By KAY BARNES

If you think one person can't make a difference, you've never met Sharon Froba.

Last spring, Sharon, an English teacher at Modesto High School and longtime Peace Center friend, asked the Center board to help in developing an event at Modesto High School that would be part of implementation of Modesto City Schools' new respect and tolerance policy. The project would show students the effect of prejudice, oppression and hatred on people's lives. Sharon had thought of a deceptively simple way to accomplish this task. Individuals from the area would be invited to tell their stories about the consequences of prejudice and oppression - real stories, real people. The stories would vary according to each individual's experience. The focus would be on the people and their stories, no preaching, no lecturing.

Sharon already had the backing of the English Department at Modesto High - the speakers would take over all the English classes for one day. She still had to convince the high school administration and Modesto City Schools itself that this was a worthy idea. The Peace/Life Center jumped at the chance to help. Both administration and Modesto City Schools were soon on board as well and Modesto High School's Day of Respect was on its way.

The people and their stories were the key to the success of the Day of Respect. More than sixty articulate, committed individuals willing to share personal, painful stories were needed. Sharon took on the seemingly impossible task of finding this group. Some people volunteered outright or knew others who might participate. Sharon talked to them all, spending the best part of last summer on the telephone, hearing people's stories, following up leads. The Peace Center contributed a few speakers and a welcome Modesto Bee article about the Day of Respect brought in a fair number more, but Sharon herself located the majority of people. She outlined for them very clearly the purpose of the event and how they could best contribute and more importantly, created a kind of bond with each one.

By the end of September an impressive group of speakers had volunteered. Holocaust survivors, Japanese-Americans interned during World War II, people living with AIDS or challenged by disabilities, those experiencing prejudice because of race or against homosexuals, individuals dealing with ageism, sexism, gender bias in their professions, people facing prejudice because of physical appearance all committed to sharing their stories with groups of unfamiliar adolescents for part or all of the school day. Their courage was immense.

When back-to-back orientation meetings for the speakers were held a few days before the event, it was clear that the Day of Respect was a "go." Sharon led the orientation meetings and further cemented the bond she had already made with the speakers. Mary Byers, principal at Modesto High, a strong supporter of Day of Respect, attended one of the orientation meetings, answering questions and creating a very warm, welcoming atmosphere for the speakers, or "presenters," as they came to be called. The high school had arranged for a local restaurant to donate morning snacks and lunch for the participants on the Day of Respect and a special parking area was designated for them. School maps, bell schedules and individual schedules for the speakers were also available at the orientation. The school did a good job of anticipating the speakers' needs and providing necessary support.

The school's teachers also had done much preparation for the Day of Respect. GregAlan Williams, author and lecturer who was keynote speaker at last January's Martin Luther King Jr. Commemoration, was engaged to speak to the MHS student body the Monday before the Day of Respect. Teachers had planned both pre- and post-event activities for students so they would be prepared for and could react to what they heard and learned. Parents were also informed about what would happen during the Day of Respect, and those who had concerns were able to express them and have them answered.

Wednesday, October 14, 1998, the Day of Respect arrived. Leadership students, a truly wonderful group, were assigned for the day to be guides for speakers and also were very helpful keeping Sharon and the other organizers informed about what was happening in the classrooms. By mid-morning the leadership students were bringing back reports that students, teachers and speakers were finding the experience moving and rewarding. At lunchtime when many of the speakers congregated to eat their sandwiches and rest from a busy and sometimes very draining morning, it was clear the day was going well. Students listened to the stories and asked thoughtful questions. (One speaker had students line up to give her a hug as they left the class.) The misgivings about adolescent response to the speakers, nervous laughter and silly behavior, were put to rest.

A follow up meeting a week after the event for speakers, teachers, organizers, leadership students and MHS staff further showed connections had been made. Many students wrote letters to people who spoke in their classes. Teachers expressed their own appreciation to the speakers. Modesto High School also offered a number of ways the speakers could keep connected to the school and students, for, as Principal Mary Byers said, the speakers now belonged to Modesto High.

All of this leads back to Sharon Froba, the person who took the Day of Respect from the English Department at Modesto High to the Peace Center to the high school administration to Modesto City Schools. She found the speakers, bonded with them, nurtured them. Her open, honest, empathetic, compassionate, very, very real self in the flesh set the tone for the Day of Respect. She made a difference!

By MYRTLE OSNER

December 21 is the shortest day of the year, or, astronomically speaking, Winter Solstice, celebrated for eons with rituals and customs involving light and fire.

No wonder. At least in the Northern hemisphere, shorter days are also colder days, and here in the San Joaquin Valley, cold is emphasized with that infernal tule fog that motorists all dread so much, with good reason.

Sara Thompson wrote a Connections article in 1996 giving her research on the winter celebrations and I've freely lifted material from her original article. (She's a librarian, with all those sources at her fingertips.)

