Teen Murders Down –And The BIG Reason Is Quite A Surprise!
George Tita, a criminologist at UC Irvine who studies homicide, said the increase in age is consistent with the changing nature of gang violence and the sharp decrease in killings throughout the county.
Others say that the trauma of losing brothers, cousins and fathers to street violence may make gang life less appealing to younger people. “It’s the little brother looking at what happened to the big brother and saying, ‘I don’t want to go that way,’” said Elliott Currie, another UC Irvine criminologist. “It’s something I think we criminologists don’t talk about enough.”
Flowers By The Fridge
Flowers of the Day . . .
Yes – January 27. Why I Always Wake Up Screaming On This Date . . .
It’s My Recurring Quaker Nightmare . . . .
All the gory details are here, now:
hour By Hour, It Comes Closer . . . .
All Will SOON Be Revealed . . .
“Mapping The Left” In Carolina
The image below was abstracted from a new website, “Mapping The [North Carolina] Left”, just unveiled by the folks at our local rightwing “think” tank, the Civitas Institute. It purports to unmask, name and chart the “vast leftwing conspiracy” that it insists has been running the state, notwithstanding the huge rightwing majority in the legislature. Its database names many hundreds of people, groups, and funders.
And despite a lengthy spell of scrolling, I am abashed and embarrassed to report that my name didn’t turn up anywhere on it. Nor did those of the two activist groups I have worked with, one full-time and one part-time, for most of the 13 years I’ve been in Carolina. And dammit, it wasn’t for lack of trying! In fact, I thought they’ve been pretty doggone effective, given that they were devoted to pretty much hopeless causes. But what do I know?? Continue reading “Mapping The Left” In Carolina
Booklist — Chuck Fager
(Not Entirely Complete, But Mostly)
My first book was published in 1967, and I haven’t really stopped since. Most of them have been either self-published or issued by small presses. That reflects both my stubbornness in the face of publisher bad judgment (i.e., rejection), and a preoccupation with niche subjects (e.g., Quakers) plus hopeless causes (peace, civil rights, ending torture). It hasn’t been all “vanity” — some titles have sold several thousand copies, and overall, I haven’t lost money on the efforts. Nowadays — hallelujah! — self-publishing is a mass phenomenon, and (almost) respectable.
Same Sex Marriage Comes to Fayetteville-Fort Bragg, North Carolina
They Vowed It Would NEVER Happen! But It DID –
While I lived in Fayetteville, as Director of the longtime peace project Quaker House, we worked hard for change and justice, including for LGBT folks.
It was an uphill slog, with many difficult moments. Here’s one, a video we made in response to an ugly campaign to put a ban on same sex marriage in the NC constitution
Continue reading Same Sex Marriage Comes to Fayetteville-Fort Bragg, North Carolina
Quaker Alert! Thunder In Carolina
Quaker Alert! There’s big trouble brewing in North Carolina Yearly Meeting-FUM: talk (and MORE than talk) about purges and schism.
I’ve now uploaded an exclusive hot-off-the-digital-presses report, a Preview from the journal Quaker Theology. The full report is here:
“Survival & Resistance” A Message from 2006 That is Timely Again
[Note: This essay was originally published in Friends Journal; but it’s now behind their paywall. It still seems timely today; maybe more so.]
Quakerism was born in a time of revolutionary upheaval. Yet it learned how to survive when the revolution failed and was followed by decades of persecution.
I sometimes hear Quakers waxing nostalgic about recovering the fire and fervor of “early Friends.”
Continue reading “Survival & Resistance” A Message from 2006 That is Timely Again
Is A Baptist Style Bust-Up Coming to North Carolina Quakerism?
I’m reading a history of Baptists in Alabama, and it’s tough going. After several days, I’m only as far as 1850. Yet the book is well-written, the story often absorbing; so what’s the trouble?
This: almost every paragraph evokes parallels to current events in North Carolina Yearly Meeting of pastoral Quakers.
Continue reading Is A Baptist Style Bust-Up Coming to North Carolina Quakerism?