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Starting as a conservative priest, Oscar Romero turned into an active advocate of the human rights in Central America. This film reports his life and his suspicious murder in1980.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero: "I would like to make a special appeal to army men; and in particular to the bases of the National Guard, the police, and the garrisons. They are brothers from our own people. They are killing their own peasant brothers. And before an order to kill, given by a man, the law of God that says "You shall not kill" must prevail; No soldier is forced to obey an order against the law of God. No one has to follow an immoral law. (Applause)"
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] People (chanting slogans):
"- Long live!
- Long live the Church of Central America!
- Long live!
- Long live the Church of the American Continent!
- Long live!
- Long live the Universal Church!
- Long live!
- This is a feeling within the Church. Long live Romero!
- Long live!
- Very well, thank you for being here. And the delegations keep on coming!
- I would like to introduce you. We have also seen...
- They come from Peru. Let's give them a round of applause. Peru!
- You come from a land of martyrs; we salute you with rousing applause
-The same decree, in which the Pope authorized the beatification of Monsignor Romero on February 3rd, also included the three martyrs of my diocese. Three martyr missionaries. (APPLAUSE)"
VOX POP [Spanish] Local People, Protesters: "- We came from Honduras at five in the morning. We departed from our seminary, a convoy of three buses.
- We come from the city of Guatemala. We are part of this great celebration, which we could say is worldwide, because he (Romero) is a great martyr for all Catholics. So we are very happy.
- It's an ecclesial event. We are children of the Church. He is a martyr of our place, of our zone, Central America. And for us he has been a testimony of a prophetic voice in the midst of our society, so marginalized and so discriminated."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Bishop: "On May 23rd of this year, Archbishop Oscar Adolfo Romero will be beatified, as a martyr of the Universal Church."
Narration: From Saturday May 23rd, Salvadorian Monsignor Oscar Romero is the first martyr Bishop of America.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Salvador Sanchez Ceren, President of El Salvador: "This beatification also becomes a miracle of the Savior. Why? Because this allows us, following his doctrine, his thinking, to try to unite our country, and face the new challenges we have."
Narration: Five cardinals, two hundred and twenty bishops, twelve hundred priests and more than three hundred thousand followers gathered in El Mundo square in El Salvador to witness the long awaited beatification. This act seemed to put an end to a vigil that had begun no less than thirty-five years ago.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Priest: "May the venerable servant of God, Óscar Arnulfo Romero Galdámez, Bishop and martyr, pastor according to the heart of Christ, evangelizer and father of the poor, be from now on be called Blessed."
VOX POP [Spanish] Local Citizens: "-I did not live the time of the war, but it was a moment that really hit them, and it is a special moment for the Salvadorian people, especially for me.
- We are proud to be here. Thank God we are here for the beatification of Monsignor Romero, after thirty-five years, right? Although I did not ever meet him I do believe that he was a very good person, and therefore deserves this beatification."
Narration: Monsignor Romero was appointed Bishop of El Salvador in 1977, dubbed a communist and victim of military persecution, the image of Romero continues to generate controversy and mixed opinions.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuellar, Lawyer: "Fortunately, today I feel the immense joy of reaching this point in life and really enjoying the moment of Archbishop Romero's beatification, not because I am interested in the Institutional Church, but because this is a time of rectification, reparation and restoration of the figure and of the history of Archbishop Romero, who was considered a Saint by these people right after his death. But in his own Church there were tribulations, mistakes, recriminations, about what Romero did, after he died, during the process of beatification."
Narration: Romero's canonization cause began in 1990, and in 1994 the formal request was presented to his successor, Arturo Rivera y Damas. However, the beatification of Monsignor Romero has taken thirty five years to arrive. What are the reasons for this delay? Why has a cause such as Monsignor Romero's, who many considered as the martyr of the Americas while still alive, been so stagnant?
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Valencia, Journalist: "The rejection of Monsignor Romero was too visceral. Even when he was alive and in the Salvadorian Church, which is the one that knew him best. The majority of the Salvadorian Episcopal Conference was against Monsignor Romero. Against him, to the point that when he returned to Mexico, Latin American bishops gathered in 1979, and the representative from El Salvador was not Romero - a conservative Bishop was sent. And Romero arrived with a personal invitation - let's say, "slipped in" in practical terms. He was not the representative of the Salvadorian church, despite being the Archbishop of San Salvador."
Narration: During three years' homilies, newspapers and letters were analyzed and an investigation was opened for the cause of Monsignor Romero. In 2000, John Paul II introduced the name of Monsignor as a witness of faith. Everything seemed to follow its course, however, the process stalled. Hundreds of letters arrived in the Vatican accusing Romero of influencing politics, of being a communist. In San Salvador, the figure of Monsignor was being used as a political instrument.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Ricardo Urioste, General Vicar of Monsignor Romero: "He had detractors in the church, not just laymen, or right-wing people, or army people, but also bishops were against him. They did not agree with what he was doing."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Armando Bukele, Imam and entrepreneur from San Salvador: "Many people asking - Curia people, co-progressive people asking - for Romero's beatification, and the right wing writing the media and sending letters to Rome saying that he was a communist."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Jesús Delgado, Former Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "Well, evidently many letters from social centers came to Rome in the process of beatification, opposed to Monsignor Romero. For many who, in the Vatican also did not want the cause to progress, they were like arguments that said better not to make progress on this matter. Let it be delayed or slowed down until all these worries disappear in this social sector that has always been very supportive to the church, which was used by these social forces to say that they were the owners of the Catholic Church, and to achieve just that."
Narration: But in addition to this swarm of factors, a character stands out in the obstacle race for beatification. Alfonso López Trujillo, a Colombian cardinal who was in charge of all the Latin American affairs. According to sources, Trujillo was directly opposed to Romero's cause and prevented the process from continuing on.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Valencia, Journalist: "The reason why the beatification of Monsignor Romero has taken so long can be found within the Church and within the opposition that was inside the church. This means that the emblematic figure that has been used as the opponent is that of a Colombian Cardinal, Trujillo. And it was not until Cardinal Trujillo died that this began to be uncovered."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Jesus Delgado, Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "He was in charge of the Latin American Church in the Vatican. You know that in the Vatican there is a Pope, right? But the Pope is helped by a representative of each continent, for such and such, and Lopez Trujillo was for Latin America, so he was a very powerful man. And he had… he was like the one in charge, or the spokesman of all these wealthy social sectors of a traditional catholic notoriety. And since these social classes were opposed to Monsignor Romero, he was fiercely against the process being executed. And he opposed as much as he could, right? It was just that, of course, there are also very responsible and very intelligent people in the Vatican that brought the cause forward despite everything else. Although there were always obstacles, and obstacles, obstacles, obstacles, until our Pope Francisco arrived who knows our environment very well and unlocked this whole thing."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Armando Bukele, Imam and entrepreneur from San Salvador: "John Paul II was a good Pope but had lived in Poland and knew what the Soviet pressure on Poland was, not as a socialist friend, but as a hegemonic power over Poland, and he was afraid of all those who screamed Communism, and stopped (what is it called?) the sanctification of Romero. Today we have this Pope who is Franciscan, and Jesuit. He is clever, understands politics, and knows things. And he already beatified it. Today, everyone has to accept it - Blessed and martyr."
Narration: Oscar Romero was born in Barrios City. Since he was young he showed a spiritual restlessness. Being only 13 years old he entered the minor seminary of San Miguel. And in 1937 he was sent to Rome, to be a pupil of Pope Paul VI. In 1943 he returned to El Salvador. Before being appointed Archbishop, Romero was pastor, secretary of the Episcopal Conference and Auxiliary Bishop of San Salvador. When Pope Paul VI appointed him Archbishop of San Salvador, a strange atmosphere arose since many priests of the archdiocese preferred Monsignor Arturo Rivera for the position. Several opinions agree that choosing Romero as Archbishop was due to the decision to choose a conservative candidate.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Miriam Estupinián, Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "Well he, that's really why they made him Archbishop, because they thought he was, excuse the expression, a "weak" bishop. that they could do whatever they wanted with him. Well, word is that the day he was appointed, it was here in San Jose, in the mountain, in 1977, and word is nobody applauded him or anything. And there was a priest who said, "Let's rather go get some hot coffee" and they all left. And there were only about 50 people. They did a private thing, not like how archbishops were appointed. But it was because of the situation in the country that Monsignor Chavez y Gonzalez was a little annoyed. So that's why it was done like that."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Ricardo Urioste, General Vicar of Monsignor Romero: "And I remember that Monsignor Rivera y Damas at some point trusted me with something that was kind of a secret - That he had been told in the Vatican that before electing the Archbishop here, they needed a bishop less critical of the government than he was. And that's why they chose Monsignor Romero."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Salvador Samayoa, Founding member of the FMLN: "Monsignor did not belong from any point of view to what could be considered at that time as progressive clergy or Catholicism. Monsignor was a rather conservative person. I believe that in fact they chose him in the Vatican, because they believed that after Monsignor Chávez y Gonzalez's death, obviously, Monsignor Rivera had to be his successor. The Vatican didn't trust him because they thought he could be a little prone to the left wing, so they only appointed him apostolic administrator. And when there was a need to appoint an Archbishop after a few years of Monsignor Rivera acting in that capacity, they appointed Romero because they believed that Romero was going to be a conservative bishop."
Narration: Shortly after accepting the title, Monsignor Romero asked for accommodation in the Hospital of Divine Providence. Leaving aside the luxuries and giving his first lesson of humbleness.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Sister Carmelita, Guide to the Chapel of Divine Providence: "And when he was appointed Archbishop, he came with the sisters to ask for a place to live. He had already been offered a house in the wealthiest colonies of the city, in San Benito and in Escalon, but he did not accept, instead he came humbly with the sisters. He arrived with Mother Lucita, the Mother Superior of the community, and said "I come to ask for a place to live". Then the sister said: "Why, being a Monsignor do you come to us to ask for a place to live?" "What I need is a room, a bathroom and a toilet." That was what the sisters offered him. They prepared a room for him here behind the altar of the Chapel, but after seeing that many people visited him and he received them in the bench of the chapel, the sisters decided to build a special, private place for him."