A few thousand years before Christianity came along, the Zoroastrians attempted to bring back the sun with various fire-based ceremonies. Since the sun dominated their religion, it was imperative that the sun be brought back to the earth in a timely fashion each winter. To this day, if you go back to visit Persia (today's Iran), you can find the remains of Zoroastrian altars on high points of ground that were used by the adherents of that religion. Perhaps Zoroastrians have gone "underground" in these days of militant Muslims, but history will tell you they were there, and some people will swear that there are still people who belong to that group.

Hanukkah begins December 14 this year and lasts eight days, celebrated by Jews to commemorate the victory led by Judah Maccabee over the Syrians. A miracle took place when the Jews reclaimed their temple: they found only a small amount of oil in the temple lamp but it burned for eight days. And so, today, a Jewish family will have a menorah, an eight-branched candelabra, on the table. Each night another candle is lit at the family dinner table. Prayers are said. Children will receive Hanukkah "gilt"; play money that now is sometimes actually chocolate wrapped in gold foil. It's a season to give a gift every night, for some families. The point is to remind us of the miracle of light in the darkness.

Druids favored ceremonies to renew fire and light at the Winter Solstice. Household fires were quenched and then renewed from a communal bonfire, lit with ceremonies that involved mistletoe and honey mead. All of this was done to encourage the sun to return to the north.

The Scandinavians still celebrate St. Lucia's Day. Based on ancient rituals in which Norsemen feasted and drank in costumes and masks to frighten underworld creatures into remaining underground on the longest night of the year, those Solstice night activities have evolved into a Christian ceremony. The "bringer of light," a young girl, rises early, dresses in a white robe, and is crowned with a wreath of lighted candles and wakens the other members of the family with coffee and Santa Lucia buns in bed. It must be a relaxing ritual for the rest of the household. It's probably darker in Scandinavia than most other parts of the north, since Norway, Sweden and Finland are so near the Arctic Circle.

The Indian harvest festival of Magh Bihu held at Winter Solstice centers around a fire ceremony, as do Hopi ceremonies about the same time of year. La Quema del Diablo ("burning the devil") is an extended festival in Guatemala held from the beginning of Advent through December 7th. Men dress as devils and chase children through the streets; activities culminate on December seventh with a huge bonfire in Guatemala City in which the year's trash is burned. Not exactly recycling, but a practical approach to the new year.

The four Sundays before Christmas are celebrated as Advent in Christian churches. This year the first Sunday of Advent is November 29 in preparation for Christ's birth. A wreath of greens with four candles is used by many churches and homes for the central symbol. Candles are traditionally three purple, and one pink, one lit for each Sunday as they come. On Christmas Eve, a white candle is lit in the center of the wreath to symbolize the coming of Christ.

A lit candle (or electric replica thereof) in a home's window lights the way of the winter traveler and welcomes the Christ child.

Christmas lights have become ubiquitous all over this country, as commercialism has taken over a ceremony of lights that first had religious significance.

The most recent incarnated celebration of light is Kwanzaa, the African-American holiday reaffirming their people, their ancestors and their culture. Kwanzaa is based around the agricultural celebrations of "the first fruits of the harvest." They light a seven branched candelabra called a kinara to celebrate the seven principles of Kwanzaa (see article.)

For many people, light and fire still symbolize something deeper in our nature, connected to the visceral need for the return of the sun and its healing warmth. Each culture over the ages has brought its own meaning to that search.

I invite you to find the more healing way of celebrating a season too often marked by frenzied shopping and family fights--to be a peace maker and healer yourself.

By SHARON SLENTZ

In October, Modesto pediatrician Dr. Ron Goldman visited Vladivostock with a group of 15 medical personnel through P.C.I. America, Medical Relief Foundation. The medical personnel consulted with others in like specialties. Dr. Goldman spent time with two pediatric specialists in a 500 bed pediatric hospital.

When asked about his impressions, Dr. Goldman said, "The physicians are very well educated and have to work under unbelievably difficult circumstances." The hospitals haven't been maintained because there isn't money for simple maintenance. Equipment is decades old and falling apart. Supplies are seriously lacking. Everything is so expensive that, for example, lights in the halls are off and sometimes surgeons don't have disposable gloves. The parents had to bring the food for the children that were hospitalized, and sometimes even the bedding. There can be situations such as a shortage of IVs, and parents will find themselves needing to go out and search for them. Although hospital care is free, outpatient medicine is not and consequently, many go without needed medicine.

What this can mean to the health of the Russian citizens is beyond what many of us would imagine. Life expectancy is considerably less than it is in the United States. One striking and simple example of how the lack of resources can effect health care can be found in the treatment of ear problems. Up to a third of pediatric visits here in the states are for problems related to the ears. We are probably all familiar with the otoscope, the light magnification device that doctors shine in the ear to diagnose ear problems. It is a standard piece of equipment. In sharp contrast, the pediatric hospital in Vladivostock had no otoscopes. Hearing loss is a big problem in the children there. Dr. Goldman spoke to an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, and she knew how to put tubes in ears, but they didn't have any tubes. Here you have a relatively simple problem to manage that goes undiagnosed and untreated.

