Faith And The City e.Letter

Jan. 12, 2006
Volume 5, Issue 1

Greetings! Faith And The City offers the following information for your review. Use the associated links to learn more about each topic. For information on a wider range of public issues, visit our home page at http://www.faithandthecity.org.

Bill would channel schools' spending: 'Classroom' portion must be at least 65%
By Bridget Gutierrez
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 9, 2006
Gov. Sonny Perdue is pushing for a law requiring schools to spend at least 65 percent of their federal, state and local funding "in the classroom."
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Defending science by defining it
Opinion by David Brown and Rick Weiss
Washington Post
Dec. 21, 2005
The opinion written by Judge John E. Jones III in the Dover evolution trial is a two-in-one document that offers both philosophical and practical arguments against "intelligent design" likely to be useful to far more than a school board in a small Pennsylvania town.
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Do new HOPE rules discourage excellence?
By Mary MacDonald
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 01/03/06
Thousands of Georgia high school students could soon learn that it may not pay to take a harder class.
Beginning with the Class of 2007, extra points tacked onto grades in honors classes won't be counted for the purpose of HOPE scholarships.
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Florida school vouchers struck down
Public Agenda Alert
Jan. 5. 2006
The Florida Supreme Court struck down the state's school voucher program today, the first statewide program in the nation. The court found the program violated the state constitution's clause requiring free public schools.
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The rich owe all of us, just as we owe them
Opinion by Harris Green
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 4, 2006
The Bush administration rhapsodizes about the economic paradise awaiting us through tax reform. In addition, we are told, it is only fair that taxpayers keep more of "their money." The administration's loyal supporters also berate the poor for having an "entitlement mentality." In other words, the rich should get more and the poor should get less.
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States take lead in push to raise
minimum wages
By John M. Broder
New York Times
Jan. 2, 2006
Despite Congressional refusal for almost a decade to raise the federal minimum wage, nearly half of the civilian labor force lives in states where the pay is higher than the rate set by the federal government.
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Journalism as activism: Nicholas D. Kristof and the genocide in Darfur
Interview by Or N. Rose
Tikkun
October 2005
Historically, Americans have done very little about genocide, so Darfur fits into a larger pattern of inaction. In fact, one could argue that we’ve responded better to Darfur than we did to Rwanda. Part of the issue may be racism: the fact that it is black Africans being murdered doesn’t help the situation. But more so than racism, I think there is a widespread feeling among policy makers and ordinary Americans that Africa is a mess.
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Bad blood: Diabetes and its awful toll quietly emerge as a crisis
By N. R. Kleinfield
New York Times
Jan. 9, 2006
Nearly 21 million Americans are believed to be diabetic, according to the Centers for Disease Control, and 41 million more are prediabetic; their blood sugar is high, and could reach the diabetic level if they do not alter their living habits.
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A hospital plan for pandemics: Don't close Walter Reed and other 'obsolete' facilities
Opinion by Phillip Longman
Washington Post
Nov. 6, 2005
Got your Tamiflu yet? How about a home respirator and a live-in nurse? If expert predictions of a coming flu pandemic prove right, there's little chance you'll be able to find a hospital bed in which to recover.
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State can't pass law, deny care to noncitizens
Opinion by Hogai Nassery
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 9, 2006
We are not a nation that advocates discrimination based on ethnicity, social status or nation of origin. This doesn't mean we do not engage in it, but we certainly have not codified such prejudices. Do we want legislation that would, in effect, make us deny care to people in need?
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'Americans trust traditional news
sources most': Survey
Excerpted from Ethics Newsline
A publication of the Institute for Global Ethics
From the Jan. 02, 2006, issue
The national survey, titled 'Executive, Congressional and Consumer Attitudes Toward Media, Marketing and the Public Relations Profession,' compares attitudes and opinions about media, marketing and public relations among American adult consumers, Fortune 1000 executives, and congressional staffers.
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America needs leaders to cross gulf of neglect
Opinion by James Pinkerton
Newsday
Sept. 6, 2005
For $3.8 trillion, we should get more than this. That's the combined expenditure of the federal, state and local governments in 2005, nearly a third of the national economy. And yet the results in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast speak for themselves: Warnings went unheeded, levees were neglected, cops and rescuers were short-shrifted. At the root of problem is a deep failure in the vision of both left and right as to how government should work.
