March 10, 2011

Letter to the Editor re PFC Bradley Manning

While claiming we were fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq in the cause of "freedom," President Bush and now Obama have used the War on Terror to drastically curtail our fundamental rights as American citizens. The slippery slope of torture for terrorists has brought us to the point where an American serviceman can be humiliated by our government with forced nudity and held in solitary confinement for months on end and where's the outrage? Imagine the outcry if PFC Bradley Manning were subjected to this abuse as a prisoner in a foreign country. Yet we've been conditioned to meekly accept such treatment of our own in the name of "security." As Ben Franklin warned, those who would sacrifice liberty for safety deserve neither.

Barbara Glassman

March 04, 2011

I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor's Journey...


On Radio Times, WHYY/NPR, March 3, 2011:
Dr. Izzeldin Abuelaish lost three of his daughters and his niece to a shell launched at his apartment in Gaza by Israeli Defense Forces in January 2009, while another daughter was critically injured. Moments later, Israeli TV viewers heard the desperate wails of Dr. Abuelaish live, as he called his TV correspondent friend for help finding an ambulance. Dr. Abuelaish had been providing frequent reports about the Gaza war for Israeli TV, as he was one of the few Hebrew speakers in Gaza. His Hebrew enabled him to work as an obstetrician and gynecologist specializing in infertility in Israeli hospitals, crossing checkpoints every day to go to work. And Dr. Abuelaish, despite his tragic loss, continues to cross barriers, overcoming grief to become an inspiring advocate for peace for people of many faiths. He created Daughters for Life in his daughters’ memory, a foundation dedicated to providing education and health services to women and girls throughout the Middle East. His new book is I Shall Not Hate: A Gaza Doctor’s Journey on the Road to Peace and Human Dignity.