During his time in Vladivostock Dr. Goldman discussed cases, accompanied physicians on rounds, and got some idea of what the priorities were for supplies and equipment. This information will enable P.C.I. to focus on the most important needs by sending relevant equipment and supplies.

An interesting personal note is that all of Dr. Goldman's grandparents were from Russia. He was interested in visiting our former "enemy". Visits from big-hearted folk like Dr. Goldman are certainly what will make us friends.

ACTION: P.C.I. America, Medical Relief Foundation has been instrumental in fostering relationship and cooperation between the United States and Russia. If you would like to obtain more information or make a donation, you may do so to P.C.I. America, Medical Relief Foundation, 4760 Terminal Ave. Modesto CA 95357, (209) 551-0335, Medfound@aol.com.

By LOUISE and WILFRED WEAVER

"Boy that guy is sure having a rough day," was Homer Harvey's response to a display of anger and offensive behavior which he had just witnessed.

This incident, along with many others, was related at Homer's memorial service. How typical of Homer it was! Nothing seemed to bother or disturb him unless it was our government's sending troops and bombs to Iraq, the blockade of Cuba, or the threat of nuclear weapons. He believed in living at peace with all people.

One example of this is found in the trips which he and Phyllis, his wife, took which focused on peace and understanding. In 1983, and again in 1985, they joined a tour group sponsored by the Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) to visit behind the Iron Curtain. In almost every city the group visited they met with local peace groups. The purpose was to show that not all Americans were their enemies, and to learn that many people of the Soviet Union, Poland, East Germany, Hungary, and Czechoslovakia were very desirous of having peace between nations.

Homer took part in Modesto Peace/Life Center events, even getting arrested, along with others, in Representative Tony Coehlo's office as they expressed their opposition to the U.S. involvement in Nicaragua. For the last few years he took his turn at staffing the Peace Center office. Homer was an early environmentalist, being interested in electric cars and in installing solar heating in his home.

There is no end to the number of stories which could be told about how he helped many people. Being very mechanical, the opportunity often arose to help someone repair or service a car or equipment, do welding jobs, or even to put his life in jeopardy by disking a neighbor's almond orchard with his Case Model D wheel tractor, a job no one else would tackle because of dangerously low-hanging limbs.

Homer has been called " the ultimate Good Samaritan" as he worked behind the scenes providing transportation, volunteering at Interfaith Ministries and at Casa de Modesto, helping the disabled, elderly, and sick folk who needed help.

Homer will be sorely missed, but we are truly thankful that he was our friend for many years.

December 5 will be gathering of thanks for Jim Higgs

Two months ago Jim Higgs let it be known that his doctors thought he had Lou Gerhig's Disease. The diagnosis has now been confirmed. Jim intends to retire from teaching at Modesto Junior College and will travel in January to Ireland and other places in Europe, while he is still able.

Because Jim has been an important leader in the Peace/Life Center community and a friend to many of us, a group of us has decided to turn the Center's annual Holiday songfest at Dan and Alice Onorato's home into a party of appreciation for Jim.

American Friends Service Committee launches 'kits for Kosovo' program to aid displaced children

The American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) has launched a nationwide campaign to help meet the needs of displaced people in the conflict between the Serbian military and Albanian separatists in the former Yugoslavia. Thomas Moore, director of AFSC's Emergency and Material Assistance Program, said that the "Kits for Kosovo" campaign will focus on the health care needs of the refugees, especially mothers and their children who constitute the majority of displaced people there.

The kits consist of: two cloth diapers and pins, one small bottle of children's vitamins, one bar of soap and one small stuffed toy. A $5.00 donation is also requested for shipping.

"We are asking individuals and groups to assemble kits and make financial contributions to assist with this project," Moore said. Schoolchildren, religious groups and individuals are expected to participate in the campaign.

AFSC will work with three local humanitarian groups to distribute the kits to the displaced victims of the conflict: the Mother Theresa Society, Mercy Corps and the Motrat Qriazi, a women's group based in Kosovo. Relief goods will be distributed without regard to the recipients' religion or nationality. Along with the kits, AFSC will use money raised through the project to purchase critical medicines and food for refugees and other groups in need within the region.

Information packets now being distributed include two educational guides written to promote classroom discussion along with a list of ways people, including schoolchildren, can become involved in peace efforts aimed at helping victims of war in Kosovo.

The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization which includes people of various faiths committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.

ACTION: Donations of kits and financial contributions can be sent to Kits for Kosovo, AFSC Emergency and Material Assistance Program , 1501 Cherry Street, Philadelphia, PA 19102. For more information: www.afsc.org. or phone Carl Maugeri at (215) 241-7060.