Narration: What used to be the house of Monsignor Romero is today a small museum visited by pilgrims from around the world every day. Some cassocks, his radio, the typewriter where his famous homilies were born, the house of Romero is full of personal objects that help us imagine the archbishop's daily life.
Romero's appointment did not happen at a random time. What was happening in El Salvador when Monsignor Romero accepted the title of Archbishop? Five years earlier, in 1972, the election won by the conservative party was denounced as electoral fraud, which unleashed a popular demonstration that was dissolved leaving dozens dead and missing.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Protesters: "Insurrection is the solution! Insurrection is the solution! Insurrection is the solution!"
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador: "Forgive them because they do not know what they are doing."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Héctor Dada, Founder of Democratic Change, Former Minister of Economy of the Republic of El Salvador: "The United States backed the electoral fraud that prevented engineer Jose Napoleon Duarte from taking office in 1972. The history of this country would have been completely different had the Americans not acted the way they acted, and as an American diplomat told me at the end of 1972, to me as a Christian Democrat leader, "Congratulations Hector, I never thought you were going to win the elections, but as you are a very intelligent person, you will understand that we could not hand over the government."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Juan Carlos Torres, Journalist: "Monsignor Romero comes to place a watershed in the relationship of the Church with the government, and with the people. The Churches - the Catholic Church, the leaders - had always had a good relationship with governments. Along came Monsignor Romero, also promoted by the wealthy class, and by the governments in turn that approved him as a new archbishop… but once he assumed the role, the role of leader of the Church, the government turned authoritarian, and this government began to attack some of its leaders - some of its priests, and the people. We saw how Monsignor Romero who supported the people, visited the communities and celebrated mass in the cantons in places that traditionally an archbishop would not visit, making direct and public claims to the government. Changing the traditional ways of the church and speaking to the ruling class."
Narration: In the midst of this agitated climate, several priests were expelled from the country. They were not allowed to return. But there was also a key trigger; a fact that marked a 'before and after' in the character of Monsignor Romero; an incident that would forever mark Romero's commitment with his people - the murder of priest Rutilio Grande.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Armando Bukele, Imam and entrepreneur from San Salvador: "He became more critical of what they were doing in the war when Rutilio Grande, a great friend of Romero's, was killed without reason... because priests here were helping people… but also, everyone was like, "That one is a communist, that one is a communist". Anyone could get killed at that time."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Juan Jose Dalton, Journalist: "Repression was harsh in this country, and polarization, confrontation was very hard. And then, when the assassination of his priests began, his fury (it seems to me) started to show, his courage as a person and also as a priest started to grow."
Narration: Monsignor Romero gradually became a tireless fighter for the defense of human rights; he acquired a commitment of accusation, of social struggle. His homilies became the radio of the country. His work became an approach to the most unprotected.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador: "As I always preach, this is the evidence of what I am saying. Social injustice."
Narration: His relationship with Roberto Cuéllar goes back to the first year of Monsignor as Archbishop. They have started working together since then on the Project for Legal Aid, an office where allegations of human rights violations were received. The objective of the project was to offer support to all those who could not defend themselves against these violations, those who were abandoned or unprotected.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuellar, Lawyer: "Precisely, legal aid was created because neither Jesuit priests nor yours truly noticed that those who did not have resources were despised in the courts of justice: the poor were stripped of the few assets they possessed; fraud was committed against people of limited resources in the courts. And since Monsignor Romero established Legal Aid, he turned it into the office of legal assistance of the archbishopric, not only for poor people, but of those cases that no one paid attention to."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Miriam Estupinián, Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "I worked at FUNDASAL with a Jesuit priest, Antonio Fernández Ibáñez, and I had made a group of friends from Christendom courses. We always met every week, and one day they said, "We have been called from the Archbishopric to ask if we wanted to collaborate with Monsignor Romero in Caritas". And I said, "I'm going to go. I have a lot of work, but we will see." Then on the board, he was elected president, and I was Secretary of the Board. I said: "This is going to be very hard, maybe I'm going to retire soon", but thank God I did not, because it is a joy for me to have been close to Monsignor, to have met him, and to have worked with him."
Narration: In addition to developing clear social work, Monsignor became an almost omnipresent voice in El Salvador.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador: "Meanwhile, the recalcitrant right wing is harassed with measures of fact, but it is not repressed like the left wing."
Narration: His homilies, the healing broth of many Salvadorians, who lived in the difficult times of a dictatorship.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador: "I have to say that a terrible repressive violence is still prevailing and growing in the country and it has already killed about 400 people in the first two months of this year."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Ricardo Urioste, General Vicar of Monsignor Romero: "Of course, he prepared them with great zeal, with great interest. He could be found asleep at his desk at two in the morning, sometimes preparing his homily. This means he was solid and effective in his speeches, and that's why the Cathedral was full of people all the time to listen to him. And on the radio, the homily that Monsignor Romero preached was heard throughout the streets of San Salvador and around the country."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuellar, Lawyer: "He summarized every week what he called "Facts of reality". He called them in his chapter, "Facts of the week". And it was my job as coordinator of the Legal Aid Office to present him with a couple of summary pages. He would interpret them, he would remake them, he would draft them or pronounce them without wording, but he took these facts into account."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Héctor Dada, Founder of Democratic Change, Former Minister of Economy of the Republic of El Salvador: "He became a voice that commanded the dignity of the people; and the people appreciated it a lot. I was struck by how those listening to Monsignor Romero became hopeful of regaining their dignity."
Narration: Miriam Estupinián, Caritas volunteer, offered to work with Monsignor Romero, although that meant taking risks like hiding it from her family. During the years that she worked with Romero she became not only a companion, but also his friend and confidante.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Miriam Estupinián, Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "I always went to the masses in the cathedral; I almost never went to the sea with my family. And I told him once - I saw him, he did a homily of about three hours - but I felt like Monsignor was levitating, I felt him so powerfully, because I always sat on the first bench. He arrived at 7am at Mass. Not a fly could be heard. Children did not even cry. I do not understand how that happened. And let the people endure a two-hour homily while people won't stay even half an hour now, will they? The homily was a beauty, and after, the proven accusation. Because he already had a team, where he, everything he said, was proven. Monsignor Romero spoke on the telephone, indeed, with the Commander General, and the Commander General told him: "Send me a letter and we will arrange this here militarily between us". Of course, Monsignor Romero was not going to send the letter, who knows what would have happened to those poor soldiers, and since he did not get a reply, he said, "I'm going to speak as a pastor". Give the moral norm of the church on how to proceed in this case. Monsignor Romero spoke on the telephone, indeed, with the Commander General, and the Commander General told him: "Send me a letter and we will arrange this here militarily between us". Of course, Monsignor Romero was not going to send the letter, who knows what would have happened to those poor soldiers, and since he did not get a reply, he said, "I'm going to speak as a pastor". Give the moral norm of the church on how to proceed in this case."
Narration: Monsignor Romero denounced the abuses against the rights of peasants, workers and priests in his homilies in a context of violence and military repression.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Jesús Delgado, Former Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "Monsignor Romero received a letter from 220 recruits and sergeants of the armed forces begging him to intercede with the Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces not to force them to kill their own brothers on the side of the guerrillas. The command was that if your blood brother is there, kill him and kill him first! So, they begged Monsignor Romero to please intercede so that they would not be forced to kill.
Monsignor Romero spoke on the telephone, indeed, with the Commander General, and the Commander General told him: "Send me a letter and we will arrange this here militarily between us". Of course, Monsignor Romero was not going to send the letter, who knows what would have happened to those poor soldiers, and since he did not get a reply, he said, "I'm going to speak as a pastor". Give the moral norm of the church on how to proceed in this case.
And then in the last homily, wanting to respond to this letter, he said, "When you receive an order from your boss that goes against a higher command of God, first obey God's command, which says 'Do not kill' and disobey your boss's order.
It is a Christian doctrine, right? That the Law of God prevails over the law of men. But of course, this was like the trigger for those who wanted to kill him, saying here we have the reason to do it."
Narration: On March 23rd, 1980, the homily of Monsignor Romero was an emotional appeal to the government to stop its repression against the farmers.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Romero, Archbishop of San Salvador: "I would like to make a special appeal to army men - and in particular to the bases of the National Guard, the police, and the garrisons. They are brothers from our own people. They are killing their own peasant brothers. And before an order to kill given by a man, the law of God that says 'Do not kill' must prevail."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Jesús Delgado, Former Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "I said to him, "Monsignor, your homily was very strong yesterday. Surely many journalists will want to approach you about it. Go have some rest. I'm going to assume all your responsibilities". He took his diary and told me: "This you cannot do for me, I have to go to my confessor, I am the sinner; I have to go to my dentist, I'm the one with the bad teeth; I have to go to my psychologist, I'm the one that needs reassurance and not you."
I sometimes spend 2 hours, 3 hours, or 4 hours with the psychologist. And I go at four in the afternoon, if I do not arrive in time for mass. If I am not in time, you can begin to celebrate mass and I'll join you later". "Oh, gladly, if I can help you with that, I'll do it with great pleasure". And then in the last homily, wanting to respond to this letter, he said, "When you receive an order from your boss that goes against a higher command of God, first obey God's command, which says 'Do not kill' and disobey your boss's order.
