Opinion: Priscilla Dann-Courtney: Ashes are heavy to hold, but they do disappear - Boulder Daily Camera

My siblings and I each have some of my mother’s ashes to both hold and scatter. The journey of letting go and holding on is a delicate one. Grief for all of us is both a releasing, yet also finding ways to hold loved ones in our hearts. I have scattered some of her ashes in our garden, some are where she lived on the East Coast, and soon she will be in the Atlantic Ocean off Cape Cod. I knew she would love being in our garden. It is the extended visit she longed for. Her East Coast home is a warm, safe place for her as it always was for all of us when we could breathe the air together as a family. Our trip to Massachusetts and the Atlantic Ocean takes some planning as I read up on the rules and recommendations for airplane travel with ashes and the off shore scattering of her remains.

Airlines may have different stipulations but in general as long as you have documentation, which includes a death certificate, ashes may be transported in either a carry-on or checked bag during domestic travel. They likely will separate out the urn for testing, or in my case it will be a heavy-duty Zip Lock bag. When I “zipped” the bag if felt like I was keeping her safe, adding love to the clicking sound when I sealed it tight. TSA will examine the ashes to make sure they are not laced with anything. Somehow if they knew my mother, they would be assured there would be no illegal drug anywhere in her vicinity, dead or alive. Ashes can be scattered in the ocean as long as it is 3 miles off shore. In truth we may not follow the directives perfectly. Boating was never big in our family. Except for our journey when I was a child across the Atlantic to France on the Queen Mary — another one of my mother’s ideas to find adventure. But beyond that, we frolicked in waters closer to shore. Scattering of ashes on the beach at sunset may be my way to stretch the boundaries as my mother always did in her way.

Yet as I get lost in the planning, the process of grief is not lost on me, which we all experience with the death of a loved one. Without a traditional funeral or memorial given the pandemic, this year-long journey with ashes has allowed me a deeply personal reckoning with her passing. Healing from loss is a very individual experience, each of us finding our own path. At the same time finding some way to join with others as our family did, helped to both soothe our sadness and celebrate the beauty of a life lived. Thankfully we can all begin to find that beyond Zoom as the inevitability of death continues.

The subject of death can often feel like a four-letter word in our society. Yet perhaps it is the combination of personal loss, my age, and the painful grip of the pandemic that makes it hard to turn away from or should we? I remember reading about something called “Death Cafes” a number of years ago. These cafes are non-profit groups that encourage individuals to meet for tea and cake, sweetening their discussion of death, bringing it out of the closet and into our living rooms. In the past 10 years more than 6,000 “Death Cafes” have been organized. They were first started in London in 2011 by Jon Underwood as an offshoot of Bernard Crettaz’s “Café Mortels.” As I share this, I am moved by the fact that without realizing it, I have been part of such a group for the last three years where we read and share wonderful discussions about death and dying and growing older.

Learning about these cafes a number of years ago from a distance matched my distance from the inevitable truth that none of us gets out alive. But there is nothing that brings that truth closer to home than having the honor to carry the weight and responsibility of scattering a parent’s ashes. I have learned that ashes are heavy; they do not blow in the wind or wash away with light rain but they do eventually disappear. Death is heavy to hold; yet it reminds us of our impermanence. And in that way we can have gratitude for a lighter and more joyous life.

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Opinion | Russia’s New Form of Organized Crime Is Menacing the World - The New York Times

Illustrations by Nicholas Konrad/the New York Times; Videos By Mediaproduction And Sayoesso Via Getty Images

The screen goes blank.

A message appears in crude, Google Translate English, advising that all your files have been encrypted — rendered unusable — and can be restored only if you pay a ransom.

After some back and forth, you pay out in Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency, most likely to a Russian-based gang. There’s no choice: It’s cheaper and far quicker to pay up than to rebuild a computer system from scratch. To avoid further trouble or embarrassment, many victims don’t even notify the police.

A few years ago, the ransom may have been a few hundred bucks. In early May, Colonial Pipeline shelled out $5 million to the DarkSide ransomware gang to get oil flowing through its pipes again. (Some was recovered by the Justice Department.) In June, the meat processor JBS paid $11 million to the Russian-based REvil (Ransomware Evil) gang. About a month ago REvil came back to score what may be the biggest attack yet, freezing the systems of about a thousand companies after hacking an IT service provider they all used. The ask this time was $70 million. The criminals behind ransomware have also evolved, expanding from lone sharks to a business in which tasks are farmed out to groups of criminals specializing in hacking, collecting ransom or marshaling armies of bots.

Ransomware attacks can cripple critical infrastructure like hospitals and schools and even core functions of major cities. Using methods as simple as spoof emails, hackers can take over entire computer systems and pilfer personal data and passwords and then demand a ransom to restore access.

In about a dozen years, ransomware has emerged as a major cyberproblem of our time, big enough for President Biden to put it at the top of his agenda with Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, when they met in June and for lawmakers in Congress to be working on several bills that would, among other things, require victims to report attacks to the government.

It is a war that needs to be fought, and won. While the extortion business is run by a relatively small network of criminals seeking windfall profits, their ability to seriously disrupt economies and to breach strategically critical enterprises or agencies also makes them a formidable potential threat to national security. The Colonial Pipeline attack created an almost instant shortage of fuel and spread panic in the southeastern United States.

Big strikes make the big news, but the main prey of the ransomware gangs is the small to medium enterprise or institution that is devastated by the disruption of its computers and the ransom payment. How many have been hit is anybody’s guess — unlike breaches of personal information, the law does not require most ransomware attacks to be reported (though that is another thing Congress may soon change).

