Category Archives: human rights

U.S. Supreme Court Denied a Hearing on Appeal to Move Jim Thorpe’s Remains

In June William and Richard Thorpe, with the Sac and Fox Nation of Oklahoma, submitted a motion to the high court to hear their appeal have Thorpe’s body moved to Oklahoma from Jim Thorpe, Pennsylvania.The brothers, along with their brother, Jack Thorpe, now deceased, brought a suit in 2010 to gain control of where their father should be buried. They maintained their father’s body was taken to Pennsylvania against their wishes when Jim Thorpe died in 1953 by Thorpe’s third wife, Patricia, a non-Native woman, who auctioned Thorpe’s body to the highest bidder.  A small borough in Pennsylvania now named for Thorpe won the bid.The small borough in Pennsylvania was a struggling coal town in 1953 and bid on the body as a means to draw tourists to their town.

Source: U.S. Supreme Court Denied a Hearing on Appeal to Move Jim Thorpe’s Remains

Our Commander-in-Grief Has Given This Damn Speech 11 Times | Dame Magazine

How could he not be sick of it? This country’s obsession with guns is cancerous and even the simplest of cures is considered worse than the disease. Last year, our country lost its collective mind when a man in Texas died from the Ebola virus. There were calls to ban all people in Ebola-stricken nations from coming into the United States in fear that they’d spread the disease. When three people died from a listeria outbreak tied to Blue Bell Ice Cream, the company destroyed 8 million gallons of product and shut down its production across the world. Sunland Peanut Butter Company was shut down completely by the FDA after a salmonella outbreak that didn’t cause any fatalities. We accept and approve of corrective action when it comes to products that are deemed dangerous. But if that product fires a bullet, all bets are off, regardless of the body count.

Source: Our Commander-in-Grief Has Given This Damn Speech 11 Times | Dame Magazine

IRIN Asia | Aid agencies withdraw from Afghanistan’s north | Afghanistan | Conflict

A woman registers to pick up her aid package in Kunduz city in April 2015 after escaping fighting in her district between the Taliban and government forces

Food shipments halted

Last month, WFP suspended food delivery operations in Badakhshan after five of its trucks and staff disappeared overnight on their way back from making a delivery. While the staff members were released, the trucks were never recovered.Spokesman Wahidullah Amani told IRIN that the WFP resumed limited food deliveries last week but said that poor security was continuing to undermine operations.“Some districts there have more than 80 percent food insecurity, but they are in very remote areas and access to them is low,” said Amani.

Source: IRIN Asia | Aid agencies withdraw from Afghanistan’s north | Afghanistan | Conflict

“I work at the UNHCR, but I have a quite junior position. I…

“I work at the UNHCR, but I have a quite junior position. I have a desk job where I reach out to job candidates and try to get them to consider UNHCR. But whenever there’s an emergency, anyone who has a useful skill is sent to the field. This is my first emergency mission. My father is Iranian so I speak a little bit of Farsi. I didn’t realize how useful that could be. Yesterday I was helping an Afghan woman carry her child across the Serbian border, and I was explaining to her what she could expect when we arrived. She was so comforted by the little information I could offer. I’ve seen so many faces light up just because they heard “Welcome To Croatia” in their mother tongue. I’m thankful for my desk job, but this is why I joined the UNHCR.” (Tovarnik, Croatia)

Source: “I work at the UNHCR, but I have a quite junior position. I…

Their Blood Is On My Hands: The Latest Massacre And Owning My Part. | Rebelle Society

Overcoming this issue when it’s so engrained in American culture is going to be a journey, and it will be long. Prepare yourself, because the first step will not solve the problem immediately. We must accept that our journey will be imperfect, and that we will make mistakes, and that the solution will evolve along with our society.What is unacceptable is we’ve not yet taken one step forward on that journey, because we’re stuck in the fight for what we each think is the right solution. There is no right solution. There is only the start of the journey towards becoming whole again. Fighting over a right solution does not lead to the solution, there is enough evidence to prove that.Start talking about and demanding action be taken, and let’s actually take our first step on the journey to stopping innocent people dying unnecessarily and causing trauma and pain to ourselves and each other in the process.The United States can and must heal from these massacres. They must become a part of our history, not our present-day reality, and that starts with me and you letting go of the battle and focusing on taking our first step forward, whatever that may be.

Source: Their Blood Is On My Hands: The Latest Massacre And Owning My Part. | Rebelle Society

On the Pope and a Prisoner Holding Hands in PhiladelphiaReading the Pictures

So, yes, extend a helping hand for the man going down in flames. And yet, with gentleness in the Pope’s grip reciprocated, what we’re seeing—and what the Pope’s visit to Philadelphia’s correctional facility is all about—is less Last Judgement and more Sistine Chapel: sometimes the ultimate act of grace is simply to reach across the divide and make contact.Certainly that gesture of grace is part of why Pope Francis’s visit has shaken up the story line in US politics. The art of compromise just doesn’t play well politically these days, as if “reaching out to the other side” is just one step away from a deal with the devil.

Source: On the Pope and a Prisoner Holding Hands in PhiladelphiaReading the Pictures