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Boycott of Aruba a lost cause
Opinion by Bob Barr
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 4, 2006
Boycotts are, more than anything else, generally expressions of frustration by U.S. presidents. They are more admissions that our ability to effect real or rapid changes in a particular area or country is far less than what we'd planned. Rarely, if ever, do they accomplish their publicly stated goal.
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God helps those who help others
Opinion by Cynthia Tucker
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec. 25, 2005
Let's talk about those among us who cannot afford basic medical care or decent housing. Let's consider those who, despite working 40 hours or more a week, still can't afford the prescription drugs they need. Let's talk about those who join the Army just to get dental care for their children.
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Honoring many paths: religious inclusivity
By John Blake
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Dec. 17, 2005
How can a Hindu, for example, accept a Christian who says Mahatma Gandhi was consigned to hell because he didn't accept Jesus as his savior? How can a Muslim accept non-Muslims, who are considered infidels? How can a Jew even talk about God with Buddhists when the Buddha didn't believe in a personal God?
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Jews say 'feh' to Darwin
By Mariah Blake,
Miami New Times
Jan. 3, 2006
"It is our task to inform the world [about intelligent design]," he implored. This may seem an unlikely message from a prominent Jewish biologist. After all, intelligent design theory -- which holds that life is too complex to be a fluke of evolution -- has been crafted primarily by evangelical Christians and spurned by most scientists.
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Scientists find a DNA change that
accounts for white skin
By Rick Weiss
Washington Post
Dec. 16, 2005
Scientists said yesterday that they have discovered a tiny genetic mutation that largely explains the first appearance of white skin in humans tens of thousands of years ago, a finding that helps solve one of biology's most enduring mysteries and illuminates one of humanity's greatest sources of strife.
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South Macon lessons will last a lifetime
Opinion by Jim Wooten
Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Jan. 3, 2006
South Macon was the wrong side of the tracks, Macon's less affluent side. It was Macon's sprawl, the side of town inhabited by families who a generation earlier had tilled the increasingly uncompetitive small farms throughout Middle Georgia. Their city lives were defined by defense, politics and patriotism.
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Their eyes were reading smut
Opinion by Nick Chiles
Atlanta Journal Constitution
Jan. 4, 2006
As a black author, I had certainly become familiar with the sexualization and degradation of black fiction. Over the last several years, I had watched the shelves of black bookstores around the country and the tables of street vendors… become overrun with novels that seemed to appeal exclusively to our most prurient natures – as if these nasty books were pairing off back in the stockrooms like little paperback rabbits and churning out even more graphic offspring that make Ralph Ellison books cringe into a dusty corner.
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Counterpoint: We’re proud of our Muslim face
Opinion by Mahdi Bray
Muslim American Society
Dec. 19, 2005
In the final analysis, the average American is not concerned with the intricacies of classical Islamic history, fatwas and Islamic polemics. Most Americans want to know what we can do to protect ourselves against religious extremism and the violence and hate that accompany it.
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Events

Guidelines for Posting Events

Faith And The City posts brief event notices that must include a website address for additional information. Events should be concerned with public issues and/or civic dialogue.

Jan. 12: American Jewish Committee / Atlanta: Latino-Jewish leadership discussion
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Jan. 15: American Jewish Committee / Atlanta: Black-Jewish service project in honor of MLK Day
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Jan. 22: American Jewish Committee / Munich: Discussion of Steven Spielberg's film
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Jan 23-29: American Jewish Committee / Atlanta: Atlanta Jewish Film Festival
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Jan. 27: United Nations Holocaust Remembrance Day: From Auschwitz to Darfur, have we learned?
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Jan. 31: American Jewish Committee / Atlanta: Indian-Jewish dialogue and the Indian Professionals Network (IPN)
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Feb. 1: Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta: Political issues under the Dome at Georgia State Capitol
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Feb 9: Presbytery of Greater Atlanta: Presbyterian Rally Day
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April 5: Faith Alliance of Metro Atlanta: The gap between being a witness to your faith and proselytizing
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