The F.B.I. internet Crime Report for 2020 listed 2,474 attacks in the United States, with losses totaling more than $29.1 million. The reality is probably of a different magnitude. The German data-crunching firm Statista has estimated that there were 304 million attacks worldwide in 2020, a 62 percent increase over 2019. Most of them, Statista said, were in the professional sector — lawyers, accountants, consultants and the like.

Whatever the true scope, the problem will not be solved with patches, antivirus software or two-factor authentication, though security experts stress that every bit of protection helps. “We’re not going to defend ourselves out of this problem,” said Dmitri Alperovitch, the chairman of Silverado Policy Accelerator and a leading authority on ransomware. “We have too many vulnerabilities. Companies that are small, libraries, fire departments will never afford the required security technology and talent.”

The battle must be joined elsewhere, and the place to start is Russia. That, according to the experts, is where the majority of attacks originate. Three other countries — China, Iran and North Korea — are also serious players, and the obvious commonality is that all are autocracies whose security apparatuses doubtlessly know full well who the hackers are and could shut them down in a minute. So the presumption is that the criminals are protected, either through bribes — which, given their apparent profits, they can distribute lavishly — or by doing pro bono work for the government or both.

It’s clear that the ransomware gangs take care not to target the powers that shelter them. Security analysts found that REvil code was written so that the malware avoids any computer whose default language is Russian, Ukrainian, Belarusian, Tajik, Armenian, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Turkmen, Uzbek, Tatar, Romanian or Syriac.

Finding the criminals is not the problem. The U.S. government has the wherewithal to identify and arrest would-be cyberblackmailers on its own soil and to help allies find them on theirs. In fact, Washington has identified and indicted many Russian cybercriminals — the F.B.I., for example, has offered a reward of $3 million for information leading to the arrest of one Evgeniy Bogachev, a.k.a. “lucky12345,” a master hacker in southern Russia whose malware has led to financial losses of more than $100 million.

The key is to compel Mr. Putin to act against them. At his summit with him in June, Mr. Biden said he demanded that Russia take down the ransomware gangs it harbors and identified 16 critical sectors of the American economy on which attacks would provoke a response.

Yet two weeks later, REvil made the biggest strike ever, hacking into Kaseya, a firm that supplies management software for the I.T. industry, and attacking hundreds of its small-business customers. That led Mr. Biden to telephone Mr. Putin and to say afterward that “we expect them to act.” Asked by a reporter whether he would take down REvil’s servers if Mr. Putin did not, Mr. Biden simply said, “Yes.” Shortly after that, REvil abruptly disappeared from the dark web.

Tempting as it might be to believe that Mr. Biden persuaded the Russians to act or knocked the band’s servers out with American means, it is equally possible that REvil went dark on its own, intending, as happens so often in its shadowy world, to reappear later in other guises.

So long as the hackers focus on commercial blackmail abroad, Mr. Putin probably sees no reason to shut them down. They do not harm him or his friends, and they can be used by his spooks when necessary. Unlike the “official” hackers working for military intelligence who have drawn sanctions from Washington and Europe for meddling in elections or mucking around in government systems, Mr. Putin can deny any responsibility for what the criminal gangs do. “It’s just nonsense. It’s funny,” he said in June when asked about Russia’s role in ransomware attacks. “It’s absurd to accuse Russia of this.”

The Russians apparently also believe they can parlay their control over the ransomware gangs into negotiating leverage with the West. Sergei Rybakov, the deputy foreign minister who leads the Russian side in strategic stability talks launched at the Biden-Putin summit, indicated as much when he complained recently that the United States was focusing on ransomware separately from other security issues. Ransomware, he implied, was part of a bigger pile of bargaining chips.

That, said Mr. Alperovitch, suggests that Mr. Putin does not appreciate how seriously the new American president takes ransomware. For reasons still unclear, Donald Trump as president was prepared to give Mr. Putin carte blanche for any cybermischief. Mr. Biden, by contrast, sees himself as the champion of small business and the middle class, and it is there that ransomware hurts the most.

Writing in The Washington Post, Mr. Alperovitch and Matthew Rojansky, an expert on Russia who heads the Kennan Institute at the Wilson Center, argued that Mr. Biden should confront Mr. Putin with a clear message: Crack down or else. If the Russians do not, the authors wrote, the Biden administration “could hit Russia where it hurts by sanctioning its largest gas and oil companies, which are responsible for a significant portion of the Russian government’s revenue.”

Drawing red lines for Russia does not usually work. The message would best be delivered privately, so that Mr. Putin would not be challenged to publicly back down before the United States. It is possible that Mr. Biden has already delivered such a message. If so, he should be prepared to follow through.

The other critical factor in ransomware is cryptocurrency. By no coincidence, there were few ransomware attacks before Bitcoin came into being a dozen years ago. Now, cybercriminals can be paid off in a currency that’s hard to track or recover, though the U.S. government managed to do just that when it recuperated $2.3 million of the Colonial Pipeline stash.

Cryptocurrency is reportedly one of the issues addressed in legislation soon to be introduced by the Senate Homeland Security Committee. Congress is also being urged by federal law enforcement agencies to pass a law compelling companies in critical industry sectors hit by a cyberattack to inform the government, and a host of other anti-ransomware legislation is in the works.

Mounting a multifront attack against ransomware will take time and effort. Devising ways to control cryptocurrency is bound to be complex and fraught. Companies will be reluctant to damage their brand by acknowledging that they have been hacked or have paid ransom, and lawmakers have been traditionally wary of passing laws that impose burdens on businesses.