Then he put his diary back in his pocket and left. He had walked fifteen steps, something like that, when he came back and said, "No, you'd better not. I do not want to compromise anyone on this". And those were the last four words he said to me. I mean, he already knew that something was coming."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Monsignor Ricardo Urioste, General Vicar of Monsignor Romero: "His was the only existing voice that criticized the government. No one else dared to do it."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuellar, Lawyer: "At approximately 8.30 or 9:00 in the morning he called me and said, "How are you Beto? Did you read the paper?" There was breaking news in the newspaper that morning about the armed forces. The Armed Forces Press Committee made the accusation that Archbishop Romero had committed a crime on Sunday. He has urged army bases and army officers to disobey orders of their superiors. A civilian cannot interfere in the orders of the army, in the ordinances of the army. And the entire armed forces owe respect to authority, to the orders of its superiors."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Salvador Samayoa, Founding member of the FMLN: "Since I was listening to the words of the last homily - because one could learn about everything - when he told the soldiers not to obey an order to kill, because it was against the law of God, I was really sure that from that moment on they were going to try to kill Monsignor. And the message was a terrorist message for all practical purposes, because that is the technical essence of terrorism, to frighten the entire population. That is to say, if we could do this to Monsignor, you all should be certain that of course we will also do it to you."
Narration: Was that homily the drop that filled the glass? Was it the definitive trigger? Despite the threats Monsignor Romero was not afraid to order, to demand that the government, in the name of God, stop the repression. That would be Monsignor Romero's last homily. Although his closest friends advised him not to give a mass the next day, Monsignor clung to his duty and obligation, and decided to officiate the ceremony.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Sister Carmelite, Guide to the Chapel of Divine Providence: "The sisters also in the morning received phone calls warning Monsignor Romero not to officiate the Eucharist today. But he committed himself to a journalist to celebrate the Eucharist, the private mass, for the anniversary of Mrs. Sara Meardi de Pinto."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Miriam Estupinián, Personal Secretary of Monsignor Romero: "And I just approached him and said, "How do you feel Monsignor?" And he said to me: "Miriam, the threats are serious. And as a man I am afraid". But let us interpret that Monsignor's fear was not of dying. He was afraid that they would get him out of the car somewhere and make his body disappear, that he would be tortured like he had known of so many of his priests."
Narration: Those who spent time with him day to day remember well the day of March 24th, 1980 - the day that Monsignor would officiate his last mass.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Sister Carmelite, Guide to the Chapel of Divine Providence: "That day, Monday 24th, was very busy for Monsignor Romero. The sisters, indeed all of them, said that he shared breakfast with them; celebrated the Eucharist to the community. Then he went with some priests to the beach. According to attorney Roberto Cuéllar that day they agreed to meet here for lunch."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuellar, Lawyer: "But the reconstruction of the events of that day takes place mostly on the beach, facing the Pacific, he went to rest with several priests. After a moment of rest he said that he was coming back to lunch and would wait for us in divine providence. He did not return for lunch. He was late. And he went to the Church of the Jesuits in Santa Tecla to confess himself to the priest Segundo Azcue. He confessed to Father Azcue at 3:30 in the afternoon and returned to the little hospital, to his house.
From there he called me and said to me: "Excuse me for not coming to lunch". I was waiting for him since we were going to have lunch in the divine providence with the nuns. The nuns were very fearful that he could be killed - not that day, but the threats had increased that weekend, and with greater intensity on Sunday, after the call - "Let's kill that miserable priest. We're going to blow up the hospital. We're going to kidnap you (referring to the nuns). We are going to take you. Threats were systematic and unrelenting."
Narration: Despite these threats, Monsignor Romero wanted to continue with the ceremony. Just before the end of the homily, a shot was heard in the chapel.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Caros Dada, Journalist and Founder of El Faro: "At 6:00am, Captain Eduardo Ávila showed up at the house of entrepreneur Álex Cáceres, where D'Aubuisson's security team was sleeping and came with a copy of the newspaper showing the invitation to a mass for the anniversary of Mrs. Sara Meardi de Pinto's death, which was going to be officiated that afternoon by Monsignor Romero.
Captain Ávila arrived with the invitation to the mass that Monday at 6 pm, and said: "Today we are going to kill him. This is the perfect place. It's in a chapel, in the little hospital, a place where a sniper is easy to place. At that moment Saravia said: "But why are we going to kill him today? Who said so? I cannot do this alone!" And Captain Eduardo Ávila said: "We have already spoken with Roberto. You are all going to participate." And Saravia said, "Well, I cannot do that until I speak to Roberto D'Aubuisson". He called him and Roberto D'Aubuisson said: "Indeed. If he said today it's today because that's what we already planned, since we are going to be part of that operation.
Captain Saravia was with two other people: Fernando Sagrera, who was another member of the security team, though he was only a civilian; and the chauffeur, Amado Garay. The three of them discussed the matter: "Perfect, how are we going to do it?" And Saravia said: "Well, we'll see, if the mass is at six, we'll meet at five in the afternoon in the parking lot of the Camino Real Hotel in San Salvador".
At five in the afternoon they left to the hotel. As they were leaving, Gabriel Montenegro was arriving in his car to buy drugs. They said to him: "Come with us. Let the chauffeur go alone in the car, and we will go in your truck and meet in the parking lot". They went to the parking lot of the Camino Real. Captain Ávila arrived, and Mario Molina's security team, in charge of providing the shooter, also arrived. They organized everything there.
The shooter got on the famous red Volkswagen driven by Amado Garay, the chauffeur, and they left at 6:00 in the afternoon, taking the road to the hospital. Capitan Saravia, Fernando Sagrera, and Gabriel Montenegro followed behind. They arrived at the Church door, Monsignor was finishing his homily. The shooter instructed the driver to get out and act like he was fixing the car. The car was parked right at the door of the little hospital's chapel. Then the shooter produced a rifle and fired a single clean and clear shot that crossed the central aisle of the Church, from outside, and penetrated Romero's chest. The Monsignor was on the altar closing his homily. What happened next was chaos.
The assassins fled. And inside the Chapel many of the sisters in charge of the hospital of Divine Providence approached Monsignor trying to save him. There is something that I have always found very curious: The bullet is of a tiny caliber - a .22 caliber. Everyone I interviewed who was at that Mass claims to have heard an explosion. I suppose it could have been the traumatic memory of a day when they saw a bullet enter the archbishop's chest, and the first thing they all did was throw themselves on the ground, or run away. It was chaos.
The assassins had already fled and Monsignor was taken out, carried by some of the people who were at the Mass and others who since arrived, and they took him to the national poly-clinic to try to revive him, but that night he was declared dead.
Those are basically the day's actions from the killers' view. Monsignor was murdered at about 6:30 or 6:35 in the afternoon. At half past seven, all San Salvador knew what happened. Celebrations began in some of the wealthiest neighborhoods. Fireworks were thrown, shots fired into the air. There were parties. That's how that night ended in San Salvador, with the majority of the population crying over the death of the archbishop, and some celebrating that the so-called communist priest had finally been eliminated."
Narration: If the death of Monsignor Romero was a blow to the country, the Archbishop's funeral became proof that a breach had opened up in El Salvador. And there seemed to be no turning back. The funeral of Monsignor Romero took place seven days after his death. Near 150,000 people gathered. However, the blood-letting had not stopped, not even at this ceremony. A detonation of a bomb had people scramble for cover.
Narration: Gun shots flew in different directions. In the aftermath, about forty people were killed, and more than two hundred, wounded.
In 1993 the Commission of the Truth, created by the Chapultepec peace agreement to investigate the crimes of the Salvadorian Civil War, concluded that Monsignor Romero's assassination had been executed by a sniper. In 2009, the investigation was reopened following a mandate from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights. 31 years after the assassination, the name of the murderer, Marino Samayor Acosta, a sub-sergeant of section 2, of the extinct National Guard was put on the table. According to Acosta, he received the order from Major Roberto D'Aubuisson, creator of the death squads, and founder of Arena; and Colonel Arturo Armando Molina. However, today there are still different opinions about those responsible.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Rodrigo Ávila, Former Director of NCP: "The issue of the Commission of the Truth in the end was just a statement, but not an investigation with supporting evidence. And I'm telling you, there are all kinds of versions. There are versions that have obviously been very contrived, and the leftists adopted those versions; and other versions saying that he was murdered by the left wing itself looking for a martyr."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Alfredo Pereira, Deputy of NRA Political Party: "It was a plan orchestrated by the same groups that later formed the FMLN. They were responsible, to create the figure of a martyr at the time. And to actually create that, leading to what triggered the Civil War. I do not really believe that the right wing had the vision to do it - to eliminate him in order to create a martyr; but in my opinion, to my understanding it came from the other side - the left-wing side - that really were the ones who instigated this in order to start a bigger conflict."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Rodrigo Ávila, Former Director of NCP: "I participated, I was Director of the police just after the peace agreements, and there were many warnings. I mean that within the left wing there were very strong warnings from a more moderate sector of the left wing, pardon, of a more 'radical' sector of the left wing towards a sector of the belligerent, more moderate left wing; and a series of terrible events were hidden that later emerged and came to light. Precisely at that particular time, the interests of those who wanted to make Monsignor Romero into a martyr were in action."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Héctor Dada, Former Minister: "In addition, it must be said that Major Roberto D'Aubuisson was an intelligence officer closely linked to the US intelligence corps. And it should be said, that Mario Zamora was killed exactly a month earlier, by a man, after Roberto D'Aubuisson mentioned him in a program four days before his assassination. And in the same program he made the same accusations against Monsignor Romero. They eliminated the Secretary General of the Party and killed the other pole of legitimization - legitimization from the religious point of view."
Narration: Years later, Carlos Dada had the opportunity to conduct a series of interviews with Captain Álvaro Saravia, who was in charge of the logistics of the assassination. Both the Commission of the Truth and Dada's investigations blame members of the right-wing political party for the assassination. Dada's investigations brought to light not only Romero's murderer, but also links between the team that planned the assassination and the military elite.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Carlos Dada, Journalist: "Shortly after the assassination of Monsignor Romero, Roberto D'Aubuisson and his people met on a farm, on a ranch near San Salvador with several military men. They were conspiring to commit a coup d'état. A Colonel, a member of the government board who was, let's say, outside the circle of the other military men, Colonel Majano, found out about this and sent the army to capture those who were participating in the conspiracy. And they all were captured.