By BETTY STEWART

According to preliminary reports received by the Merced-Somoto Sister City Committee via e-mail from Managua, Nicaragua, Somoto has sustained damage and casualties from the flooding and mud slides precipitated by the aftermath of Hurricane Mitch.

Somoto, located on the Pan-American Highway approximately 20 miles south of the Honduran border, is completely isolated at this time, accessible only by helicopter, the same situation facing much of Nicaragua and Honduras. Somoto is the capital of the department of Madriz.

The following figures are provided by APRODES (Association for the Development of Somoto) and only represent what is known from 23 communities, a small proportion of the Madriz territory. Due to widespread damage to roads and highways, and continued flooding, the fate of many isolated villages has yet to be learned. Final figures are likely to be much greater than what is reported here.

1,567 injured in urban areas;
2,550 injured in rural areas;
6 dead in Somoto;
1 dead in Telpaneca (the Sister City of Fresno);
1 missing in Somoto; 28 missing in Cusmapa;
307 homes destroyed (76 in Somoto);
247 homes semi-destroyed (104 in Somoto);
5 bridges destroyed.

The people need food, clothing and especially medicine due to the threat of cholera outbreaks and respiratory infections.

Our Merced-Somoto Sister City Committee is trying to find a way to send down supplies, but in the meantime we are collecting money to send down to buy relief supplies.

ACTION: Make out checks to the City of Merced and mail to 1279 Kensington Drive, Merced, CA 95340. Call (209) 722-0401 for information.

By MYRTLE OSNER

Those of you who have enjoyed the bounty of our community organic garden KNOW what a great bargain it is.

At the moment, the Modesto Garden Project is growing winter veggies, most of which won't be ready to harvest for a few weeks. However, don't despair, you can send in your money for a share or half a share any time and be assured of goodies the minute they are ready.

Now that the Farmer's Markets have closed for the winter, this is one of the few sources of organic vegetables and fruits that is available in Modesto, especially directly from grower to consumer.

Besides, you are helping to put people to work by subscribing to the Garden Project. The project hires and trains homeless or under-employed people to grow healthful food.

ACTION: For a run-down on the various options (what size share you want, home delivery, U-pick, etc.), phone the Modesto Garden Project, 604-6011, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, 9 am to 4 pm or Saturday 9 am to 1 pm.

By JOHN LUCAS

If you are interested in an alternative progressive view of our world on the airways, KPFA 94.1 on the FM dial is your answer. The station, as many of you may know already, is broadcast from Berkeley California and is listener supported. I have been a listener and supporter for over 15 years.

For those of you not familiar with KPFA and the Pacifica Foundation, it is an alternative, non commercial, progressive, listener supported network of radio stations, that provides a forum for voices and opinions not found in our main stream media outlets. What many people don't know is that you can receive the station on Modesto's own Cable One, which passes KPFA on 89.7 on your FM dial.

For years I used rotary antenna in my old home to pick up the station from either Berkeley (KPFA) or Fresno 88.1 (KFCF) their sister station. When I moved into my new home four years ago it was cable ready and antennas were discouraged. Having worked in broadcasting in the past, I knew that most cable companies pass radio station on the same cable that they pass the TV stations, and no special encoder is needed to receive these stations. All you have to do is hook your FM tuner to the cable or call the cable company and they will hook it up to your radio tuner for a small monthly fee. If you have any questions feel free to call me at 527-7634.

By MYRTLE OSNER

One November morning, shoppers at Roseburg Square, Modesto, viewed the shopping center with shocked eyes.

Accustomed to shade trees throughout the parking lot, all had been cut down during the night.

The residents of Modesto, a Tree City USA, were justifiably horrified to find that an absentee landlord from San Francisco had committed mayhem on their favorite neighborhood gathering place.

Anchored by locally owned O'Brien's market (the senior O'Briens raised their 14 children just around the corner on Mills Ave.), Roseburg Square has gone through a few changes, but none so drastic as this.

The Square was just beginning to come out a slump with some new tenants, in particular a replacement for old favorite Dej‡ Vu restaurant, now opened as AppetŽz. A new and larger location for R Lily Stem quilters is nice, too. A new building was finished a few years ago. But the ambiance that was in part created with a little shady park in the middle of the parking lot, where people used to take their lunches, remained till this last coup de main.

In pulling out the trees, the tree cutters managed to break a water main, a sort of poetic justice if you will.

A petition is being circulated to protest this attack on a small shopping center which is a community gathering spot for the College neighborhood.

It reads:

"In an effort to inform the current owner of Roseburg Square of the feelings in the local neighborhood, we the undersigned, declare our dismay at the devastation of the trees in the local shopping center and urge their replacement with similar sized trees, not puny saplings."