But letting Russian hackers continue to wreak havoc on America’s and the world’s digital infrastructure with impunity is an immediate and critical challenge. If this is not stopped soon, further escalation — and the growth of organized cybercrime syndicates in other dictatorships — is all but certain.

Mr. Putin must be made to understand that this is not about geopolitics or strategic relations but about a new and menacing form of organized crime. That is something every government should seek to crush. If he refuses, Mr. Putin should know that he will be regarded as an accomplice and be punished as such.

The Times is committed to publishing a diversity of letters to the editor. We’d like to hear what you think about this or any of our articles. Here are some tips. And here’s our email: letters@nytimes.com.

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The risk we face when populations are more important than people - CNN

But you would not guess that from recent headlines, with some experts proclaiming that we are on the verge of a dramatic baby bust linked to fears around Covid-19. Others fret that a baby boom is imminent, at least in some parts of the world, driving ever-escalating pressures on scarce resources.

The real cause for alarm, though, is not the prospect of a baby boom or baby bust. It is the risk that we treat "population" as more important than people. Many countries have learned the hard lesson that assigning an ideal size to a population is not the answer to a variety of concerns, from flailing economies to the climate crisis. Instead, it often leads to the erosion of human rights and choices, particularly where women are pressured to have children -- or prevented from doing so. Where population growth is slowing, that can mean, in the worst cases, new or expanded restrictions on abortion or contraception. Some places with rising birth rates have, in the darker chapters of history, experienced coercive family planning and involuntary sterilization.

There is no question that population is deeply intertwined with economics. Demographic shifts impact development progress. A country at a demographic stage with more people working and fewer young and old dependents may be able to better fund and sustain public services and pension systems. Having fewer workers can send all these benefits in the opposite direction. These are issues that rightly concern us all.

But what of assumptions that go along with these relationships? Managing populations to keep up the pace of progress rests on an implicit notion that women's bodies are in service to economic policy. If population trends move in an "unwelcome" direction, a tone of blame arises around women's choices, whether those entail having children or pursuing work or other goals. Such arguments miss the point that any individual woman has the right to make choices about her body. They also avoid grappling with complex issues that are a collective responsibility. How readily can women make real choices without decent work and income, for example? Or where sexual and reproductive health care is poor quality or nonexistent? Or if child care falls to them alone?

And then there are the gender norms, rooted in male entitlement, that burden women with unpaid household and care work, deny them opportunities and subject them to domestic abuse. Our United Nations Population Fund recent report found that nearly half of women in the 57 countries where data are available cannot even exercise autonomy over their own bodies, which means they cannot make basic decisions about their health, contraception and sex lives. With gender equality yet to be fully realized in any part of the world, these concerns know no borders. They are at play in poor and rich countries, in shrinking and growing populations.

The history of population policies is full of misfires and unintended consequences. For that reason, 179 nations agreed on the centrality of reproductive rights and choices for human and economic development at the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development. More than 25 years later, policymakers and pundits should know better than to propose the management of populations by telling women the choices they should make. The real conversation should be around how we can uphold everyone's right to make their own reproductive choices, with all evidence underscoring that this leads to happier and healthier societies.

This requires recognizing women's rights in all spheres of life. It would mean every woman has the information and services to make her own sexual and reproductive health choices. Such services would be essential to health care systems and not readily suspended, as happened in many places during the onset of Covid-19, when family planning was one of the most extensively disrupted health services globally. To fully support choices, it would mean accelerating the elimination of gender disparities across the board -- in income, ownership of assets, leadership and the law. It would mean easing the burdens of parenthood by increasing support for child care and parental leave.

Putting rights and choices first means thinking about people as more than an input churning through economies. Rather than ask women to produce a steady infusion of new workers to support economies, we should ask how and whether economies are serving women. Rather than looking at demographic changes as a domestic economic concern, countries could approach the issue multilaterally, by sharing innovations and best practices.

Countries experiencing a youth bulge, on the one hand, and aging, on the other, could collaborate to fill gaps on either side. Increased labor mobility, family friendly social programs, and greater investment in research and data collection to inform smarter policymaking are all responses that affirm human rights rather than undermine them.

We must also think about people as more than a threat to planetary resources. When it comes to climate change and environmental degradation, here too, a simple consideration of the sheer number of people is not the whole story. The billion people in Africa have the world's highest population growth rates but have contributed only a tiny share of total greenhouse gas emissions, even as they suffer some of the worst climate impacts.

Instead, the focus needs to be on expanding opportunities for women (and indeed all people) to plan their families as they see fit, pursue education and decent work, access affordable clean energy and produce and consume resources more sustainably.

Women have long been denied rights and choices. And yet for many of us, wherever choice emerges, we take it and make it our own. And we will keep doing so. No amount of handwringing should stop the momentum of choice.

We will have more harmonious societies, inclusive economies and a better balance with nature when people can fully realize their right to make informed decisions about their sexual and reproductive life, and enjoy every opportunity to do so, on terms that they alone define.

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Altus AFB 'Diversity and Inclusion' group targets education, discourse - Air Force Link

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ALTUS AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. (AFNS) --

Recruitment is the lifeblood of the United States military. It brings people from different origins and backgrounds together to be trained and assigned to military missions around the world. Similarly, many leaders through the military place great value in diversity and the dynamic elements it infuses into a unit.

