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Wednesday, November 24
DFIA Gathering Honors Kennedy’s Legacy
by
Linda Thieman
on Wed 24 Nov 2004 02:39 PM CST
 DFIA Gathering Honors Kennedy’s Legacy
By Linda Cook , Quad City Times
Thanks to Molly Regan, DFIA Makes the QC Times!
“My call
is to the young of heart, regardless of age,” the candidate said Sunday
afternoon. The young man at the podium referred to a new age of
technology, and “new breakthroughs in weapons of destruction.”
The
politician was John Fitzgerald Kennedy, and the speeches, which were on
videotape, were viewed and discussed by a dozen adults and three
children Sunday afternoon when Democracy for Iowa held a tribute to
JFK. Democracy for Iowa, inspired by the presidential campaign of
Howard Dean, is a political action committee dedicated to supporting
fiscally responsible, socially progressive candidates at all levels of
government.
Discussions,
led by Molly Regan, of Princeton, Iowa, centered on Kennedy’s tenure as
president and his role in history. The event was at the United Steel
Workers of America Local 105 hall in Bettendorf.
While
the event was scheduled near the 41st anniversary of Kennedy’s
assassination, which [was Monday], the thrust of the program was not his
death, but his legacy.
(Click here to read the complete article.)
Howard Dean: Global Suffering Demands Global Response
by
Trish Nelson
on Wed 24 Nov 2004 06:32 AM CST
 Howard Dean: Global Suffering Demands Global Response
SitNews.us
NOV 23, 2004
The Third World War
By Gov. Howard Dean, M.D.
The war in Afghanistan
was a victory for international morality, not only for taking away a
haven for terrorists, but also for ending the brutal suppression of the
rights of women that the Taliban had imposed.
Yet
before we congratulate ourselves too much, consider the tens of
thousands of women and men who have died as a result of a misguided
U.S. policy (the "gag rule") that denies family planning funds to any
organization that, in countries where abortion is legal,
provides abortion-related information or services (using private
funds), along with other reproductive health services. In some
countries, a third of the family planning clinics have closed as a
result of the withdrawal of U.S. funds.
Some
special interest groups are attempting to bring about a total ban on
U.S. funding for family planning services even by organizations
that abide by the gag rule by pumping out phony statistics and
misleading press releases implying that world population growth has
nearly stopped and is about to go into decline. Nothing could be
further from the truth. Net growth has slowed slightly, but the world's
population is still growing by 76 million per year - the equivalent of
adding a new U.S. population every four years.
The human suffering caused by these misguided policies and inadequate funding is staggering:
• 600,000 women and girls die worldwide every year from pregnancy and childbirth.
• 140,000 women bleed to death each year during childbirth.
•
75,000 women die each year trying to end their pregnancies. The
U.N. estimates that worldwide, 50,000 women and girls try to induce
abortions on themselves each day (18.3 million per year). Many of those
who survive face life-long, disabling pain.
•
Approximately 100,000 women die each year from infection, and
another 40,000 women die from the agony of prolonged labor. And those
are only the fatalities. UNICEF's statistics show that for every woman
who dies, 30 survive with gruesome injuries and disabilities. That's
more than 17 million women per year.
Add to
that the exhausting burden of repeated pregnancies and births, and you
have a global picture of suffering that demands global response.
(click here to read the entire story)
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