Captain Saravia's agenda was confiscated in that capture, which contained lists of all parties that financed them; how they financed them, telephone numbers, contacts, inside and outside of the army; plus a small piece of paper that read Operation Pineapple containing the weaponry and necessary logistics required to carry out the assassination of Monsignor Romero.
That agenda - I have a copy - ended up being seized by the army. Roberto D'Aubuisson's prosecution was ordered. Afterwards, the rest of the military leadership ordered the release of Roberto D'Aubuisson; and basically to erase the sordid story they expelled Colonel Majano, whose captured had been ordered. This, for me, is one of many irrefutable pieces of evidence of the complicity and protection of paramilitary structures by the Salvadorian military elite. This means that the paramilitary structures were not just five crazy shooters, who went crazy, who were following a crazy man; they were part of a well-designed and army-controlled structure."
Narration: It was not an easy task to make a trial against those responsible for the murder. Only Captain Alvaro Saravia was brought to trial in the United States.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Carlos Dada, Journalist: "There were two trial attempts here, both were hindered by power and therefore they were never carried out. The other attempt that did conclude was in the United States - A civil trial against Captain Saravia, because D'Aubuisson was dead. A civil trial that took place in a court in Fresno California where he was found guilty of crimes against humanity for the murder of Monsignor Romero. That was the only trial.
Due to some legal complications, it was impossible to undertake a criminal trial in the United States against someone who had committed a crime in another country, and was not prosecuted in the country where he or she committed that crime. Then, by dusting off an old law, the Center for Justice and Accountability conducted a criminal trial – in the least to prove his responsibility in the murder. He was found guilty, but he was tried by default. Captain Saravia had already fled and disappeared until I found him in Central America."
Narration: The death of Monsignor Romero continues generating mixed opinions to this day. His image, in addition to remaining a focus of opinions, keeps the debate on impunity and Amnesty law open.
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Ladies chanting slogans: "Long live Monsignor Romero! Long live!"
Narration: However, this law continues to prevent the punishment of perpetrators of serious human rights violations. The case of Monsignor Romero is one of those cases.
VOX POP [Spanish] Local Citizens: "- Let the truth be known through the administration of justice, because that is the truth that counts. We can claim many things about how the event occurred, but they will always say that it is not true because justice was never received.
- Here in our country there has been no justice against the assassins nor for Monsignor Romero's assassins. We know who they are because names were published, but justice has not been done in any case."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Denis Muñoz, Lawyer: "This Commission of the Truth ran out of teeth to establish responsibility in the context of the Amnesty law, which emerged from the same right-wing party that granted amnesty to the same people who had committed war crimes as the one against the Jesuit priests, for example, and that gave way to impunity in El Salvador so that they would no longer continue to prosecute, much less investigate cases and to be able to then regenerate criminal responsibility against direct and indirect perpetrators under this pretext."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Carmen Rodriguez, Journalist: "I think that many of us would like to see a trial, but I doubt that unless it is done outside of the Amnesty law, or unless that law is revoked, it is unlikely there would be a trial so we can recognize that a process for Monsignor Romero's death has started."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Roberto Cuéllar, Lawyer: "All countries in the Americas that have suffered human rights violations due to armed conflict, dictatorships, authoritarian regimes, have eliminated the Amnesty law. Only the monstrosity of El Salvador's Amnesty law remains and it renders the truth unattainable, which is in opposition to Monsignor Oscar Romero's legacy to the world of the right to the truth for the victims of severe human rights violation."
SOUNDBITE [Spanish] Héctor Dada, Former Minister: "I believe Monsignor's case can lead to breakthrough in reconciliation as long as we do not turn him into a wooden saint to light candles to and to pray for a miracle to 'fix' the country. Monsignor Romero's wish, as homage, is that we get to know his ideals and apply them. The miracle is that we have the ability to change the country if we unite around his thinking. But if we kneel to pray and light candles and do nothing, or hypocritically say that we have just discovered that he was pious and never broke a dish… Monsignor Romero broke many dishes by telling the truth."


text: On Sat, 2003-09-06 at 12:44, Lionel Ulmer wrote: > For me, more users is not always a good thing... Heck, after some time on > IRC helping people I am really wondering if I should even continue working > on Wine when I see the attitude of most people. Ah, well users and developers are often one and the same aren't they? The community of developers who give fixes, help etc is growing too, but the userbase is growing faster. That's fine by me, after all, I started out as a user who didn't really know C (on CrossOver!). > The 'Linux community' of the start where all the people gave something back > (useful and advanced bug reports, fixes, help, ...) is being slowly killed > by people who choose Linux just because it's free (as in beer) and who do > not give back anything. Not killed, not even overwhelmed, just outnumbered. I don't mind, I've asked some pretty dumb questions on IRC at times too :)

subset: commoncrawl


text:
eSata Explained
Initially SATA was designed as an internal or inside-the-box interface technology, bringing improved. performance and new features to internal PC or consumer storage. Creative designers quickly realized the innovative interface could reliably be expanded outside the PC, bringing the same performance and features to external storage needs instead of relying on USB or 1394 interfaces. Called external SATA or eSATA, customers can now utilize shielded cable lengths up to 2 meters outside the PC to take advantage of the benefits the SATA interface brings to storage. SATA is now out of the box as an external standard, with specifically defined cables, connectors, and signal requirements released as new standards in mid-2004. eSATA provides more performance than existing solutions and is hot pluggable.
Key benefits of eSATA
• Up to 6 times faster than USB 2.0 or 1394
• Robust and user-friendly external connection
• High performance, cost-effective expansion storage
• Up to 2 meter shielded cables and connectors
Applications: External Direct Attached Storage for notebooks, desktop, consumer electronics and entry servers.
Many existing external hard drives use USB and/or 1394. These interfaces are not nearly as fast as SATA when compared using peak values, and can compromise drive performance.
USB and 1394 external drives are ATA drives with a bridge chip that translates from the ATA protocol to USB or 1394 protocol used for the connection. These interfaces require en-capsulation or conversion of the transmit data and then de-capsulation after the data is received. This protocol overhead reduces the efficiency of these host buses, increases the host CPU utilization or requires a special chip to off-load the host.
The results of eSATA are dramatic and lack the overhead issues associated with USB and 1394. The eSATA storage bus delivers as much as 37 times more performance. This ability is perfect for using an array of drives with performance striping behind the eSATA host port.
Here is the external single lane connector. The external cable connector is a shielded version of the connector specificed in SATA 1.0a with these basic differences:
• The External connector has no "L" shaped key, and the guide features are vertically offset and reduced in size. This prevents the use of unshielded internal cables in external applications.
• To prevent ESD damage, the insertion depth is increased from 5mm to 6.6mm and the contacts are mounted further back in both the receptacle and plug.
• To provide EMI protection and meet FCC and CE emission requirements, the cable has an extra layer of shielding, and the connectors have metal contact points.
• There are springs as retention features built into the connector shield on both the top and bottom surfaces.
The external connector and cable are designed for over five thousand insertions and removals while the internal connector is only specified to withstand fifty. There are two compliance points for the Single Lane External SATA Data Interface, one at each shielded external connector. As with other Serial ATA specifications, interconnect between the IC/Phy and the connectors at the mating interface are outside the scope of definition and are considered part of the delivered Phy solution. Implementations that have additional connections between the Phy/IC and the shielded external connector must provide such interconnects as part of the engineered solution. For an implementation such as shown in the figure below, the compliance points remain at the shielded external connectors.
The typical cable length is 2 meters (6 feet); long enough to reach from a floor mounted PC to a drive placed on the desktop. The compliance is defined in the SATA II: Electrical Specification, as the Gen1m and Gen2m specifications for 1.5 Gb/s and 3.0 Gb/s respectively.
Only products which are compliant to the Serial ATA specification can use the eSATA logo, and companies which use the logo must be members of the SATA-IO organization.
Currently, most PC motherboards do not have an e-SATA connector. eSATA is readily enabled, however, through the addition of an eSATA HBA or bracket connector (as shown above) for desktop systems or with a Cardbus or Express Card for notebooks. New motherboards introduced in 2005 will start to incorporate e-SATA connectors directly, making the addition of external storage an easy option.
Note: It is important to note that prior to the final specification for e-SATA there were many products that were designed for external connections. Some of these use the internal SATA connector (easily recognized by the L shaped contact ledge) or even connectors designed for other interface specifications, such as 1394. These products should be avoided, since they are not SATA compliant and may cause incompatibility, EMI problems, or fail after only a modest number of interconnection cycles. Some examples of these product connections that should not be used are shown below:
To conclude, here are some actual measurements using a SATA 1.5Gbps drive and three different host bus interfaces. As you can see, there is dramatic improvement when the bus does not require a protocol overhead burden.
|Comparison of Interface speeds and data transfer rates
for external disk drive interfaces
|Raw Interface Speed
|Benchmark Comparison 64K read
|31.6 MB/sec
|Benchmark comparison 64K write
|26.5 MB/sec
|Burst Transfer Rate
|111.3 MB/sec


text:
You guys, I just have a hot second here, but I need your attention because I just got back from therapy and have something to report. I am going to tell you all the things I learn there, because therapy is quite expensive but if 100,000 of us can benefit, then I'll feel like it's a really decent investment.
So, today my smart therapist said this:
There are three different levels of Looking at and Thinking About Other People.
Level One is the way a child sees other people. Innocent and purely. Children, before they hit a certain level of age/experience don't see faults in others. All is good.