The Diversity and Inclusion Working Group at Altus Air Force Base was established in March 2020. It was tasked with providing a foundation for understanding and long-term change for Airmen. Their vision is to lead safe, productive forums on disparities and biases that create lasting avenues of communication and education for all Air Force members. Ultimately, their goal is to raise awareness on issues that affect Airmen, and create a lasting forum for all Airmen that results in respectful discourse.

“The most recent ‘push’ of D&I isn’t a new concept,” said Capt. Mohamed Dharas, 97th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron Bioenvironmental Engineering Flight commander and Altus AFB D&I Working Group manager. “D&I is important to ensure our military is operating on all cylinders. A room of 100 Capt. Dharas’ wouldn’t work well because there would be too many like-minded people. In order for our military to sustain its dominance, we need to make sure that there is a diverse group of people at the table where big decisions are made.”

The group is also tasked with the planning of monthly special observances on base. One of the group’s active members, Airman 1st Class Amanda Edwards, 97th Logistics Readiness Squadron logistics planner, says that it is vital to understand the perspective of others, while in the armed forces.

“Diversity and inclusion, especially in the military, is important because it provides perspective through a new set of lenses,” Edwards added. “This is essential to have a healthy balance of voices. It gives others the opportunity to deepen the understanding of each other. The military is widely known for its diversity; we recruit individuals from every walk of life. It is only right that we encourage and provide a productive environment to tackle issues and ensure everybody gets the representation they deserve.”

Edwards goes on to explain that through communication and education of one another’s background and culture allows for a more harmonious work environment.

“Unfortunately, D&I seems to have a negative connotation in the workplace due to it being a ‘touchy subject.’ We desire to change that false narrative and educate those who wish to be involved,” Edwards explained. “There are great benefits from implementing D&I that include, but are not limited to: innovation, creativity, happier employees, increased productivity, understanding counterparts, and greater interpersonal relationships.”

The biggest pushes from their group are education and base events that instill inclusion. In order to do this, funding and participation is provided by different private organizations from the base and local community.

“We are working on strengthening our relationship with the community of Altus (AFB) to increase the bonds between the base and community,” Dharas said. “They were a huge reason why we were able to hold our Juneteenth celebration. We look forward to working with the community more to improve the quality of life for Altus (AFB) Airmen, but step one is education to foster a safe environment.”

Dharas and the D&I team discuss topics such as critical race theory, affirmative action, history of special observances and many more subjects that aim to build well-rounded Airmen. They regularly meet every second and fourth Thursday of the month at noon in the Altus AFB exchange multi-purpose room. Anyone with access to the installation is able to join the team to help build the foundation for understanding and long-term change for Airmen.

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Opinion | It's not just the Epic of Gilgamesh. Iraq's lost heritage imperils its future. - The Washington Post

Nada Shabout is regent professor of art history and coordinator of the Contemporary Arab and Muslim Cultural Studies Initiative at the University of North Texas.

This week, a 3,500-year-old clay tablet containing a portion of the “Epic of Gilgamesh” — one of the world’s oldest surviving pieces of literature — was forfeited by Hobby Lobby to the Justice Department. The tablet constitutes one of more than 17,000 artifacts and treasures that are said to be returning to Iraq soon. This is refreshing news for those of us who have documented and pursued Iraq’s lost heritage. Unfortunately, this rare incident should not obscure the fact that Iraq was, and continues to be, looted and stolen from with few, if any, consequences.

More than 18 years since the invasion of Iraq, the country is still in disarray — and much of its cultural patrimony is still missing. The initial loss of objects smuggled out during the conflict, exacerbated by the lack of concern from much of the world, is debilitating. There are generations of young Iraqis who are far removed from — and have no access to — their history, collective memories or national identities. With such loss, how will they shape their future?

Iraq, with its rich history spanning back to the earliest days of humanity, is often labeled the “cradle of civilization.” Its soil is loaded with layers of historical evidence in the form of archeological sites, many unexcavated. Yet their integrity has been under constant threat, damaged by military machinery under occupation and looters operating openly.

Since 2003, ancient works stolen from museums or archeological sites have surfaced and been traded in different parts of the world. Every once in a while, there is news of stolen works that have been apprehended, such as the 4,400-year-old stone statue of the Sumerian king Entemena of Lagash, which was recovered in 2006 and returned to Iraq in 2010.

The reality, however, is that most looted objects have not been found or returned. And Iraqis are not just deprived of ancient Mesopotamian heritage. Objects from Iraq’s glorious, but mostly overlooked, Islamic and modern periods have also disappeared.

This has implications for Iraq’s present: The 20th century, when the modern state of Iraq was established, witnessed a nation negotiated in part through its art. Iraqi artists of the 1950s, particularly members of the Ruwwad Group and the Baghdad Group for Modern Art, succeeded in forging a distinctly Iraqi iconography and helped to visualize a new national identity.

How can we ever quantify the loss of so many artifacts, recent and ancient? Along with objects, archives and records disappeared, making it impossible to gauge the precise amount and impact of loss. Some museums, such as the National Museum of Antiquity, kept better records. But in the case of the National Museum of Modern Art, the exact number of works of art — likely more than 7,000 — cannot be verified, beyond the works by the most famous Iraqi modern artists. This, too, is a loss: Visual records and archives provide access to various kinds of knowledge — about people, institutions, technology and the nation itself — anchoring cultural change and helping us present our identity and diversity in a rapidly changing world.

As it recovers from brutal years of despotic rule, lethal economic sanctions and several wars, Iraq needs to be able to understand and reassess its heritage and identity. Access to the past would provide Iraqis with crucial tools to know who they are and where they want to go. The loss of these objects and archives only further contributes to the loss of their collective and cultural memories, and erasure of their identities — a process that was intensified in 2003 and continues to this day. In practice, it deprives them of the ability to reflect as they are told how divided they are based on sectarian, ethnic or religious discords.

