Stories, Books, CDs, and Fast Scrabble

--In Progress
More later--

I bought three books and two CDs from the tellers. Three of them are inscribed to Mr Shaw's Stars.

What a fun time was Saturday! On Wednesday Sheila picked up last Sunday's Atlanta Constitution and noticed a story we had missed. It told of the Pike Piddlers Storytelling Festival in Brundidge, Alabama. The Festival would start in Brundidge on Friday and move to nearby Troy University on Saturday. And it would feature three of our favorite storytellers: nonogenarian Kathryn Tucker Windham, Cuban/Georgian spitball carmen Agra Deedy, and everybody's favorite, Donald Davis. The fourth headliner was a familiar name, but we had not heard his stories: Bill Lepp.

Long story short: we called, reserved tickets for the 10 a.m. Saturday show. The others were sold out, but we hoped to stay get in as stand-bys for the 2 p.m. show. We called my nephew Gil who teaches aeronautics at Auburn and asked to crash at his house Friday night.

All went according to plan. We had a lovely evening in Auburn visiting with Gil and Naomi and their precocious sons. After the boys were asleep Gil dug out the Scrabble tiles and he and I confidently, then frantically, then desperately, arranged and rearranged our tiles and were thoroughly skunked as Sheila and Naomi won round after round of Fast Scrabble. I demand a rematch and soon.

Gil and Mark were headed to a swim meet the next morning. Naomi was busy with school work. But Lewis was not scheduled. We talked him into accompanying the old folks and off we went down I-85 toward Montgomery, then 231 to Troy. Miraculously there were tree contiguous seats left on the third row of the center section. We enjoyed just a few minutes of live bluegrass before Donald Davis was introduced.


My sister, Debi, and her husband Gregg are wonderful writers and the authors of lots of books during the last thirty years. Gregg has written a couple of books with the famous surgeon, Ben Carson. He and Debi together also wrote a biography of Carson for young people. Now they have updated and redone some of that writing to produce a book to accompany the current TNT movie about Carson, Giving Hands, starring Cuba Gooding, Jr.
Debi dropped a copy off for us today. I look forward to reading it.

Regular visitors to the Limb know that my favorite children's book is The Lion's Paw by Robb White. In 1946 White, a Navy commander during the Second World War, created this wonderful adventure set in Florida during the uncertainties of that great war. Two runaway orphaned siblings meet a boy whose father is a naval officer lost in the Pacific and presumed dead. Presumed dead by the navy, the boy's relatives, and everyone else except the boy and his two new companions. They set out to sail their sloop, newly christened The Lion's Paw, to Captiva Island where they will search for a Lion's Paw seashell to complete the collection the boy had begun with his father. He is sure that, if he can find the shell, his father will make it home.

Robb White's sensory images are crisp and delicious. The suspense is riveting. The characters are real and appealing. Here in the late forties we have a heroine who is resourceful, determined, and brave. Penny ranks with Anne Shirley and Jo March as a model for feminists, in my estimation. It is a story of nature, adventure, resourcefulness, bravery, perseverance, loyalty, loss, discovery, and love.

In 1970 my girlfriend (now my wife) suggested I read The Lion's Paw to my students. Her teacher in Tallahassee, Florida, had read it to her class and everyone loved it, she said. I fell in love with it on first reading and have read it to each homeroom I have had in my 29 years of teaching. I also read it to my own daughters.

The Lion's Paw has been out of print for several years. It has been listed as the most sought after OOP children's book for several years according to bookfinder.com. Then last fall, Robb White's widow and step-daughter published a facsimile edition that closely resembles the first edition. I've been looking for it at Barnes and Noble. I looked through B&N in Manhatten and even at the marvelous Books of Wonder store on 18th Street. No Lion's Paw.

So one night about nine I was browsing online and found the A.W.Ink website. Their address was several time zones away so I decided to call. Only moments later Leslie, Robb White’s step-daughter called me. We talked for about thirty minutes. And I ordered ten copies of my favorite children’s book. Leslie inscribed each with a nice message. I presented one to each of my daughters, my current and two recent student teachers, my niece who teaches fourth grade, and our school library. I gave another away to my nephew’s family as a bread and butter gift after our overnight stay on Friday. Sheila and I have kept one for ourselves. That leaves only one more for the dozen or so other to whom I would like to give this wonderful book. I should have ordered more!

Wow! I’m A Published Author

I’ve published my own book -- 49 blog articles that I’ve accumulated over the last, almost, three years -- starting in March 2006 here on The Limb! To publish my book, I used a web-site called Lulu. I write about it here. It’s amazingly inexpensive to do. You can make your own 6 inch by 9 inch soft cover book of 181 pages and only print one copy for only $8.24.

