anniversary celebration, her comment was, "Damned Union! Didn't do anything for us then and is still not doing anything for us!" However, you have to look at the date – September 12, 1891 – and understand it in our historical context. For obviously, it was after our congregation went through this trauma with Rabbi Freuder, and probably conducted an unsuccessful rabbinic search, that we applied to the Hebrew Union College for a student rabbi for the holy days. But by then, it was too late. All the students had High Holy Day pulpits. This was but another manifestation of how I congregation suffered in the wake of its struggle over its Jewish identity.
That struggle would continue for quite some time, only ultimately finding resolution during the rabbinate of William Fineshriber. Rabbi Fineshriber, a graduate of the Hebrew Union College, came to our community in 1900. It was through his efforts that the old wounds were ultimately healed and it was under his leadership that we finally established ourselves solidly as a Reform congregation, with the formal conclusion of the struggle being our adoption, in 1902, of the UNION PRAYER BOOK, a prayer book which we would worship from, in its various incarnations, until, in the mid 1970's, when we adopted GATES OF PRAYER, the prayer book which replaced the UNION PRAYER BOOK as the worship text of Reform Judaism.
It was also through Rabbi Fineshriber's efforts that our congregation seriously embarked upon its mission to pursue social justice causes and to become a voice and a presence for social justice in this community; a mission which we still pursue today, as earlier this evening I testified to, as I called upon you to support our hunger relief efforts. It is not surprising that it was through Rabbi Fineshriber's social justice efforts that our congregation came to assume a new position of esteem and respect in the eyes of our general community; a position we still hold today, in good part due to our Tikkun Olam efforts.
I share with you these tidbits from the early history of our congregation because we need to know our past in order to appreciate our present and to start to build for our future. History, whether it be world history or American history or Jewish history or the history of our congregation, is not made up of quantum independent moments in time. Rather, it is linear; it is cumulative. Our ancient rabbis understood this all too well when they coined the concept of "Shalshelet HaKabbalah – the Chain of Tradition." What we are today is due in great part to the gifts bequeathed to us by those who came before us. What comprises the future will be due in great part to the gifts we pass on to those who come after us. Today, we stand as one moment in time along the time line of Temple Emanuel. So much of what we are today as a congregation, whether we realize it or not, is great part owing to those who came before us. What will happen to this congregation, and this Jewish community, in the future, will be due, in great part, to the decisions we make and the actions we take; we, our generation of Temple Emanuelites.
For the first 40 years of its existence, our congregation struggled desperately with issues of its Jewish identity. Should we be a Reform congregation? What does it mean to be a Reform congregation? How much change is not enough? How much change is too much?
Struggling with our Jewish identity as a congregation is not new to this congregation. In fact, it is a very old story as far as Temple Emanuel is concerned. But from that story we must learn important lessons.
Lesson Number One: Openness to change is an intrinsic part of the nature of this congregation, as it is an intrinsic part of the nature of Reform Judaism itself. We should not be afraid of change but neither should we embrace it blindly. Change can be good, but only when it is purposeful and thoughtfully arrived at. Every possible change must be evaluated on its own merits. Is this a change for the good? Will this serve to advance our goal of being a contemporary meaningful expression of Judaism for our congregants? Will this change serve us for the good in the long run, or only in the short run? Will this change stand the test of time? Where will it take us ten years down the road? Twenty years down the road? A hundred & fifty years down the road? On the other hand, are our ties to the past founded upon the innate values of the past or only because the past is comfortable while change is disconcerting? The changes we make today, and the changes we choose not to make today, are the legacies we leave for tomorrow. Before we make them or don't make them, we need to honestly ask ourselves whether or not this is what we wish to be remembered for.
Lesson Number Two: As the philosopher George Santayana once said, "Those who fail to learn from the past are condemned to repeat it." The early history of our congregation was a very difficult history – a very painful history – because of the ways in which we dealt with, or failed to deal with successfully, the issues of change. It was a history filled with conflict and controversy. Too many people drew lines. Too many people took sides. As my mother, of blessed memory, was fond of saying, "You can disagree without being disagreeable." It would appear that our Temple Emanuel forebears did not always appear to grasp that concept, and as a result, the congregation as a whole suffered.
Today, we, too, struggle with questions of change, both within the current life of our congregation, and especially as we consider the possibility of merger with the Tri City Jewish Center. The changes we are considering, and the decisions we will make about them, will most certainly impact the future of this congregation; the next 150 years of Temple Emanuel, or whatever it is we become if we decide to merge. As we grapple with these issues of change, we constantly need to ask ourselves two questions: (1) By making these changes, can we honestly claim that we are remaining true to our past, to our heritage? And (2) By making these changes, can we honestly claim that these are the legacies we wish to bequeath to our children and those who come after us?
As we go about our business, considering the future – the next 150 years – we need to constantly remind ourselves that we can disagree without being disagreeable. We can understand that others hold viewpoints which may differ from ours; viewpoints which may differ greatly from ours. Yet just because they differ from us does not mean that they are wrong. Each and every one of us holds the future of this congregation gently and lovingly within our hearts, within our minds, and within our hands. We all strive to do what we think will be best for our congregation and for its future. Though we may differ on approach, we do not differ on intent. And we need to respect that. We need to respect that though someone may disagree with us, they do so honestly and they do so lovingly when it comes to the Temple. Therefore, even though we may disagree, we need to maintain a respectful dialogue. We need to truly listen to each other; not just listen for the points we can dispute, but listen in order that we can come to understand where each of us is coming from. For only when we develop that groundwork of respectful understanding, can we build from that a successful compromise; a successful consensus; a successful meeting of the minds. And it is in that meeting of the minds that we will find the strongest future for Temple Emanuel. I do not know what that future will be. No one does. But let us explore it together.