This issue is not just of the antiquities acquisition process, nor some other procedural oversight. This world has a long history of the colonial robbing of cultures in the name of civilization and religion. The legacy of depriving cultures of their histories is conjured every time a nation tries to repatriate stolen objects from one of the world’s famous museums. We might think such acts of plundering are unfathomable today, in our age of “decolonizing,” but the looting from so-called conflict zones such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria proves otherwise.

For Iraq, sadly, the cultural disaster that began in 2003 has been mostly forgotten. And after nearly two decades, I am left making the same pleas I made then, for attention and collective action. Today, small victories are celebrated, but the magnitude of loss seems to pass by with impunity — and it is the Iraqi people who are paying the price.

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The bread of life discourse - Manila Bulletin

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REFLECTIONS TODAY

JOHN 6:24-35

When the crowd saw that neither Jesus nor his disciples were there, they themselves got into boats and came to Capernaum looking for Jesus. And when they found him across the sea they said to him, “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus answered them and said, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled. Do not work for food that perishes but for the food that endures for eternal life, which the Son of Man will give you. For on him the Father, God, has set his seal.”

So they said to him, “What can we do to accomplish the works of God?” Jesus answered and said to them, “This is the work of God, that you believe in the one he sent.” So they said to him, “What sign can you do, that we may see and believe in you? What can you do? Our ancestors ate manna in the desert, as it is written: He gave them bread from heaven to eat.” So Jesus said to them,

“Amen, amen, I say to you, it was not Moses who gave the bread from heaven; my Father gives you the true bread from heaven. For the bread of God is that which comes down from heaven and gives life to the world.”

So they said to him, “Sir, give us this bread always.”

Jesus said to them, “I am the bread of life; whoever comes to me will never hunger, and whoever believes in me will never thirst.”

There is more to life than bread

In ancient Rome, when the people had enough of their rulers and were on uproar, ready for uprising, the emperor had a ready answer: bread and circus. When they had eaten and were entertained and thrilled (often by combat of gladiators), they would forget their higher aspirations for a better life or freedom.

People are looking for benefactors to look after them. In John’s Gospel, Jesus multiplies bread and fish out of genuine concern for the crowd, and not for anything else.

The people (Jews) obviously see in him a benefactor, a man of God, a prophet who will attend to their needs. They plan to carry him off to make him king. When Jesus withdraws, they do not give up; they follow him across Lake Tiberias to Capernaum.

When the Jews find Jesus, they engage him in an uneasy conversation: “Rabbi, when did you get here?”

Jesus senses this uneasiness and exposes the reason: “You are looking for me not because you saw signs but because you ate the loaves and were filled.” The people pretend to be interested in Jesus, but in truth, they come to him for selfish and materialistic motives. Jesus challenges them to look not for material but for spiritual satisfaction. He wants the people to perceive the miracle as a “sign,” a “seal” of God working to bring people closer to himself who gives bread “that endures for eternal life.”

The Jews sense that the miracle of the loaves is a possible sign from God who wants to reveal Jesus as the “One sent.” They perceive that the miracle can have connections with the Exodus miracle of manna. But they think that Jesus’ miracle of the loaves, from all considerations, cannot be compared with the manna that rained down from heaven (Ps 78:24).

Jesus explains that the gift of manna cannot be greater than the miracle of the bread and fish. Moses did not provide the manna. He only prayed for it from God who worked out the miracle.

But with Jesus something greater happens. Jesus says, “I am the bread of life.” “I am” is the traditional name of God (Ex 3:14). Hence, with Jesus, God does not only give the gift of bread as the manna, but God is giving himself. In Jesus, God is both the giver and the gift, and comes to us to be our bread, our life. Like bread, which we must eat daily to live, God desires to be with us in the everyday ordinariness of our lives.

SOURCE: “365 Days with the Lord 2021,” ST. PAULS, 7708 St. Paul Rd., SAV, Makati City (Phils.); Tel.: 632-895-9701; Fax 632-895-7328; E-mail: [email protected]; Website: http://www.stpauls.ph.

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Opinion: New Jersey Renames Its Rest Stops As A Nation Rethinks Monuments - NPR

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People head into the service building at the Cheesequake Rest Area in South Amboy, N.J. Julio Cortez/AP

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How do you honor historical figures?

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy announced this week the state will rename nine Garden State Parkway service areas after noted New Jerseyites: Judy Blume, Celia Cruz, Connie Chung, Larry Doby, James Gandolfini, Whitney Houston, Jon Bon Jovi, Toni Morrison, and, ladies and gentlemen, the Chairman of the Board, Frank Sinatra.

They join a few other Jerseyites already enshrined along the New Jersey Turnpike, including Alexander Hamilton, who was a rest stop in Secaucus before he was a Broadway musical.

These service areas, where motorists can refuel their cars with gasoline and themselves with a Nathan's hot dog and a Frappuccino and return to the road, will also include exhibits about their distinguished namesakes, with scholarly support from the New Jersey Hall of Fame. The governor says, "This is about putting New Jersey greatness on full display."

Of course it's irresistible to ask, "But what about Buzz Aldrin from Montclair?" He was the second man to step on the moon, and really, doesn't going to the moon rate getting your name on a New Jersey rest stop? It's farther than Parsippany.

Also notably absent: Bruce Springsteen. He reportedly declined the honor. The Boss doesn't stop and rest — baby, he was born to run.

