Free Republic

The church in Bethlehem had survived more than 1,000 years, through wars and conquests, but its future now seemed in jeopardy. Spray-painted all over its ancient stone walls were the Arabic letters for Hamas. The year was 1994 and the city was about to pass from Israeli to Palestinian control. I was meeting with the church's clergy as an Israeli government adviser on inter-religious affairs. They were despondent but too frightened to file a complaint. The same Hamas thugs who had desecrated their sanctuary were liable to take their lives.

It's not easy living in an Arab state. Egyptians stay away from government hospitals; illiteracy among women in some countries can top 50 percent A new United Nations report presents a bleak and sometimes scary picture of a citizen's life in the Arab countries. One out of every five people in the region lives on less than $2 a day; the illiteracy rates are very high; and, for the most part, public health services cannot be relied on at all.

BURBANK – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said yesterday he could not say how the state would respond if San Diego's troubled pension system forces California's second-largest city into bankruptcy, but suggested it would force his ill-fated move to overhaul public pension systems back on the public agenda. "Our state has billions and billions of dollars of unfunded pensions and liabilities and it is going to be very tough on the state when all of this comes out," the governor said yesterday. San Diego mayoral candidates Donna Frye and Jerry Sanders have suggested they would seek to put the city into bankruptcy...

BATON ROUGE, United States (AFP) - Civil Rights leader Jesse Jackson fired off a fierce attack on President George W. Bush over Hurricane Katrina and claimed black people were being locked out of top relief roles. Jackson raised the sensitive issue of race, simmering below the surface in New Orleans, even before the hurricane tragedy, pointing out that many of those trapped in the city by the storm were poor and black. "There is a historical indifference to the pain of poor people, and black people ... we seem to adjust more easily to black pain." Jackson spoke after leading...

Clinton Tells of Roma's Plight Sen. Hillary Clinton Addresses Throngs of Students at Low Library By Tanveer Ali Spectator Staff Writer November 09, 2004 While America speculated about her possible 2008 presidential bid, Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), spoke to a packed Low Library crowd yesterday, shedding light on the discrimination and conditions that the ethnic Roma, or Gypsies, endure in present-day Europe. Clinton's speech was the keynote address in the Plight of the Roma Conference held in Low Library, which also included three panel discussions regarding the history of the issue and future solutions. The conference was the brainchild...

THOSE NOW GONE ---- by Roger W Hancock Fallen Servicemen, for country fought; liberty, freedom, the primary reason. They gave themselves, that we be free. Fathers, mothers, sisters, and brothers; our dearly departed, life for country given. Families broken, for liberty. Veterans who served, and lived to tell; the horrors, and risks, now sleep in peace. Served their country, for our security. Unknown Soldier, MIA, remembrance our way, to honor you as well, victims of a warriors hell. Served, now lost that, our lives be free. Sleep now Sleep tight rest now, duty done, price paid in life or death....

Veteran’s Day   by Roger W Hancock   We honor you, who fought for us, for country’s sake of freedom’s plight. You kept the greatest country great, by sacrifice of you who served.   Honor to military, soldiers served. There seems no risk in peace to serve. When war breaks the silent peace, no peace when security cease.   Sacrifice of civilian life, careers succumb to enlist, or draft. Families wait in fear, in prayer, for loved ones return alive, not dead.   Returned Heroes and those deceased, we honor, thank, though insufficient. Parades, programs, our pride convey, We honor...