May 31, 2013

Tummies

Copycat.

May 16, 2013

BAA Invites 2013 Non-Finishers to Run 2014 Boston Marathon

By Matt Pepin, Boston.com Staff

The Boston Athletic Association has invited runners who were prevented from finishing the 2013 Boston Marathon because of the bombings near the finish line to participate in the 2014 Boston Marathon.

"The opportunity to run down Boylston Street and to cross the finish line amid thousands of spectators is a significant part of the entire Boston Marathon experience," BAA executive director Tom Grilk said in a press release. "With the opportunity to return and participate in 2014, we look forward to inviting back these athletes and we expect that most will renew their marathon training commitment. Boston spectators are known for their impassioned support and unbridled enthusiasm, and they will give these returning athletes some of the loudest cheers at next year's race. We want to thank our participants for their patience as we continue to work through the details of arranging this accommodation for them, and we ask for continued patience from the running community as we plan the 2014 Boston Marathon next April."

The rest: http://www.boston.com/sports/marathon/blog/2013/05/baa_invites_2013_non-finishers.html

Several of my friends were prevented from finishing. Under normal circumstances, they would have to re-qualify by running another marathon between now and April, and even then, their chances of qualifying were slim due to the volume of people applying to race. When they got this news this morning, many of them burst into tears.



Yes indeed.

May 15, 2013

An Open Letter to Gary Pruitt, President and CEO of the Associated Press

Dear Mr. Pruitt et al.:

Some of us in the so-called "alternative media" have been yelling and screaming for years about the government's legalized ability to plunder our right to privacy to little avail, while you big dogs in the "mainstream" news media haven't bothered to give a damn in all that time. Too taxing to report accurately and consistently on complicated issues, yeah?

It was Abraham Lincoln who said, "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." A shame; maybe if you'd been better at bringing the real facts to the people, the people would be better informed, and the elections/legislation that legalized the travails you currently endure could have been avoided.

It's funny to me that the Associated Press is nailing itself to a cross because you've been victimized by the same laws, politicians and tide of history you've either blissfully ignored or gleefully promoted for so many years.

Well, welcome to the future you helped to create. I have neither pity nor sorrow for you, but I am hopeful that your sudden inclusion in the ranks of the "Oh Shit, They Can Do That?" Club will inspire you to truthfully and factually inform the American people about what has been happening to their country right under their, and your, nose.

Sincerely,

William Rivers Pitt

An Itty Bitty Pity Party for the Associated Press
http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16352-an-itty-bitty-pity-party-for-the-associated-press

May 3, 2013

Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque

(Photo: Tomas Munita / The New York Times)

Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque
By William Rivers Pitt
Truthout | Op-Ed

Friday 03 May 2013

Two days after the bombs went off at the finish line of the Boston Marathon, a young Palestinian woman named Heba Abolaban took her 9-month-old daughter out for a walk in Malden, Massachusetts. She was accosted on her way by a fist-wielding man who screamed, "Fuck you! Fuck you, Muslims, you are terrorists!" Heba and her daughter escaped the attack unscathed. Her assailant has not yet been identified.

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Brothers and Sisters, the Muslims of Boston and America are offended. We are sickened by the massacre of sacred human life at the Boston Marathon. Once again, the religion of Islam has been publicly distorted in the worst example: the slaughter of innocents in the name of some kind of incomprehensible Jihadist rage! Yusuf Mosque, and along with it the entire Muslim community of Boston and throughout the United States, is outraged.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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Shortly after this assault, I wrote a note via email to Ibrahim Rahim, who is Imam of the Yusuf Mosque in Brighton, my home. "Peace and love in this time of trial," I wrote. A few days later, Imam Rahim wrote back: "Thank you for your support. We are grateful to have friends in the community such as yourself. We're a proud religious institution here in Brighton and we are outraged by what has happened. Thank you for being a friend to Islam and the Mosque. I am attaching this past Friday's Sermon Notes as a courtesy. They may assist you with regard to any discussions you are having."

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And now most people want desperately to know how the Muslims feel. They desire to know this because these two men have been associated with Islam. We don't know them as Muslims. They did not attend this Mosque, and they would never have been welcome here. We know them as they have been defined: two Russian and/or Chechen asylum seekers consumed by anger and hate.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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(snip)

Democratic House Representative Keith Ellison has served his district and his country with distinction in the United States Congress. He is Muslim. Shortly after the Boston Marathon bombing, Fox News host Eric Bolling called for national racial profiling of Muslims, buttressing his argument by calling Rep. Ellison the "Muslim apologist in Congress." Bolling pointedly observed that Ellison "raised his right hand and took the oath of office on the Quran," before describing him as "dangerous."

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Islam would prefer that eight-year-old Martin William Richard be alive today still holding his sign that reads, "No More Hurting People: Peace!" Today, the Muslim Community lifts its voices of prayer for Martin! And we pray for his entire family that has been ripped apart. Islam would prefer that Boston University Mathematics Graduate student Lu Lingzi was alive today conducting her research at the university. Islam would prefer that 29-year-old Krystle Campbell was alive today, inspiring people with her smile and her outgoing nature. Islam would prefer that MIT Officer Sean Collier was alive today protecting and serving the MIT campus.

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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(snip)

There is a corner in every human heart made to be filled with hatred, fear, and violence. It is our common curse, and when we feed that space, it grows larger, stronger, and more vicious. Whoever you are, wherever you are from, whatever you believe, that corner exists within you. You know it because you have filled it, in one way or another, at one time or another, because it is there, and because you are human.

The great challenge of our common humanity, and of every individual human, is to make a void of that space as best we can. In that simple discipline lives freedom, for it is our hatreds that bind us and stagger us to ruin. Hatred of the "Other" is the puppet string upon which we dangle. When you hate someone you have never met for who they are or what they believe, you are doing the work of those whose joy is in your rage.

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Today we insist to our neighbors that we Muslims are people of Peaceful Covenant. As our neighbors, your blood is sacred, your lives are sacred: no one has a right to kill anyone of us for any reason!

- Imam Ibrahin Rahim, Friday Prayers at Yusuf Mosque, 27 April 2013

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When you succumb to hate, when you fill that dark and ravening space within your heart, you become someone else's fool.

Peace be unto you, and unto us all.

The rest: http://truth-out.org/opinion/item/16150-friday-prayers-at-yusuf-mosque