The naming of the service areas comes at a moment when we're reconsidering who to commemorate and how, as statues of some onetime heroes are removed and stowed away.

"History is not set in stone," Gary Younge, a professor at the University of Manchester, told us. "Our views are not the same as they were 50 years ago, and will be different again in another 50 years."

He says even the most revered historical figures have human flaws, and are shaped by their times.

As Elizabeth Samet, author of Soldier's Heart: Reading Literature Through Peace and War at West Point, reminded us, "The unforgivable sin of one generation will be eclipsed by a new one ..."

Maybe a rest stop exhibit will be easier to change around than a cast-bronze equestrian statue.

But Samet points out that most people don't rush into rest stops in Bloomfield or South Amboy to learn history, but just get to the restroom and maybe buy a tube of beef jerky.

"I'm not sure those are the moments when we are the most attentive students," she tactfully observes.

This distinguished scholar also asks, "Would you be over the moon about a 'Scott Simon Service Area'?"

Would I?!

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Low COVID Vaccination Rates In Arkansas Cause Anxiety — And Anger : Shots - Health News - NPR

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Health care worker Levinna Myers decided to get her first shot during a town hall meeting about COVID-19 vaccines on July 28 in Heber Springs, Ark. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

This weekend, 80,000 doses of COVID-19 vaccines will expire in Arkansas. There simply weren't enough people in the state willing to get their jab — even though cases and deaths from the delta variant are rising there at an alarming rate.

"Prior to the vaccine, I was heartsick because people died and we couldn't help them. Now, they don't get the vaccine and we can't help them," says Tammy Kellebrew, a pharmacist who travels to rural hospitals across the state. "And so after every death, I go back to the pharmacy and I cry, and then I go back to work."

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Town hall meetings are taking place throughout Arkansas to answer questions about COVID vaccines — and encourage people to sign up for one. Attendees (left) ask questions in one such meeting in Heber Springs, Ark. In attendance is Dr. Jose Romero (right), health secretary for Arkansas. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

"I'm angry, upset, disappointed," says Dr. Jose Romero, health secretary for Arkansas. "As a nation, we've worked so hard to get this vaccine out. And not to have them accepted by the public is difficult to understand and difficult to accept."

Arkansas has one of the country's the lowest vaccination rates

Arkansas, a largely white, rural state powered by farming, factories and rugged individualism, has one of the country's lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates. Just 36% of the state's 3 million people are fully vaccinated.

In May, Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson set a modest goal of administering at least one shot to 50% of the total population by the end of July. The state has made progress — but is falling short by more than 100,000 people.

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Heber Springs, Ark., a lakeside retirement and resort community in the Ozark foothills, hosted a town hall in late July about the COVID-19 vaccine. Just 36% of the state's 3 million people are fully vaccinated. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

The result of the vaccine resistance, along with the rise of the super-spreadable delta variant, is more COVID cases and more preventable deaths. Hospitals in Arkansas are again reaching critical capacity, and staff are exhausted.

Kellebrew wore a mask with Dr. Anthony Fauci's face on it to a town hall meeting held by Hutchinson in her hometown of Dumas, a small, majority-Black city in the southeast delta region on July 27. It was one in a series of community COVID-19 conversations the governor has been holding as he travels the state pleading with Arkansans to get the shot.

"I'm a Trump supporter and I am a Republican, and I got both vaccine [doses]," Hutchinson stated at another meeting on July 28 in Heber Springs, a lakeside retirement and resort community in the Ozark foothills. "It's not about politics. It's about my health."

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Kenny Nations, manager of the movie theater, changes the sign on the marquee; he is fully vaccinated and has tried to encourage co-workers to follow suit. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

The staff at the Gem Theater in downtown Heber Springs, Ark., have different attitudes about vaccination. Rena Kelley (left) was vaccinated in April; she said she wanted to protect her kids and her elderly parents. Jewell Brackett has been hesitant but says he might still get the vaccine. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

Rumors include the vaccine making you magnetic

Reasons for vaccine resistance are diverse and many, says Col. Robert Ator, who heads the state's vaccine distribution program. "What started out as being a logistics and distribution kind of an exercise has turned out to be psychology," he says. "Our targeting strategy has been to work down on the micro level, to work with individual communities to understand what is the barrier in that area and let us address those."

For starters, there's a tide of misinformation along with distrust of the government. Debbie Reynolds attended the town hall in Heber Springs. She has not been vaccinated, and the meeting did not sway her. "They treat you like you're just too dumb to make good decisions for your family," she says. "How many people do you see laying around on the sidewalks and in their yards dying of COVID? Nowhere."

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The Dumas Family Pharmacy promotes COVID-19 vaccines in Dumas, Ark., a small city in the southeast delta region of the state. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

The battle to get more people vaccinated often comes down to the efforts of individuals like Dollie Wilson, a 71-year-old missionary who attended the meeting in Dumas. She plans to go door to door to persuade people to get vaccines and recently canvassed at a local Walmart. "I got cursed out by one person, but I got five people to sign up for the vaccine. It was well worth it," she says.

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Pharmacist Cheryl Stimson checks in Michael Haynes, who came to the Dumas Family Pharmacy for his first vaccine shot on July 27. Stimson has given more than 5,800 vaccines since the start of the pandemic. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

Cheryl Stimson, owner of the Dumas Family Pharmacy, has personally administered more than 5,800 shots in the community at churches, schools and local events. She has been trying to get every worker vaccinated at the city's various factories.

