Sean Penn on 1st Anniversary of Quake: 'Haiti Cannot Wait Any Longer'
A prominent group of humanitarian activists gathered on Monday at The Brookings Institution, the Washington think tank, for a discussion on recovery efforts in Haiti one year after a devastating 7.0 magnitude earthquake decimated the small island nation and its capital city, Port-au-Prince. The speakers addressed many of Haiti's most pressing crises, which now include a deadly epidemic of cholera, routine sexual violence against women and girls living in refugee camps, and a national infrastructure that remains largely in shambles. Sean Penn, the Academy Award-winning actor who runs a ...
Among Young Voters, Obama's Campaign Magic Fades
In the days after Barack Obama was elected in 2008, Kevin Hollinshead hoped the president would become a leader reminiscent of Franklin Delano Roosevelt -- capable of steering the country out of a massive economic crisis while taking on his sharpest critics. But Hollinshead, a senior at Colorado State University, now feels that the president has ceded too much to his Republican opposition and failed to live up to the ideals of his campaign. "They've decided that he's public enemy No. 1, and they'll do whatever it takes to ruin him," Hollinshead said of Republicans in Congress. "And rather ...
Ex-Colombian President Uribe Draws More Fire at Georgetown
As former Colombian president Álvaro Uribe Vélez concluded his first-semester teaching assignment at Georgetown University on Thursday, the controversy surrounding his faculty appointment remained close to the surface, with students and professors continuing to rail against his human rights record as president and his hiring at the Jesuit school. Thursday night, students held a farewell "vigil" outside of the university's Walsh Building to mark Uribe's last lecture on campus this term, the latest in a series of protests. The tension has occasionally spilled over into Uribe's classes. In ...
JFK Secret Service Agents Speak Out After 47 Years
Five former members of John F. Kennedy's Secret Service detail gathered at Georgetown University on Monday night for a public discussion of their time serving the iconic president. The event, which included a preview of an upcoming Discovery Channel documentary on the agents' careers, touched on the defining facets of the Kennedy presidency and ranged from lighthearted anecdotes about time with the first family to somber recollections of Kennedy's assassination in Dallas in November 1963. Among the most powerful moments of the night occurred when Clint Hill -- famously visible in the Zapruder ...
Saturday is Rally Day for Comedians Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert
WASHINGTON – Rob Silverstein, a freshman at Georgetown University, believes Saturday's "Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear" on the National Mall will be a "Woodstock-like event for a lot of people." "This is an event that I'm going to remember for the rest of my life," he predicts. Perhaps the sponsors are thinking the same thing. A rally in front of the U.S. Capitol, with national visibility, is new territory for Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert, the popular TV comedians who concocted the event. According to the Facebook page for the rally, more than 200,000 people have signed up to ...
Gay Prejudice Starts on the Playground
When I was in middle school, few accusations silenced a room as quickly as this one: "What are you? Gay?" If you wore the wrong kind of t-shirt, if you botched an assist during a soccer game, or if you listened to outdated music, you could expect the dreaded interrogation. My classmates always asked the question with a vitriol that made clear what the right answer should be. No. I'm not gay. But I was, and I knew it. As you grow older, it becomes easier to forget the brutality of childhood. Prejudice begins on the playground, and children often face the most intolerance at an age when they ...
As the Midterms Approach, Liberals Rally to Build Enthusiasm
WASHINGTON -- Thousands of demonstrators from around the country rallied on the National Mall Saturday in a passionate and determined display to build enthusiasm for liberal causes and candidates one month before the midterm elections. The crowd stretched from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial to the edge of the Washington Monument, stoked by a series of speakers, musicians, and even comedians. Sponsors of the event, called "One Nation Working Together," made the case for liberal causes, such as universal health care and immigration reform, and urged voters to fight back against the Tea ...
D.C. Rally Promotes Jobs, Justice, Schools -- And the Midterms
WASHINGTON -- Huge crowds gathered along the national Mall Saturday afternoon for a rally intended to re-energize liberal voters before the midterm elections next month. Attendees enjoyed clear skies while listening to an array of speakers from civil rights activist Rev. Al Sharpton to television pundit and host Ed Schultz. The collection of more than 400 liberal groups' goal was to attract tens of thousands of supporters in an effort to stir interest in what may be a tough midterm Election Day for Democrats. "We hope that everyone who comes to the rally is committed to jobs, justice, and ...
Louisiana Unprepared to Protect Children in Disasters
Five years after Hurricane Katrina, the state of Louisiana remains unprepared to protect children in the event of a natural disaster, according to a new report issued by Save the Children, the non-profit relief organization. The report, which the group published last week, revealed that Louisiana child care centers and public schools do not have plans in place to evacuate children, notify families of their children's location, or care for children with special needs during a crisis. The report is the second from Save the Children on the nation's readiness to protect children in disasters; the ...
'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Policy: Conflicted Gay Soldiers Also Face ROTC Debt
Dan Choi entered the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1999, well aware that as a gay cadet serving under the "don't ask, don't tell" law, which bars gays from serving openly in the military, his enrollment carried certain risks. Still, he said, he was undeterred by the policy. But after a one-year tour of duty in Iraq in 2006, his attitude changed. First Lieutenant Choi (pictured below) started a relationship with his boyfriend and discovered that he wanted to share his personal life with his friends and family. "I realized that these are the things that my soldiers talk ...
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