Tag: KERA

Did I Steal My Daughter

KERA’s Think had a great show yesterday with the author of the Mother Jones Magazine article, “Did I Steal My Daughter?”
I thought it was a very interesting discussion and look at foreign adoptions and some of the thoughts a mother and father might have from both sides of the coin. Laurie and I have talked about possibly adopting a child from Russia or another country someday so who knows… the information could come in more handy than we realize.
From Think:

What do parents who adopt children from abroad really know about the child’s circumstances and background? Our guest this hour, journalist Elizabeth Larsen, plunged headfirst into the world of international adoption when her family adopted a young girl from Guatemala. She writes about the experience in “Did I Steal My Daughter?” which appears in the November/December issue of Mother Jones Magazine.

Listen online

Why We Remember, Why We Forget

While waiting at CarMax yesterday to get my truck appraised I picked up a copy of National Geographic and read half of an article on memory and why we remember or forget certain things. It was a great read (at least what I got through reading) and I wish I could have finished it. But luckily KERA’s Think talked with the National Geographic author Joshua Foer about the story and I can play catch up online. From the program:

What makes memory possible and why do we forget the things that we forget? We’ll explore the realm of memory this hour with Joshua Foer, whose cover story “Remember This” appears in the November, 2007 issue of National Geographic Magazine.

Listen online

The founding fathers and the battle over church and state

From KERA’s Think:

What role did religion play in the founding of our nation? This highly-debated topic is the subject of Dr. Forrest Church’s new book “So Help Me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle Over Church and State” (Harcourt, 2007).

I’m listening to the program now. Sounds very interesting – take 45 minutes or so and give it a listen – then share your comments.

Rock & Roll stops the traffic*

My mate Thomas over in Glasgow is helping push a concert featuring Klearkut, Ashley Ballard, Yvonne Lyon and The Glasgow Gospel Choir on Nov. 20th. The cause – STOP HUMAN TRAFFICKING. I can’t make the show, but maybe Elijah and his bride and Erikito and her husband can make the show.

Here’s a brief history:

In 2001 the chocolate industry committed to eradicate the worst forms of child labour. In 2007 the world is still waiting.
Nearly half the world’s chocolate comes from cocoa plantations in the Cote d’Ivoire, West Africa
Twelve thousand children have been trafficked to work on these cocoa plantations.
We want all chocolate companies to be able to give us a traffik free guarantee: that the cocoa beans which make their chocolate have not been harvested by trafficked children.
Download resources for you and your community to fight for a traffik free guarantee on chocolate at www.stopthetraffik.org/chocolatecampaign

It’s amazing to think that human trafficking and slavery still takes place today – but it does – even in the “Good ole’ U. S. of A.”
in fact KERA’s Think had a full hour dedicated to the issue on yesterday’s show. Host Chris Boyd spoke with Journalist John Bowe. His new book, “Nobodies: Modern American Slave Labor and the Dark Side of the New Global Economy” (Random House, 2007), exposes a practice which fuels the low prices that benefit us all.

In the interview Bowe makes the statement that most slavery in the U.S. isn’t as much about saving money – as it is about how we view others. When the cost of pesticide increased 1 cent per pound, the growers simply increased the cost of oranges. Yet when the workers asked for a pay increase of 1 cent per pound, which would have doubled many of their yearly incomes, the growers said, “No. We can’t do that.” When asked why not, the growers responded, “Look my tractor doesn’t tell me how to farm.”

Yet we (myself included) let these atrocities continue when we make uninformed buying decisions. When will it stop?

* I wonder how many people will recognize this blog post title (leave a comment if you do).

A Day That Will Not Live In Infamy (But Should)

KERA ran a commentary by local (Midlothian) writer Tom Dodge this morning.
Pretty interesting. In it he talks about the killing of undercover Midlothian PD Officer George Raffield by two MHS students.

October marks twenty years since the world saw a news helicopter aerial video of a body lying face-down in the woods beside a red pickup. It was a young narcotics officer, murdered by Midlothian High School boys.
It was a tragedy but also an important story, important because the victim, George Raffield, was an undercover police officer and the assassins who planned it and carried it out were only sixteen and seventeen years old. It was also a huge story because it signaled to a complacent country during the Reagan “Just Say No” era that drugs were no longer just a big city problem, no longer just an inner-city problem, no longer just a minority problem. Drugs had come to the white middle-class, church-going, family-values-espousing, small-town suburbs.

Even though I grew up in East Dallas, I don’t recall this story personally, but it was mentioned several times in the newsroom when I worked at the WDL. Interesting history considering the impact it left on folks.
Read the full commentary or listen to the story.

The physical and spiritual Deep Ellum

Michael Tate commented the other day on KERA 90.1 FM on the future of Deep Ellum.

When we say “Deep Ellum” we’re really talking about two different yet related things: there’s the Deep Ellum neighborhood, a physical part of Dallas; and then there’s a Deep Ellum spirit, an essence that transcended the streets and storefronts.

Tate predicts the area will evolve into a new McKinney or Uptown district in the future.