"I've been to all but one, and I'm trying to talk them into letting me come in," she says. "The plant manager has a lot of people who are leery of taking the vaccine for all various reasons. They're afraid it'll make them sick. They're afraid that they're conforming — that somebody's making them do something they don't want to do."

Kellebrew, who administers shots at vaccination clinics across the state, says she's trying hard to calm people's specific fears.

Once, at a grocery store, a woman told her she was nervous about getting the vaccine because of a rumor on the internet that it can make you magnetic. "I said, 'Do you really believe that?' And she said, 'Well, I'm not sure.' " Kellebrew recounts. So she found a magnet in the store and demonstrated on a person to whom she had just given the shot. "The magnet kept falling off her arm, and I said, 'Is that what you needed to see?' And she said, 'Yes. I think I'll get a shot.' " Kellebrew now travels with a magnet.

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Violet Mallett waits in the Dumas Family Pharmacy after receiving the vaccine. She had been worried about side effects and was relieved to feel fine after getting the shot. "I'm OK. I'm not nervous anymore. I'm ready" for my second shot, she said. Liz Sanders for NPR

Liz Sanders for NPR

There are signs of change

Demand for vaccines has actually improved greatly in the past three weeks, according to Ator. He says the governor's town hall meetings are encouraging people — and the delta variant is scaring them. But with the rapid spread of the delta variant, now representing almost 90% of the sequenced virus cases in Arkansas, he worries it may not be enough. "My biggest concern is we're going to be a month too late, and we're going to have a lot of people suffer because of it."

State officials say that if they can find a way to punch through the hesitancy they're facing now, they could end up as a model for other slow-to-vaccinate parts of the nation as the delta variant spreads.

"There are a lot of places that may have higher vaccination rates than what we have in Arkansas, but they're certainly not high enough to suppress the spread of the delta variant," says Dr. Jennifer Dillaha, the state epidemiologist for Arkansas. "It may be just a matter of time before they get hit as well."

The audio story was produced by Barry Gordemer.

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When ‘Terrorists’ Aren’t Terrorists: The Danger of Twisting Words to Suit Our Politics - National Review

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Metropolitan Police Department Officer Daniel Hodges testifies during the opening hearing of the U.S. House (Select) Committee investigating the January 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., July 27, 2021. (Jim Bourg/Pool/Reuters)

The Capitol-riot probe offers only the latest instance — civil discourse is dying because we’ve given up seeking objective truth.

NRPLUS MEMBER ARTICLE T here are some truths we grasp innately. Others are just truths about words — things that are true because of the way we define them. Let nature take its course, and a pack of dogs will sort itself into the dominant and submissive roles. But a private is not the lowest-ranking soldier by nature. He is subordinate by definition — we’ve defined private as the lowest rank.

This distinction is common in the law. In fact, in the criminal law, the distinction touches on the nature of evil itself. We draw a categorical line between malum in se and malum prohibitum, …

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Opinion | Mother Nature is ticked off. Can you blame her? - The Washington Post

Mother Nature has had it with her brood. If you can’t see that, you haven’t been paying attention.

Earth provides nutrition and sustenance. She coddles us and protects us. And what have we done in return? We treat her the way we too often treat our mothers. We ignore her advice. We place our needs above hers. We imagine she can magically make any problem go away — perhaps because we take for granted the toil of our real mothers who dusted us off when we faltered and stretched a pound of meatloaf to feed a family of six.

And now, as we can plainly see, we have underestimated her wrath.

Fires. Floods. Mudslides. Rivers and reservoirs drying up. Record heat. Rising shorelines. Glacial melting. The Earth is in peril, and many are finally realizing they can no longer think of Earth as the open armed goddess dispensing blessings and bounty to us — especially if we take no steps to curb the activities and habits that have sent carbon dioxide emissions soaring.

The defining struggle of our time, and our future, will be the tension between Mother Nature and human nature. So, more of us need to think differently about who and what we are dealing with here.

That seems to have finally begun. In a season of catastrophic, deadly and too-common extreme weather events, there are signs that even people who were hesitant to embrace the science behind climate change are waking up to the threat. The Pew Research Center found that more than 60 percent of Americans view global warming as a major threat — the highest share going back to 2009 — and 65 percent want the government to do more to reduce the effects of climate change. Six in 10 Trump voters support regulating, or even possibly taxing the pollution that causes climate change.

These are significant shifts, but they are not nearly enough of a course correction to reverse the damage we have already done. Government can’t do this alone. Individuals are going to have to make fundamental changes.

Let’s start with our ideas about who’s really in charge of our fate. The idea of adopting a maternal symbol to represent the Earth may have been an early effort to moderate individual behavior. Don’t we all want to avoid disappointing our mamas? The symbol of Mother Nature in the Western world has roots in Greek and Incan mythology. It’s a shame that, over time, she lost some of her edge.

In Andean culture, the goddess known as Pachamama was both doting and demanding. She protected her subjects, but according to lore, also insisted that they care for the home she provided. In essence, she demanded respect. Western Europeans and then Americans adopted a more passive figure, rendered as a benevolent sprite with contented woodland creatures frolicking around her dainty feet.

If artists were asked to imagine Mother Nature in this season of unbridled water and heat, they would be more likely to sketch a character with a palm to her forehead or her hands on her hips. I see a woman scorned — a mother who doesn‘t care that she’s yelling loud enough for the whole neighborhood to hear because her selfish and self-centered charges left the freezer open, ignored recycling rules and dared to play with matches in the middle of a drought. But however old fashioned our notions, and accounting for the sensitivity around gender norms, the irony is that women in general and mothers in particular are uniquely positioned to lead the on-the-ground battle to deal with the growing climate crisis.