Level Two is when we grow up a little and "wisen up." Think teenagers. Now we can see the faults of others clearly. And so we think it's our job to prove how smart we have become by pointing those faults out. When we are operating at Level Two- we assume that anyone who is NOT pointing out other people's faults is naïve- or just not smart enough to see the faults. We need to educate everybody about everybody else. Many people operate this way their whole lives.
But just because people aren't pointing out each others faults doesn't mean they can't see them. Most of us CAN see each other's faults and gifts pretty clearly. But when people are operating on Level Three – they have wisened up even more. Yes- of course they see the strengths and the weaknesses in the people around them pretty clearly- just as clearly as the Level Two-ers. But they know that usually- it's wiser and more gentle and more helpful to point out strengths and leave the weaknesses be. And they'd rather be wise, helpful and gentle than "smart."
Level Three-ers take other people in like they take in a child's orchestra concert. Kids concerts don't sound all that good. They are a train wreck, really, when you break them down into their parts. Their parts are mostly missed notes and flats and sharps and kids crying and snotty noses and uncomfortable plastic chairs and maybe a splitting headache or two.
But when we refuse to break a kids' concert down into its imperfect parts and take it in as a whole – we realize that right there- in the midst of the mess – somehow – some really beautiful and holy music is being made. We get the chills for how lovely all the imperfect parts are together.
To folks with Level Three eyes- people are like kids' concerts. They don't sound perfect. They are a big old collection of faults sometimes. But taken as a whole, they can give you the chills, they're so holy.
Dear God,
Help me look at everyone who crosses my path today through Level Three Eyes.
Love, G
Author of the #1 New York Times Bestseller LOVE WARRIOR — ORDER HERE
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text:
Principal Investigators //
- Nathaniel Anderson, PhD >
- Vince Calhoun, PhD >
- Arvind Caprihan, PhD >
- Vince Clark, PhD >
- Eric D. Claus, PhD >
- Flor A. Espinoza, PhD >
- Faith Hanlon, PhD >
- Carla Harenski, PhD >
- Kent Hutchison, PhD >
- Kent A. Kiehl, PhD >
- Jeffrey D. Lewine, PhD >
- Andrew R. Mayer, PhD >
- John Phillips, MD >
- Sergey Plis, PhD
- Lori Sanfratello, PhD >
- Matthew Shane, PhD >
- Julia M. Stephen, PhD >
- Jessica Turner, PhD >
- Claire E. Wilcox, MD >
Sergey Plis, PhD
Assistant Professor of Translational Neuroscience, Director of Machine Learning in Neuroscience Lab
Dr. Plis researches novel techniques and approaches to analyzing multimodal brain imaging datasets. The main tool source is the field of machine learning. The main goal is to be able to infer structures and patterns in brain function that are hard to obtain non-invasively and/or are unavailable for direct observation. In the long term, this develops methods able to teach us about mechanisms used by the brain for forming task specific transient interaction networks. Dr. Plis' current research is on inferring probabilistic descriptions of these function induced networks based on fusion of fast and slow imaging modalities: MEG and fMRI.
Selected Publications //
- Cortical Sensitivity to Guitar Note Patterns: EEG Entrainment to Repetition and Key >
- Causal Discovery from Subsampled Time Series Data by Constraint Optimization >
- COINSTAC: A Privacy Enabled Model and Prototype for Leveraging and Processing Decentralized Brain Imaging Data >
- Task-specific feature extraction and classification of fMRI volumes using a deep neural network initialized with a deep belief network: Evaluation using sensorimotor tasks >
- Deep Independence Network Analysis of Structural Brain Imaging: Application to Schizophrenia >
- Group-level component analyses of EEG: validation and evaluation >
- A Tool for Interactive Data Visualization: Application to Over 10,000 Brain Imaging and Phantom MRI >
- Impact of autocorrelation on functional connectivity >
- Disrupted correlation between low frequency power and connectivity strength of resting state brain networks in schizophrenia >
- Modular Organization of Functional Network Connectivity in Healthy Controls and Patients with Schiz >
- Effective connectivity analysis of fMRI and MEG data collected under identical paradigms. >
- Directional Statistics on Permutations >
- Analysis of Multimodal Neuroimaging Data >
- Permutations as Angular Data: Efficient Inference in Factorial Spaces >
- MEG and fMRI fusion for non-linear estimation of neural and BOLD signal changes >
Capturing Complex Interactions in Neuroimaging Data
Unsupervised data analysis approaches have been widely used in recent years and have become instrumental in establishing new research directions impossible with more traditional supervised approaches, such as the study of the default mode network of the brain. Growing interest in unsupervised analysis of multi-modal data, multi-subject studies, whole brain activit and other datasets involving multiple interacting variables, have increased demand for multivariate unsupervised techniques. However there is still relatively little work on the examination of the full relationships among interacting variables in an unsupervised fashion. In this project, we work on a novel approach to address the problem of identifying these higher-order interactions. Unlike existing approaches, we directly identify sets of inter-dependent random variables without explicitly modeling interactions within these sets.
Multimodal Data Fusion for Brain Connectivity Analysis
Despite enormous strides in our understanding of neural physiology, the transition from cellular and subcellular functional variability to variations in human behavior is poorly understood. Current evidence ties this transition to complex interactions within brain functional networks. These networks are not easy to estimate from the data due to their dynamic nature. However, accurately characterizing them is of the uttermost importance for diagnosis and prediction of mental disorders at their early stages (e.g. schizophrenia). This project is aiming to improve estimation of brain functional networks by taking advantage of the complementary nature of multiple brain imaging modalities. The main application is in the study of mental disorders linked to brain network dysfunction (schizophrenia, Alzheimer's, ADHD, bipolar disorder and others).


text:
Tuesday, June 10, 2008
Break the Bonds
For many of us, our cravings and food desires are what keeps us from happiness. We WANT to be healthy. We WANT to be thinner so we can enjoy life, play with our kids, fit on amusement park rides, paint our toenails. Do you think that being obese is fun? Is there something about having an extra 50, 60, 100 pounds on your body that makes you shriek with glee every time you look in a mirror or have to walk up a flight of stairs? So then why do we stay fat when we *could* change our lives by losing weight?
The habits we have and the urge to eat unhealthy types and amounts of food are very much like handcuffs. They keep us in one place. We "try" and "try" and "try" to lose weight, but after a few days or weeks or even months, we flip out and go back to the old habits. We turn back to food for comfort, for enjoyment, for whatever else is missing from our lives. And even though we don't really find it, we do fill the hole for a little while. Isn't that what it's like? When you are eating 8 donuts and a pint of Ben & Jerry's, you are literally and figuratively filling a hole. Shoveling all that junk into your mouth, down your throat, "filling" you... but in reality the hole is something much deeper than your digestive tract. You have to learn to fill the hole with something other than food.
I know all too well the cycle of yo-yo dieting. One day you get up and are in so much pain, so sad, so frustrated with your body that you muster up the resolve to start a diet. You get all ready by bingeing on all your favorite foods over the weekend and gaining 10 pounds. Then on Monday morning you get up, weigh in, and have a Slim Fast shake or whatever "healthy" breakfast you have decided on. Then, at some point, all hell breaks loose. It may be at 10am when you see leftover pizza in your fridge, or it may be 6 months later when you have lost 40 pounds and are feeling burned out and tired of the restriction. Or it may be at any point in between. But the thing about giving in to your old cravings is, it can lead you right back to those handcuffs you worked so hard to break free from. You end up back in your fat jail cell, 50 pounds heavier, with your cellmate companions: a bucket of fried chicken and a bag of Oreos.
Don't be that person. There is a way to take control of those seemingly overpowering feelings of desperation for food. Hey, I still get those feelings. Last night I wanted to order pizza SO BAD. I wanted to eat a brick of cheese. I wanted to go to the Indian buffet and gorge on creamy curries and buttered naan. It's like longing for an ex-boyfriend. You miss him, you want him, you remember the good times and the tender embrace. But what you must remember is that you broke up with him for a reason. He was not good for you. Neither was that food. Look what it did to your body.
Food is not bad in and of itself. It's what we do with it. You can get just as fat on low fat veggie pizza with a whole wheat crust and sugar free ice cream as you can on Pizza Hut and Haagen-Dazs. You gotta learn moderation as well as making better choices.
If you really want to live a life unfettered by crazy food thoughts, you have to stop giving in to them. When I go ahead and have a piece of cake, I want more cake. I want it for days after. When I eat deep fried mushrooms, I suffer the consequences for DAYS. I keep thinking... obsessing... about fried foods, hamburgers, potato chips. In the book The Beck Diet Solution, Dr. Beck explains that you have two figurative muscles: your "resistance muscle" and your "giving-in muscle." Whenever you make a choice, you are exercising one of these muscles. If you give in to a craving and binge, it strengthens your giving-in muscle and makes it easier and easier to give in each time. Do you really want to do that? Instead, strengthen your resistance muscle by saying NO to those foods that are not going to help your body be healthy. Eventually, it gets much, much easier to stay on track.
I have heard many people say that they eat all kinds of junk foods "in moderation." They buy chips and only eat them in single serving portions. Okay, if that works for you, so be it. But I really believe we do not need that junk in our lives... at least not on a regular basis. What's the point of having all those sugary, processed, dye-filled 100-calorie packs in the house? (I know I am not the only one who has eaten a whole box of these...) It's really not good for you. Sure, we have unhealthy stuff on occasion, but if you are making those things part of your daily/weekly intake, perhaps it is time to consider having a bowl of raspberries instead. I am not saying I NEVER eat junk. I do, but I try and make it pretty rare. I don't justify eating junk daily because it is in a teeny bag. Besides, that stuff just makes me want more sugar.