ACTION: You can write to Property Manager, Larry Jacobs, Village Properties, 502 Mission, Suite 201, San Francisco, CA 94105-2906, or phone 415-546-9373. The next desecration may be on your own street. Protect the shade that makes the Central Valley livable!

Excerpted from Headwaters, Fall 1998.

October marked the 30th anniversary of the national Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, the nation's primary river conservation tool.

Congress approved and President Lyndon Johnson signed the bill into law during the tumultuous year of 1968 as a way to balance the nation's history of harnessing rivers for their water, power, and flood control, with a new policy of protecting some outstanding rivers in their free flowing state.

The actual protection mechanisms in the law are quite simple. First and foremost, the act prohibits the construction of new dams and diversion on rivers added to the Nation Wild and Scenic River System.

The act is the only federal law that absolutely prohibits dam projects. And that's important because even rivers in national parks have not always been protected from dams, as demonstrated by the destruction of the beautiful Hetch Hetchy Valley in Yosemite National Park in the early 1900s. The law also requires federal agencies to protect designated rivers by managing the public lands along the river to protect outstanding values.

Perhaps nowhere else in the nation has the need for the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act been more acute than in California. The state's lead in both agricultural production and population growth was made possible by a complex plumbing system of federal, state, and local dams constructed throughout the state.

[Their] environmental costs have been staggering. For example, more than two-thirds of the state's native fish species are extinct, endangered, or in decline. The California landscape has been so altered by dams, that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers the few remaining free flowing rivers in the state to be "endangered ecosystems."

It is clear that without the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, many more California rivers and aquatic systems would have been dammed, degraded, or destroyed. Of the sixteen federally designated rivers in California (not counting various forks and tributaries), virtually all were threatened by proposed water supply and/or hydro dams prior to their designation. In many cases, specific dam threats resulted in citizen action urging Congress to implement that national policy of protecting some free flowing rivers by adding the threatened river to the system.

[One of the example given is the river which runs right through Modesto]:

Tuolumne River -- How whitewater boaters, anglers, and local tourism-based business owners banned together to fight a hydro project [actually there was more than one over the years] proposed by a local irrigation district [Turlock, but earlier also Modesto] is a classic dam fighting story that has been subsequently replayed on many other Sierra rivers, including the Merced and Kings. The proposed Clavey-Wards Ferry hydro project would have completed the destruction of the Tuolumne begun by San Francisco's Hetch Hetchy dam. But river conservationists successfully defeated the dam project by convincing Congress to add the Tuolumne to the Wild and Scenic Rivers System in 1984.

The Wild and Scenic Rivers Act is still needed in California. Although pundits have loudly proclaimed that the era of big dam building is over, someone clearly has forgotten to tell the dam planners and engineers. The recently published 1998 update of the California Water Plan identifies 58 new and enlarged dams which could be built to meet the state's alleged future water needs. The joint federal and state ecosystem restoration project known as CALFED has identified 23 new or enlarged dams and canals that could be constructed, ostensibly to "increase the reliability" of the state's water supplies.

Critics say [these two studies] significantly overestimate population growth and water demand projections by 15 percent or more.

Critics of the latest push for dam building also note that state and federal agencies are failing to fully consider alternative to dams such as increased conjunctive use, groundwater banking, more efficient use of existing supplies, reclamation, and conservation.

Not surprising, many of the dam sites under consideration are located on rivers that are eligible for inclusion in the Wild and Scenic Rivers System [34, according to Friends of the River].

ACTION: For more information, contact Friends of the River, 915 -20th Street, Sacramento, CA 95814, phone (916) 442-3155, e-mail: info@friendsoftheriver.org or www.friendsoftheriver.org.

-- Excerpted by Indira Clark

By MYRTLE OSNER

How many of you have ever watched a "public access" channel on Cable TV? Do you even know what is available?

For the general public, the only public access channel that is provided by Cable One shows us the meetings Modesto or Oakdale City Councils, Planning Commission, and the Stanislaus County Board of Supervisors. But, in cities like Santa Rose, which also has its cable system run by Cable One, there is far more community access than in Modesto.

At the present time, Cable One has no local news program and we have to depend on Sacramento stations, which give us short shrift.

Occasionally, at election time, Cable runs the Candidates Forum sponsored by the League of Women Voters. At the last election, some groups who wanted to show their forums on TV were told the station would not show them unless they had the sponsorship of the League of Women Voters. (Whether this was an official rule or just the response of the camera people is not clear to me.) Needless to say, this limited the field considerably, since there might be groups out there capable of using the public access channels.

Other complaints center around Cable One's refusal to carry Channel 14 , which is the only local station running local news and other local programs. Currently, Channel 14 cannot be received by most Modesto residents, who overwhelmingly subscribe to cable rather than put up antennas.

It all goes back to the franchising system. Since cable provision is a monopoly, the City of Modesto must license them, or "franchise", for which the city receives a fee as part of their permission to use the public's right of way and grant the monopoly.