No one is letting men of the hook, but if you check the lists that tick through the 10 to 12 things that we as individuals can do immediately to reduce our carbon footprint and conserve resources, most are actions most often influenced or controlled by women: Eat less meat, buy more efficient appliances, limit food waste, drive electric or hybrid cars, eliminate bottled water, lower thermostats (in winter), try composting and use long-lasting lightbulbs. What people buy and what people do represent the first line of defense, and in many cases those decisions are made by or strongly influenced by women, says Diane MacEachern, author of “Big Green Purse: Using Your Spending Power to Create a Cleaner, Greener World.” “Women have this incredible purchasing power because women spend over 80 percent of every consumer dollar in the marketplace.”

So along with taking the steps we’ve resisted, let’s retire our singular caricature of Mother Nature and let her toss away her crown of wildflowers and eucalyptus. Those images seem pulled from a fairy tale in the first place. Anyone who has spent a day camping, climbing, weeding, hiking, gardening or rowing would scoff at the idea of flowing robes and satin ribbons in the great outdoors.

In that battle between Mother Nature and human nature, the decisions made by women, girls and yes, actual mothers may ultimately save our imperiled planet. That’s something I’m certain she would applaud.

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Opinion: Equity-based, social solutions are needed for the unsheltered - Juneau Empire

By Dana Dardis in partnership with Alaska Poor Peoples Campaign

Alaskans are known for their fierce independence and, in times of hardship, for giving a helping hand to those in need. I’ve been fortunate to witness and befriend some of the finest Alaskans—helping those in troubled times. When we experienced a 7.1 earthquake in November 2018, Alaskans shined and showed what coming together was all about.

We are now experiencing heart-wrenching houselessness across our nation, including cities across Alaska. Coming together as a diverse community to find equity-based, social solutions is needed more than ever. Anchorage, and the rest of our nation is experiencing a humanitarian crisis. If we do not find a way to rise to the occasion and address houselessness with compassion and with focus at its core causes, houselessness will worsen exponentially with COVID and climate change, Anchorage a climate-resistant city.

Alaska has many unique characteristics that separate us from the Lower 48. Even with our geographically isolated location, we share socioeconomic and sociopolitical challenges as one nation.

Houselessness is projected to continue to increase by 2.2% across the nation. When it is reported that a staggering 580,466 Americans experience houselessness on any given night, and when over 437,278 evictions have been filed during a pandemic in six states, we know houselessness is systemic. Its causes rooted in economic and political policy. In a June 2020 ADN article, it was estimated that 1,100 people were officially unhoused while approximately 7,900 sought some form of assistance due to houselessness.

Given the research and the rhetoric from our leadership about housing first priorities, why do their actions continue to contradict and cause further harm? Let’s be frank, city officials must go to the source and not the other way around. Access to institutions is a barrier for many people, especially for people who are unhoused. Let me be clear, the top down approach isn’t solving houselessness nor are the policies and mandates that criminalize houselessness.

If there is to be a sincere effort to solve housing for those who are unhoused, then voices of individuals experiencing houselessness must be given priority in the process, a collaborative effort that doesn’t compound trauma already experienced by these individuals in dire circumstances. It is imperative that leadership create a “we can do this together,” neighborhood-by-neighborhood approach that is diverse, human centered and housing first.

Tens of Millions of tax dollars are spent every year. Millions on relentless meetings, studies, expensive brochures and presentation amounting to outcomes where people are still sleeping on the streets and in the woods. Exactly where are the millions going?

Navigation centers are temporary human warehouses. They are not stable homes in areas with access to programs, facilities, and transportation. The idea of a 450 mega temporary shelter seems both a waste of money when we have the Sullivan Arena, that is centrally located, and contradictory to a municipality whose direction is “Home for Good.”

To uproot and disrupt the lives of hundreds of people from Sullivan Arena during a pandemic and when there are no permanent solutions seem absurd.

People need stable and permanent homes. In Anchorage, we have a few examples of individual entrepreneurs both for profit and nonprofit who are providing housing and support. The city should talk to these entrepreneurs who already have a pulse for what works, and make them part of the solution.

Houselessness affects families from ALL walks of life. It includes individuals who have experienced loss: divorce, death, unemployment, eviction; individuals who have experienced tragedy, domestic abuse, trauma (including historical), incarceration, and dept; individuals with mental health issues and addiction, individuals who lack reliable transportation, access to affordable housing, and low wage earners and seasonal workers.

Blaming houselessness on the individual is ignorant, cruel and perpetuates dangerous and hurtful stigmas and fears. Both data and research point to the fact that houselessness is a symptom of grotesque unbridled capitalism that particularly impact marginalized communities? It’s time we acknowledge this truth and work together to solve it permanently.

Associate Supreme Court Justice, Louise Brandeis said, “We can either have democracy in this country or we can have great wealth concentrated in the hands of a few, but we can’t have both.

• Dana Dardis is a writer, poet, artist and prior B&B owner. She holds a B.A and M.Ed. Dardis is currently enrolled in a substance use disorder professional counseling program. She lives between both Alaska and Washington.Alaska Poor Peoples Campaign is a nonprofit organization that challenge systemic racism, poverty, and the war economy, ecological devastation and the nation’s distorted morality of religious nationalism.Columns, My Turns and Letters to the Editor represent the view of the author, not the view of the Juneau Empire. Have something to say? Here’s how to submit a My Turn or letter.

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