So if you are struggling (and we all do), maybe it is time to revamp your eating. Be stricter with yourself. Say NO to junk. Yeah I KNOW you want cookies, but you do have the ability to say no. I KNOW you want a bacon cheeseburger, but if you turn it down you will be stronger, healthier AND will reach your goal sooner. It's tough sometimes, but do you give your child candy bars for dinner just because they insist they WANT them? Treat yourself at least as well as you would your child. Make better choices. Stop giving in... because when your resistance muscle is strong enough, you can finally break those bonds that keep you fat, once and for all. And that will be a wonderful freedom.
18 comments:
- RunningNan said...
I dont really crave that stuff. My weaknesses are fruits, salads, and dairy. I eat a clean diet with healthy fats. I think its all about your tastes. They will change
- June 10, 2008 at 9:49 AM
- deanna said...
great read! I am 16 pounds down, and ready to take on the clean eating as opposed to 100-calorie-packing myself to death approach for my plan. Thanks for the much needed and extra encouragement!
- June 10, 2008 at 10:16 AM
- Arielguard said...
I just found your blog the other day and I am so glad I did. I have a lot to lose and have lost a lot in the past and what you are saying is so true when I think back through my weightloss past. I love this post. I am going to remember it. I do crave the junk more when I have it. Your blog is inspiring me to start my own and get to the losing of all this weight.
Thank you so much.
- June 10, 2008 at 10:24 AM
- lisa said...
I can't believe that this is your choice for today's entry! I read you every day (that you blog) & I was doing very very well on my diet.....until last night. I decided that instead of measuring my food & having a reasonable plate of MY MOST FAVORITE DINNER, that I should just eat as much as my little heart desired. I figured that "I've been good" & "I deserve it" & what could one meal hurt. Well...I had 2 heaping plates, which is not impossible to overcome, but those 2 plates led me to binge all night long. I told myself not to freak out. Hey, tomorrow is Monday - the famous start over day for millions of people - so I'll just restart then & get right back on track. NOT! I have been eating nonstop since this morning. I surely gained seven pounds by now. So, I am actually sitting here eating & I came upon this entry! YOU ARE RIGHT. I do not have to continue destroying my own happiness. I will stop this now. I will eat a normal dinner & try to recover. Thank you, for snapping me out of it. (Sorry for the novel!) You are the best!
- June 10, 2008 at 10:53 AM
- Teale said...
You are such a stinker. You always write an entry like this just when I need it! You have this crazy ESP or something;)
- June 10, 2008 at 11:39 AM
- Stephanie said...
Great post! As usual, I can totally relate. Isn't that crazy how when we do "give in" then we crave it more and more? I, too, don't see the point of the 100 calorie packs, but I guess they are helpful for some people. I just discovered yesterday (an amazing discovery for myself, a total chip and cracker whore) that a cup of blueberries in a baggie is a great snack. Who knew? :-) Anyway - thanks for sharing.
- June 10, 2008 at 11:50 AM
- Dinah Soar said...
Great post!
Love this analogy: "It's like longing for an ex-boyfriend. You miss him, you want him, you remember the good times and the tender embrace. But what you must remember is that you broke up with him for a reason. He was not good for you. Neither was that food. Look what it did to your body."
Just as the emotional aspect of love relationships interfere with good judgement, so it does with food choices.
Breaking free from the bondage is the hardest part. I've never understood how/why it is so easy for people to have sympathy for the anorexic who "can't" eat...as in poor thing...but when it comes to the obese one who can't "not eat" the judgement is harsh...as in "you big fat cow". Those of who who labor, and it is hard work, at losing our excess weight deserve better.
If the emotional issue was not part of the equation it would be so much easier. Realizing how much of our desire for food is an emotional desire is the first step to being free of the bondage.
- June 10, 2008 at 2:24 PM
- Honi said...
ROCKIN GOOD POST.. I am so anti those 100 cal packs for the very reasons you said. Treats are for out of the house and every now and then. However I do have my WW ice cream most evenings and I do have my fiber one bar for my work afternoon snack.. as well as some fresh fruit. We go out to dinner on the weekends and always try and go places that have a variety of healthier choices.. i.e. mediteranian style and this wonderful Southwestern place we recently discovered that makes wonderful talipia and fresh veggies with out OVER SERVING or OVER pricing you... eating healthy can be done.. and eating healthy can be fun.. thats what I have learned..
- June 10, 2008 at 3:05 PM
- Heather said...
great post! I like what yo usaid about "junk food in moderation". I used to do that with WW and learned nothing about how to eat well. I am like you now, I rarely eat it and feel so much better for it. Not for everyone, but I know it has aided me in my weight loss journey and I am so much healthier as a result.
- June 10, 2008 at 4:45 PM
- Trisha J. said...
I SOOOOOO needed that tonight! Thanks
- June 10, 2008 at 5:55 PM
- MB said...
Great Post!
I've been cuffed, bound and gagged for so many years. I've escaped a few times only to go right back to that fat prison.
It is so hard to get out of the binge pattern but I'm ready to break the bonds that hold me back from living a healthy life.
Let freedom ring.
- June 10, 2008 at 8:16 PM
- Mehler Family Blog said...
WOW WOW WOW!!! AGAIN, you have spoken into my heart! Thanks you for yet another amazing post!
- June 10, 2008 at 8:16 PM
lynn, you are rockin'! you have a gift and your writing ALWAYS speaks to me. it truly takes my breath away . lol. please keep posting! YOUR LIFE is such an inspiration TO ME! THANK YOU.
your blog is a true gem, really valuable, all of your experience are. you're so insightful and keep rocking on' and losin' those pounds.
- June 10, 2008 at 9:38 PM
- Lynne said...
Thanks Lynn - I am trying to remember that I DON'T need JUNK and that I really do love the good stuff.If my husband would only jump on my wagon and stop bringing it into the house I would be more inclined to exercise the right mind muscle...
- June 11, 2008 at 5:33 AM
This is a bit off-topic, but has to do with fruits and veggies, and since I know you are a farmer's market devotee, and I know the farmer's market can get expensive, I thought (for those of you who have enough outdoor space, unlike me) this was a very interesting article in the NY Times Food Section this morning: http://www.nytimes.com
- June 11, 2008 at 6:41 AM
Do you even realize how inspiring your written word is? Thank you! You just gave me an "aha moment". Keep them coming! =)
- June 11, 2008 at 9:39 AM
- TB--Milwaukee said...
The one thing that I do miss about being obese is being able to poke fun at myself and my weight. Somehow, a guy at a healthy weight just doesn't seem as funny as a "fat guy."
Thanks for the inspiring words.
- June 11, 2008 at 9:31 PM
- Poonie said...
Really fantastic post, it totally hit the right spots. I was having a similar discussion with a friend of mine just the other day and she described it as lacking "an adult relationship with food" and I thought that put it pretty well.
It's absolutely true what you said about eating junk food, we do stop craving it. It's basically like any addiction. You lose the need for it after the crazy withdrawal period, but if you fight it and eat clean for a while you don't miss the dirty stuff and eventually most of it is repulsive. But I do believe in allowing yourself some when you want it occasionally, it's about controlling it after that.
- June 13, 2008 at 5:48 AM


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No matter if you are trading for a living or just to supplement your earnings you have to think about the tax implication of your endeavors. As soon as you are profitable, in some weird cases even when you are in a loss, you will have to pay taxes or at least report your trading activity if you want to follow the rules.
And you should follow them—your focus should be on being successful in trading first and optimizing your taxes later.
General rules for traders from Canada
When you trade currencies by a broker based in any country you still have to pay taxes by the rules of your own nation. There is a huge variety in rules around the world with extreme examples, like a previous rule of paying taxes in some Eastern European countries on all of your gains without the ability to deduct losses from them. Those rules understandably lead to high levels of tax evasion and were abolished but still there are great discrepancies internationally.
Most of the countries tax their residents' forex gains when they remove their profits from their trading accounts. Some countries like the USA require their residents to report their profits yearly even when not removing them from their account.
Best practices
- Know and follow the deadlines!
This way there will be no surprises for you—fines could be very high if you miss reporting your gains and expenses.
- Know the rules and optimize your payments!
Optimizing your taxes is not evasion; it is the rational thing to do. If you know your rights and possible exemptions you may save hundreds or thousands of dollars a year. Think about the time you spend with it as a long-term investment.
- Don't try to evade taxes!
If you run a successful forex business you don't need to anyway. The risk of getting caught is an uncertainty that will mean unnecessary stress and that's not good for your performance.
- Keep your own records don't just rely on your broker's statements!
- The opening balance of the year
- The closing balance of the year
- Deposits and Withdrawals
- Interest incomes and paid interests
- Other costs, like fees and commissions
If you have these, even if you have more than one account, you will be able to fill most of the documents in the case your broker(s) have technical issues. It is always handy to have your own sensitive data redundantly stored.


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During a recent visit to LA, former "Dancing with the Stars" beauty and news correspondent Melissa Rycroft was spotted strolling with her adorable daughter Ava Grace and we caught a glimpse of their diaper bag. It's obvious this mama has good taste as she was seen with the purple Storksak Emily Leather parent bag.
I have a bit of a soft-spot for this bag as it is one of my personal favorites! Made from a supple, durable leather, the Storksak Emily is accented with brushed gold hardware and tan topstitching. The bold boho chic parent bag includes an adjustable/detachable shoulder strap, dual side zip thermo-insulated pockets (to keep liquids warm or cool for up to 4 hours), two front compartments with magnetic closure, a padded changing mat, a removable make-up bag, cell phone pocket, and a spacious main compartment with multiple elasticized pockets, a zip pocket for valuables, and a wipe-clean lining.
Melissa isn't the only celebrity fan of Storksak as she has actually joined a very long list of celebrities like Tiffani Thiessen, Rebecca Gayheart, Angelina Jolie, Gretchen Mol, and Toni Collette who have all been seen sporting the Storksak Emily in either a leather or a nylon fabric bag.