When we originally franchised Cable One's predecessor, the franchise agreement included a provision for public access and for cooperation with Modesto Junior College communications department to provide studio space and training to their students. Also included were dedicated channels for MJC and City Schools. These are not, however, available to the public, but are used exclusively by schools for teaching purposes.

Now that the franchise is up for renewal, negotiations will be going on for a new franchise. The past performance of Cable One can be a subject for negotiations. Changing the terms of the franchise for future performance is also possible. A local programming committee of interested citizens is discussing the possible needs for the future.

The Utility Services and Franchise Committee is comprised of Mayor Lang and Council members Dobbs and Smith. They are the real decision makers who recommend action to the City Council, along with staff member Connie Cassineto. (Interesting tidbit: Rick Lang, son of Mayor Lang, works for Cable One.)

In talking with Carol Lancaster Mingus, MJC film instructor, who has been meeting with the above committee, we learned that some people believe that Cable One is out in compliance with the franchise, because it does not have an official training program for the public to learn how to use public access. In addition, the condition of the studio is run down and not conducive to public use.

Ms. Cassineto informed us that there will be meetings which the public can attend, regarding local programming, before the Council committee comes up with its recommendations. These may be in December.

Television can be a valuable community resource, in some ways very much like a library. We can learn a lot if we know how to choose. But, unless we have real choices, television becomes just another way to waste time.

ACTION: For information and meeting times, contact Connie at 577-5463.

By JAMES COSTELLO

On Saturday, January 16, 1999, the Fifth Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Commemoration will be celebrated at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center. Our keynote speaker will be one the foremost activists in the Civil Rights Movement, Reverend Dr. Joseph E. Lowery.

Dr. Lowery is one of the founders of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and served as its vice president until 1967 when he was nominated by Martin Luther King, Jr. to serve as chairman of its board of directors. Rev. Lowery, a dynamic speaker and preacher, continues to fight injustice in the spirit of Martin Luther King, Jr. We are privileged to have him join us in our celebration.

Initial sponsors include: The City of Modesto Parks and Recreation Department, the Modesto Peace/Life Center, the King-Kennedy Center, the City of Modesto Human Relations Commission, and the Modesto Church of the Brethren. Other sponsors are pending.

ACTION: mark your calendars for Saturday, January 16, 1999. Look for precise program information in the January issue of Connections.

Film documentary: Out of the Past:

By TINA ARNOPOLE DRISKILL

The Modesto African American community will offer this Libation Statement (Tamshi la Tambiko) and pour water from a communal cup toward the direction of the four winds in celebration of the Kwanzaa holiday December 29 at the King-Kennedy Memorial Center, 601 N. Martin Luther King Drive, Modesto. Kwanzaa, celebrated between December 26 and January 1st, means "first fruits of the harvest" in the African Kiswahili language. It was created in 1966 by Dr. Maulana Karenga, professor and chair of the Department of Black Studies at California State University, Long Beach. Neither a religious nor political holiday, it affirms the preservation, revitalization and promotion of the African culture.

Kwanzaa is a time for African Americans to come together to celebrate their heritage and achievements, revere the Creator and creation, commemorate the past, recommit to cultural ideals and celebrate the good. To achieve this, Kwanzaa focuses upon seven principles of fundamental collective values rooted in African culture and exemplified in the best practices of the African American people:

• Umoja (OO-MO-JAH) Unity stresses the importance of togetherness for the family and the community, which is reflected in the African saying, "I am We," or "I am because We are."

• Kujichagulia (KOO-GEE-CHA-GOO-LEE-YAH) Self-Determination requires that we define our common interests and make decisions that are in the best interests of our family and community.

• Ujima (OO-GEE-MAH) Collective Work and Responsibility reminds us of our obligation to the past, present and future, and that we have a role to play in the community, society and world.

• Ujamaa (OO-JAH-MAH) Cooperative economics emphasizes our collective economic strength and encourages us to meet common needs through mutual support.

• Nia (NEE-YAH) Purpose encourages us to look within ourselves and to set personal goals that are beneficial to the community.

• Kuumba (KOO-OOM-BAH) Creativity makes use of our creative energies to build and maintain a strong and vibrant community.

• Imani (EE-MAH-NEE) Faith focuses on honoring the best of our traditions, draws upon the best in ourselves, and helps us to strive for a higher level of life for humankind by affirming our self-worth and confidence in our ability to succeed and triumph in righteous struggle.

Home celebrations include the lighting of the Kinara, a seven branched candelabra, each day to symbolize the seven principles.

The day-long local celebration will include a series of skits and poems depicting Kwanzaa's seven themes. Members of the Christian Love Baptist Church will perform, and the day will culminate with the Imani Dinner and a family circle discussion of the Nguzo Saba (seven principles).

ACTION: The Karmau or traditional Kwanzaa feast is a open to the whole community free of charge. To learn more about times and activities call 577-5355.

Woodstock happened while I was going to school. I was on the wrong side of the country and wasn't able to be there, but oh well! It happened, and I bought the album. At the time, I was going to school at Humboldt State, the hippest school on the left coast. And whenever I felt like being hip, all I had to do was drive down to San Francisco to the Haight-Ashbury. Or to Berkeley.

hat was back when everyone was saying things like "suppose they gave a war and nobody came?" It had only been a few years since a band from England taught us it was cool to wear long hair. Long hair! And then we were saying "Hell no, We won't go!"

"Thoughts meander like a restless wind inside a letter box..."

We redefined our art, we decided for ourselves what had merit, and what didn't. It was an explosion of color. Everybody did their thing, and mine was mandalas, the great Hindu "Wheel of Life". I was forever creating new ones and giving them away. A lot of people made tie-died shirts. It was truly interactive art. We didn't have to buy what the man wanted to sell us in the stores anymore. Almost everybody made them, or knew someone who did. Some were truly ugly. But others were spectacular splashes of pure emotion and spirit. And some people making them really did know how to cut loose and succeed in trying something different.

In Berkeley, the Revolution has been won. The sidewalks are lined out with thin blue lines marking the "Les Nessman" walls between vendor's stalls. And every morning, the revolutionaries gather in the streets to hold a lottery for the stall assignments. The Revolution has been won, and the revolutionaries pay $250 for a business license. All the while, floating in the breeze, hanging from endless racks along Telegraph Avenue are the tee-shirts: tie-died with the repeated patterns only a precision machine can assure, with the same color schemes, each color from the same quality-controlled die-lot. And all from a textile mill from the other side of the Pacific Rim. THE INSTITUTIONALIZED REVOLUTION IS AT HAND! (We should quake in fear!)

By NANCY DIMOND

Twice during the Halloween season I took this dish to gatherings of friends. I was amazed at the number of requests for the recipe. One woman even confessed that she would never eat bread pudding, but this was great. So... for those of you who I haven't given the recipe and those of you who want an alternative to traditional pumpkin pie, here's the best bread pudding ever. (Well, maybe. My aunt has given me a slew of bread pudding recipes to try.)

PUMPKIN BREAD PUDDING

2 1/2 cups 2% milk
1/4 cup packed brown sugar
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1-16 oz can pumpkin
2 eggs
5 slices raisin bread in 1/2" cubes
vegetable cooking spray

Preheat oven to 350¡F. Mix all ingredients but bread. Add bread and stir. Put into 2 quart casserole which has been sprayed with oil. Bake for 75 minutes or until set in a water bath. Serve warm.

By DAVE BERMAN
Educator, San Joaquin County

"Give em the land... we want peace"

These are the thoughts of one Israeli who I encountered during travels with family in Israel as the latest Israeli-Palestinian peace negotiation and treaty were being discussed and signed.

The few Israelis whom I talked with who made any comment whatsoever shared the same point of view. I think people are tired of having wars and the terrorists are going to do whatever they damn well please, no matter what state the peace process is in. Terrorists, by the way, occasionally include the Jewish settlers who wage their own war against the Palestinians in the territories. The settlers (often) feel they have every right to just move right in, with the blessings of the Likud, and defend themselves against their neighboring Arab "aggressors," as if the local Arabs had not already been there for a great many years in that corner of the world. The Chasidim only want to expand to greater Eretz Israel, from the Mediterranean to the middle of Jordan, which they feel belongs to historic Biblical Israel, irrelevant of the world situation.

A long time ago, when we were living on the kibbutz in 1984, many of the people I came across expressed the "give em the land, we want the peace" at that time, well before formal peace talks had even begun. These were not the extreme left wing kibbutznicks, but the middle of the road folks. The feeling has been there for a long time.

By NORMAN SOLOMON
Creators Syndicate

For Benjamin Netanyahu, October ended on an upbeat note. The Israeli prime minister got a warm reception in Washington -- and the American news media hailed the renewal of the Middle East "peace process."

For Mordechai Vanunu, October ended on a more downbeat note. The Israeli whistleblower finished his twelfth year in captivity -- and the American news media continued to treat him as a non-person.

On Sept. 30, 1986, Israel's government kidnapped Vanunu in Rome and put him on a cargo ship. Back in Israel, at a secret trial, he faced charges of espionage and treason. A military court sentenced him to 18 years in prison.

What was Vanunu's crime? He gave detailed information to journalists at the Sunday Times of London -- about Israel's arsenal of nuclear bombs.

After growing up in a Jewish family that emigrated to Israel from Morocco when he was a boy, Mordechai Vanunu became an employee at the Dimona nuclear plant in 1976. Nearly a decade later -- shortly before his employment ended at the remote nuclear facility -- he took photos inside Dimona, which has always been closed to international inspection.