The Storksak Emily Leather is available in Purple, Taupe and Chocolate and regularly retails for $375.00, however, the Purple is on sale for $300.00 at www.Storksak.com.
Photo Credit: Splash News


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Colton's Deep Cover: A Romantic Suspense
NOOK Book(eBook - Original)
Available on Compatible NOOK Devices and the free NOOK Apps.
Running from an abusive past, nurse Chloe Moreno arms herself with a new identity and seeks an uncomplicated life in Eden Falls. But her security in the once-peaceful community is crumbling fast. Not only is there a kidnapper on the loose, but it seems her worst nightmare has tracked her down. She needs someone to trust and no one fits the bill better than Dr. Derek Colton.
Resident healer and protector, that's all Derek is expected to be. A new relationshipespecially with his beautiful, vulnerable new nurseis a risk he shouldn't take. Yet her life's in his hands. And once desire puts her in his arms, he must destroy the threat that's lingering far too close .
Product Details
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|The Coltons of Eden Falls , #3
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About the Author
Read an Excerpt
'I need to see you in my office, Amelia.'
Chloe Moreno froze as her boss's soft-spoken request sounded from behind. She'd been in the process of pulling a patient chart from the large steel cabinet in the file room, but now her fingers trembled, causing her to lose her grip on the Danford file. It fluttered to the shiny linoleum floor, and as papers spilled out of the blue folder, the heat of embarrassment blasted through her.
Cheeks scorching, Chloe dropped to her knees and quickly collected the strewn papers. "Sorry. I'm such a klutz sometimes," she murmured, keeping her eyes downcast. "Let me just pick this up and I'll meet you in your offi"
A shadow fell over her. Clothing rustled as her boss knelt down, his big, gorgeous hands reaching out to help her collect the papers.
Swallowing, Chloe gathered up the courage to lift her headand found a pair of deep brown eyes watching her in amusement.
"No need to look so terrified," Derek Colton said in that smooth, baritone voice of his. "I'm not going to fire you for dropping a file, Amelia."
Amelia. Lord, would she ever get used to that name? It was the reason she'd dropped the file in the first place; hearing Derek address her by a name that wasn't her own made her so damn uneasy, so very jittery.
You're Amelia Phillips now. Get used to it.
Chloe drew in a breath, heeding the commanding voice in her head. She couldn't keep jumping at shadows and battling a sense of disorientation each time someone called her Amelia. She was Amelia. Chloe Moreno was dead. And according to the LA Times website, Felix had shelled out the big bucks for her memorial service. A funeral hadn't been an option, seeing as her body was presumed to be at the bottom of the Pacific.
Shoving the unwelcome thoughts from her mind, Chloe rose to her feet and tucked the patient file under her arm. Derek stood up, too, his six-foot frame towering over her.
A shiver danced up her spine, a common occurrence in this man's presence. Derek Colton was too attractive for his own goodtall, muscular, ruggedly handsome. And his chocolate-brown eyes were too damn perceptive. Each time he focused that intense gaze on her, she felt as if he was peering into her soul. Like he knew all her secrets.
But he didn't. He couldn't. Chloe herself had lost track of all the secrets and lies. Over the past six months she'd spun a web so thickly complex that she didn't even know who she was anymore.
She knew who she wasn't, though.
Chloe, the wife of celebrity plastic surgeon Felix Moreno, no longer existed. She'd been replaced with Amelia, the quiet, hardworking nurse who'd impressed the heck out of her new boss when she'd helped him save a patient from bleeding out three weeks ago.
And as long as she continued to impress Derek with her skills, she could stay in Eden Falls and live the life she'd always dreamed of.
The life she'd earned.
So, pasting on a professional smile, she glanced at Derek and said, "What did you need to talk about?"
"Let's go to my office." His expression revealed nothing, no hint of what he needed to discuss with her.
As Chloe trailed after him, she took a calming breath, silently praying that he wasn't about to fire her. Unfortunately, inhaling was a bad idea because it only succeeded in drawing Derek's appealing scent into her lungs. The man smelled so good, like soap and aftershave and something intoxicatingly masculine.
Her gaze homed in on his broad back, covered by the white coat that contrasted with his smooth, mocha skin. He kept his black hair in a buzz cut, which left the nape of his strong, corded neck exposed. Another shiver ran through her as she admired him, and she was grateful that he couldn't see her face. She'd worked hard to hide her visceral reaction to this man, the flames that licked at her flesh each time he flashed one of those sexy, easygoing smiles in her direction.
Derek led her down the brightly lit hallway of the clinic. When they reached his office, he opened the door and gestured for her to enter first, just like the gentleman he was. Gosh, she'd never met anyone like himthe man oozed charm and sex appeal, yet at the same time, he exuded a quiet strength that was downright inspiring.
In the three weeks she'd worked as a nurse in Derek's practice, she'd been so tempted to dig deeper and get to know this intriguing man, but the need to maintain a certain level of professionalism had reined in the impulse. This job meant everything to her. Getting chummy with the boss would be a bad idea, especially because she hadn't exactly told him the truth about who she really was.
"Have a seat," Derek said pleasantly, gesturing to one of the plush chairs in front of his commanding mahogany desk.
Chloe sat, nervously crossing her ankles.
Derek settled in his leather chair and clasped his hands. "I wanted to discuss your performance," he began, those deep brown eyes seeking her out again.
She experienced a twinge of panic. "Oh. Did I do something wrong?"
He chuckled, and the husky sound teased her senses. "On the contrary. You're doing everything right. I wanted to talk about making this arrangement permanent."
Relief and pleasure washed over her. "Really?"
"Really," he said with a twinkle in his eyes. "I know we didn't have a chance to talk about the long term, what with you being thrust into this practice so abruptly. Have I told you how wonderfully you handled the Violet Chastain situation?"
Fighting a burst of pride, Chloe smiled. "Numerous times. How is Violet doing, by the way?"
"Nearly fully recovered and driving my brother crazy." Derek grinned. "But he loves it. I don't think I've ever seen Gunnar this happy."
Yeah, love could do that to a person. Or so she'd heard. Chloe hadn't lucked out in the relationship department, unlike Derek's older brother Gunnar, who'd found happiness with Hollywood starlet Violet Chastain. Violet had been in town researching a movie role when she'd been attacked and left for dead on the side of the road. Fortunately, she'd survived the assault and near-kidnapping and found a loving partner in Gunnar Colton, who'd stepped in to help Violet with her twin boys while she recovered from the injury to her leg.
Although Violet had gotten her happy ending, managing to escape her assailants, the attackers had abducted the young woman who'd been accompanying the actress.
The memory brought an ache to Chloe's heart. "Has there been any word on Mary and Hannah?"
Derek instantly sobered. "None. Emma and Tate are still working the case, but there are no new leads."
She shook her head in dismay, unable to comprehend the events that had transpired. The town of Eden Falls bordered Paradise Ridge, which was home to a small Amish community looking to live quiet, peaceful lives. But there was nothing peaceful about recent events. Four Amish girls had disappeared over the past month. Two had been found dead in a remote cabin near the Colton ranch, and the other twoMary Yoder and Hannah Troyerwere still missing.
Derek's siblings, Emma and Tate, both worked in law enforcement, and while investigating the disappearances, they'd uncovered a horrific truththe missing girls were being sold in a sex ring that catered to seedy buyers with even seedier intentions. Emma had gotten closer to Hannah's brother Caleb over the course of the investigation.
It sounded unimaginable, yet it didn't surprise Chloe to learn that sadistic people like that existed.
After all, she'd spent the past twelve years living with her very own personal sadist.
"I hate thinking about what those girls must be going through," Derek said. His handsome face revealed the frustration he felt over the situation. "I wish I could do more to help, but I fear I'd only get in Emma and Tate's way."
"I wish I could do more, too," she said softly, her heart breaking for those missing girls.
"Well, you're doing your fair share around here," Derek answered, steering the discussion back on track. "I'm going to be honest, Amelia. You're a real asset to this clinic. Having you around these past few weeks has made me realize I can't afford to lose you. That's why I wanted to sit down with you and talk about your plans."
"My plans?" Chloe echoed.
He nodded. "I wanted to make sure you still plan on making Eden Falls your home, that you're not going to suddenly pack your bags and move to Philly or accept a job with some other big-city hospital."
"Not at all," she blurted out. "Eden Falls is where I want to be, Dr. Colton. And the only job I'm interested in is this one."
"That's good to hear." Those brown eyes danced playfully. "And how many times must I remind you to call me Derek?"
"Right. Sorry. D-Derek." Her voice wobbled, and she tried not to cringe. She was forty-one years old, for crying out loud. Why did she always stammer like a schoolgirl in the presence of this man?
Derek seemed to be fighting a grin, which told her he'd picked up on her bout of nervousness. "Well, if you're serious about sticking around, then I want you to know I'm thrilled to have you. It still amazes me at times, the calming effect you have on anyone you come into contact with." He looked vaguely embarrassed. "You're really good with the patients, Amelia."
"So are you." The abrupt admission caused her cheeks to heat up again.
Uh, suck up much?
Fine, she had a total case of hero-worship when it came to Derek Colton. But how could she not? The man happened to be an incredible doctor. He had an easy rapport with his patients, and he carried himself with a self-assuredness that made her envious. She wished she had half the confidence that this talented doctor possessed in spades.
Also, it didn't hurt that he was drop-dead gorgeous, which meant that taking orders from him could hardly be considered a chore. And even though she had about ten years on him, he carried himself with a sense of maturity and strength that tugged at something inside her. Derek was a first-class man, the kind of man she wouldn't have believed existed if she hadn't just spent three weeks by his side.
"Anyway, that was all I wanted," Derek said, scraping back his chair. "Could you prepare the exam room for our three o'clock?"
"Of course." Chloe stood and smoothed out the hem of her shirt. "I already pulled up the Danford file."
A smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. "Efficient as always, aren't you, Amelia?"
"Just trying to make an impression on the boss," she answered lightly.
He chuckled again. Her heart did a little flip.
Oh, brother. This had to stop. Her growing attraction to Derek was becoming a total nuisance. She hadn't traveled clear across the country to get lovesick about a man.
She was still a married woman, after all.
As a lump of bitterness rose in her throat, Chloe quickly banished the reminder. "I'll prep the exam room," she said before ducking out of Derek's office.
Her white sneakers squeaked against the floor as she hurried down the hall. She sucked in a few deep breaths, wishing she could erase the memory of Felix from her mind. But each time she thought she was close to forgetting her former life, those annoying reminders crept in like a cat burglar.
Why couldn't she just put the past behind her? After too many years of living in fear and being tormented by the man she'd foolishly married, she was finally free of Felix Moreno. She'd spent the past two years painstakingly preparing for this, stashing money, renewing her nursing license, arranging her escape. Once she'd gotten free, she'd spent six months making her way east, never staying in one place for long while she waited for the dust to settle. Waited until she could be absolutely certain that Felix truly believed she was dead.
She'd wound up in Eden Falls, Pennsylvania, by pure chanceshe'd run out of gas right outside of town. She'd intended on filling the tank and continuing on to Philadelphia, but the moment she'd laid eyes on the idyllic Eden Falls, she'd fallen in love. This small town had everything she'd always dreamed of and never had in Californiawarmth, joy, a tight-knit sense of family and community. There was nothing fake about the people of Eden Falls; they were kind, decent folks who looked out for each other, which was the complete opposite of the phony, materialistic people she'd been surrounded with her entire life.
When she'd sat in the little diner in the heart of downtown and flipped through the newspaper, the job ad she'd come across had been like a neon sign from a higher power. The clinic in town was in need of a nurseand what do you know, Chloe had a nursing degree just waiting to be put to use again.
This past month had been so utterly wonderful. She loved her job, adored her cozy one-bedroom apartment, respected the heck out of her boss.
So why was she still battling the impulse to continually look over her shoulder?
As Chloe entered the exam room, something cold touched her cheek. She jumped, then relaxed when she realized it was her own hand. She'd involuntarily begun to stroke the left side of her face, a nervous gesture she'd been trying to wean herself out of. She didn't want to draw any undue attention to her face, and besides, the thin ridge of scar tissue marring her skin beneath the makeup simply served as another reminder of the life she'd left behind.
Letting her hand drop, she crossed the room and quickly rolled a fresh sheet of exam paper over the table. Then she strode toward the cabinet against the far wall and removed a blue hospital johnny.
As she placed the gown on the table, she squared her shoulders, forcing her brain into work mode. She couldn't agonize over Felix anymore. She was free now. Safe.
And happy. Damn it, for the first time in her life she was honest-to-God happy, and she refused to let Felix Moreno take that away. He'd already taken too much from her. He'd terrorized her, scarred her, humiliated her.
But he hadn't broken her.
As a rush of pride welled up in her belly, Chloe left the exam room and headed for the waiting area, banishing all thoughts of Felix and her past from her mind. The only thing she needed to focus on right now was calling in the next patient and proving to Derek Colton that hiring her had been the best decision he'd ever made.
Had he made the wrong decision in hiring Amelia?
Derek puckered his brows as he watched his new nurse slip her arm through Rachel Danford's. He couldn't hear what Amelia was saying, but he made out the encouraging note in her soft voice.
Rachel and her husband, Jacob, looked stricken as they listened to Amelia. Jacob was strong and stoic in his dark trousers, brown suspenders and white shirt, his work-hewn hands clutching a wide-brimmed straw hat. Rachel wore a modest black dress and lace-up boots, and beneath the white head covering indicating her married status, her light brown hair was pulled back in a tight bun. She was a pretty girl with a spattering of freckles on the bridge of her nose and the kindest brown eyes Derek had ever seen.
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## Okay, first and foremost let me say that I buy everything I can get my hands on by Elle Kennedy. She is beyond brilliant. However, I did not care for this book. It's almost like she didn't write this. SPOILER ALERT: The heroine was so needy. Ugh. My least kind of heroine. She kept saying she was going to leave over and over but she didn't. And three days after sleeping with the hero, she kept asking the hero, "how do you feel about me?", "what's going on between us?", "what about us?". It was embarrassing. Also, the dead wife was a huge issue for me in this book. She was mentioned just as much as the heroine. The hero was constantly comparing the heroine to her. Tess this....Tess that. Tess, Tess, Tess. It took away all and any romance. I hope I never hear that name again. Sorry, I cannot recommend this book, but would highly recommend Ms. Kennedy's "Out of Uniform" or "Paradise" series.


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Can Big Data Stop Bad Cops?
" This article is part of an ongoing examination by The Washington Post of fatal shootings by police. In 2015, The Post began tracking cases nationwide and compiled a database of all fatal shootings by officers in the line of duty. The project has expanded this year to include details about the officers involved. View the 2016 database here.
The Justice Department's investigation of Baltimore police this month rebuked the agency for an entrenched culture of discriminatory policing. Deep within their findings, Justice investigators singled out a core failure: Baltimore's system for identifying troubled officers was broken and existed in name only.
In Baltimore, Justice found that critical disciplinary records were excluded from its early intervention system, that police supervisors often intervened only after an officer's behavior became egregious and that when they did, the steps they took were inadequate....
...The problems with Baltimore's early intervention system are not isolated to police in that city. In numerous departments nationwide, police have failed to use early intervention systems effectively, Justice has found. Since 1994, 36 civil rights investigations by Justice discovered that local agencies had deeply flawed early intervention systems or no system in place at all, according to a review of those investigations by The Washington Post."
View the DOJ Report
Labels: Baltimore police, Police Accountability, police discipline, police misconduct, police racism, police use of deadly force, police-minority relations


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|Sighting Report
|Occurred : 1/30/2007 23:00 (Entered as : 01/30/2007 23:00)
Reported: 2/8/2007 8:08:39 PM 20:08
Posted: 2/24/2007
Location: St. Thomas (near; on cruise ship),
Shape: Oval
Duration:several hours
|Many clusters lof lights over the Caribbean
Over the past several years we have noticed flashing lights over the Caribbean while we have been on cruises. I have pointed them out to many people on the ship and that would always say that they were aircraft. I noted that they would not move as I watched them for several hours. On Jan28, 28 and 30 I was on top deck of a cruise ship and seen a group of flashing lights off the starboard side at both 11 o'clock and 1 o'clock. The cluster at 1 o'clock was very bright with red, blue, white and yellow flashing lights. Very bright. At about 12 midnight we heard a loud "gong" and a deep voice which the wife and I could not understand. The nest day I contacted an engineer on the bridge of our ship and inquired as to the existance of the lights and if they were a satalite. He said he had seen the lights, described them and could not tell me their origin. The wife snd also noted several more light clusters way off in the distance.


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Dublin Unified School District Appoints Multiple Principals and District Staff
In the words of Assistant Superintendent Keith Rogenski, Monday was a "big" night for the Dublin Unified School District. A special meeting of the board of trustees was established – primary to address these new leadership appointments for their respective school sites.
Over the years, we have witnessed the fluid nature of leadership within this district and Monday was no different. Specifically, Mr. Rogenski was offered the opportunity to speak on behalf of several candidates for four existing vacancies. Upon which, he would turn the mantle over to Superintendent Steve Hanke to make the recommendation to the board of trustees. Subsequently, the board would entertain a motion to appoint with a following second of motion and then a vote by the entire board.
In order, let us review the actions of the board tonight:
Assistant High Principal, Dublin High School: Given the expanded enrollment at DHS and the desire to provide greater service to its students, an opportunity was identified. The appointment goes to Paul Faris, who is a familiar face within the District. Mr. Faris joined DUSD as both a Physical Education and Adapted P.E. Instructor in 1992. Subsequently, he coached football and track at DHS and then served at Fallon Middle School in the role of Dean of Students and Assistant Principal. He cited that it would have been an "easy choice" to remain at FMS, but he embraced the opportunity to make a difference at Dublin High School.
Principal, Kolb Elementary School: With the current vacancy existing in the Principal position, DUSD moved to appoint Joyce Gibson into this role. Ms. Gibson is a graduate of Sacramento State University and also achieved her Multiple Subject Credential in Elementary Education. Since 1997, she has been employed by the Antioch Unified School District. She later attained a M.S. in Educational Leadership at Cal State University East Bay. Since 2007, Joyce has served as a Principal in both the elementary and middle school settings. She is eager to work with both the students and parents of the Kolb community.
Principal, Wells Middle School: A vacancy was created when existing Principal Kevin Grier moved into the District Office in the HR department. Fulfilling this void will be Dr. Ean Ainsworth. Ean has worked in public education since 2000. Most notably, he was a classroom teacher in both the middle and high school rank in the Mt. Diablo School District. For four years, he also served as the Principal at Valley View Middle School in Pleasant Hill. He attained an undergraduate degree from CSU Hayward, a M.A. from Chapman University and ultimately his Doctorate in Education from Brandham University. He is also the parent of three boys.
Director of Educational Services: The final appointment of the night was reserved for Dr. Sarah Breed. Sarah achieved both an undergraduate degree in English & Government and a Masters in English from San Francisco State University. For years, she served as a Literacy Specialist in the Oakland Unified School District. Ultimately, she attained a Doctorate of Studies in Education from Mills College in Oakland. She will hope to provide the District with a wide-ranging set of skills that will serve across the entire Pre-K to 12 grade spectrum.
OneDublin.org would like to congratulate all four appointees for their accomplishments and diligence during the candidacy process. Without question, DUSD is expanding and only highly qualified individual prospects will perpetuate continued excellence. We wish the best.
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