Using severance pay to travel abroad in 1986, Vanunu contacted the famous Insight investigative unit of Britain's Sunday Times. "During his extensive debriefing by our Insight team," the newspaper reported, "he offered to give the paper his photographs and all his information for nothing provided we did not publish his name, insisting his sole interest was in stopping nuclear proliferation in the Middle East."

The Sunday Times persuaded Vanunu to allow his name to be used. The paper agreed to pay Vanunu for serialization or a book based on his information. But money did not seem to motivate him.

"My impression of the man was of someone who had a genuine desire to tell the world of something that was going on which he felt was genuinely wrong for Israel to do," said Peter Hounam, the main reporter on the story for the Sunday Times. "He felt it was wrong that the Israeli public and parliament were not given any information about what was happening in Dimona."

On Oct. 5, 1986, the Sunday Times broke the story under the front-page headline "REVEALED: THE SECRETS OF ISRAEL'S NUCLEAR ARSENAL." But by then, Vanunu was a prisoner of the Israeli government. After a dozen years, he still is.

Can you imagine what would have happened if another country in the Middle East -- say, Iraq or Iran -- kidnapped one of its citizens from Western Europe to retaliate for spilling the beans about its nuclear weaponry? That person would have become an instant media hero in the United States.

But if you mention Mordechai Vanunu's name to an American, you're likely to get a blank look. On this side of the Atlantic, he's a media phantom.

This year, the Nexis database confirms, U.S. media coverage of Vanunu has remained paltry: just a few scattered newspaper articles and scant dispatches from The Associated Press, plus a fleeting story on CNN and another one on National Public Radio. So far in 1998, The New York Times -- "the newspaper of record" - - hasn't mentioned Vanunu at all.

That's quite a contrast to the situation in Britain, where coverage of Vanunu's case has been extensive and sustained. So far this year, mainstream British outlets have done at least 45 "major stories" about Vanunu, according to Nexis. Sixteen of them appeared in the Sunday Times.

Top politicians and journalists in Washington wag their fingers at India and Pakistan for joining the world's nuclear club without an invitation. But there is no such scolding of Israel, which receives U.S. aid at a rate of $1 billion every few months -- while maintaining a stockpile of about 200 nuclear warheads.

A dramatic photo of Mordechai Vanunu was taken nearly a dozen years ago. Although Israeli authorities had claimed that he returned to his country voluntarily, Vanunu wrote a contrary message on his palm, which he pressed to the window of a police van in Jerusalem.

The prisoner's palm told the story: "Vanunu was hijacked in Rome, Italy, 30/9/86, 21:00 hours..." That's how the world learned that he'd been kidnapped. From then on, when he was transported to court, the van windows were painted black.

Twelve years later, the windows between Mordechai Vanunu and the American people are still very dark.

By JACK H. WELCH, M.D.
From The Fresno Center for Nonviolence

Fifteen years have passed since Ronald Reagan proposed a space-based defense shield known as Star Wars. Since 1983 $50 billion have been spent on the concept without producing a reliable product. Four years ago the Republican majority attempted to push through Congress a less ambitious version of that program; the bill, however, failed due to a lack of public support, credible technology, and cost. There are now new efforts by proponents to continue the boondoggle of Star Wars.

The basic technology of "hit-to-kill" interceptors that would destroy their targets on impact is non-existent. However, despite the unfeasibility of such a program, the Pentagon awarded Boeing a $1.6 billion three-year contract last spring to coordinate development of a ground-based national shield against ballistic missiles.

Pursuit of an anti-ballistic missile (ABM) system would damage all arms control efforts for reductions in nuclear weapons. Only systematic steps of de-alerting and dismantling all nuclear weapons will ensure the safety of the US and the world.

ACTION: Urge your Congressperson to vote against any attempt to deploy the ABM system.

On another subject:

Some good news! This past summer a Fellowship of Reconciliation (FOR) work camp of twelve people created a community in northwest Bosnia that crossed all ethnic, national, and religious boundaries. The camp consisted of US Muslims, Christians, and Jews who worked with Muslims, Serbs, and Croats, who want to rebuild a multicultural society. People aged 16 to 66 worked in reconstruction and taught English in towns on both the Bosnian government and Bosnian Serb sides. 240 Serbs asked to register; students and teachers hungry for friendship came every day.

Results were beyond the team's greatest hopes. Serb students ate, sang, talked, and walked with Muslim and US youth. "We were people reaching across all barriers to build a world of justice, peace, and reconciliation--a world judging individuals not by ethnicity or religion but by their actions and character."

Rev. John Dear, FOR Executive Director recently wrote in a USA Today editorial: "Returning violence for violence multiplies violence," Martin Luther King taught. "adding deeper darkness to a night already devoid of stars." Bombings do not prevent further bombings.

The FOR, the oldest, largest interfaith peace organization in the US, calls for creative, nonviolent means to solve international conflict.