So far I’m the only one who has bought any copies -- I bought five copies destined to be Christmas gifts. According to the shipping track record, the books have arrived in Dayton today. I'm very curious what they will look like. I'll give a report later. I’m thinking that I’ll make revisions to the book -- I’m sure something is probably wrong with it -- before I print more.

Here is the titled article for the book, "Why You Are Not Entitled To Your Opinion." I don't know that this article is the most worthy, I just thought this title was the most interesting sounding of the 49 possibilities.

I have to say that disciplining myself to writing a few thoughts has been a worthwhile exercise for me. When I get the Nobel Prize, I will be sure to give special thanks to my encourager, Terrell Shaw.

This is the Lulu button that will take you to the site -- you can see the back cover, the table of contents, and the first 50 pages of my new book.


My iMac know-it-all friend helped me photoshop the book's covers -- from pictures taken on my iMac -- and showed me an iMac program that will summarize text. For the fun of it, I put the entire contents of my book into the iMac summarizing program. The result was interesting. I decided not to second guess the wisdom of the iMac. I used that summary in my Lulu description, and I'm thinking of putting it on the cover as a blurb, if I revise the covers.

The summary says, “Education, I feel, must transcend simple academic or vocational purpose. After all, schools for a democracy must have different education goals than the education goals that schools for a totalitarian state might have. Ultimately our future safety and prosperity depends upon the degree that our nation acts as a vigorous democracy.”

Wow. It makes me want to buy this book!

A Walk at the Fair

Sheila, Mother, and I enjoyed a leisurely stroll through the 43rd Chiaha Harvest Fair today. As I type this I can hear the music from the festival stage directly across the river. (Our proximity to Ridge Ferry Park is often a blessing, sometimes a curse.) It's been years since I have been to Chiaha. Our late (RIP) Out and About Georgia's Rome magazine was the official magazine of the Heritage Holidays (of which Chiaha is a member event) for several years so we used to be there every year with boxes of magazines to distribute and the trusty Yashica camera to capture images for future editions.

Today we were stirred to attend by a gracious invitation from our blogging friend, The Questing Parson, who helped Ms. Parson set up her display of gorgeous stained glass. I'll bet he wishes she'd stick to her pretty windows and window hangings -- those concrete benches with inlaid stain-glass designs look heavy! We enjoyed seeing her art and meeting the artist and her daughter, and other friends who happened by during our visit. Unfortunately our timing was off and we missed the parson altogether.

Our purchases were few. We had our fried peach pies, of course. I didn't see the free cider from the big iron kettle, a tradition from the earliest days of the annual festival that must have somehow fallen by the wayside.

At the library booth we picked up a used copy of Jimmy Carter's Christmas in Plains.

At Joe Cook's booth we admired his beautiful nature photography and purchased a copy of the two wildflower guides with his photography: Wildflowers of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains by Leonard M. Adkins with photographs by Joe Cook; and Wildflowers of the Appalachian Trail, 2nd edition also by Leonard Adkins with photographs by Joe and Monica Cook. The AT book won the Design and Artistic Merit Category in the 1999 National Outdoor Book Awards. Both books are lovely, high-quality soft-bound books with full page color photographs of the wildflowers and facing page description of the flower and information about its bloom season, its leaves and stems, and its range as well as several paragraphs of commentary by Atkins.

{Excuse me while I rant a moment}


Cartoon from CRBI. Used without permission. If anyone objects please let me know and I'll take it down.

Joe's day job is as director of the Coosa River Basin Initiative. Please let your state and local officials know your opinion of the interbasin transfer of water. The Atlanta folks are currently diverting millions of gallons of water a day from our watershed (the Etowah) to theirs (the Chattahoochee) and NOT returning even the treated wastewater that results. If the new Georgia water plan is approved that will increase. Now I figure it's not the fault of the flora and fauna (including Homo sapiens) that inhabit the Etowah/Coosa/Alabama River basin that a gazillion people decided to live on a little bitty (Chattahoochee) river in North central Georgia. We shouldn't have to have to lose our livelihoods, recreational lakes, and, in the case of some critters and plants, our lives, to flush Atlanta toilets! If they want our water they should at least have to pay for the infrastructure to allow the return of wastewater to the Coosa. We are willing to put up with modest transfers IF the wastewater is returned to replenish the Coosa.

{End of rant}

Thanks for the invite, Parson. Sorry we missed you.

Learning in the Great Outdoors: Fourth Edition

Celebrating America
in the Great Outdoors
Here at the Limb, we live right downtown with the levee in our backyard. Each Independence Day we throw a party in our little bit of the Great Outdoors. We say a prayer of thanksgiving for the liberty proclaimed that July the Fourth, bought by the blood, sweat, toil, and tears of our forebears, and guaranteed by the Constitution and Bill of Rights. Then we feast on barbecue and all the trimmings, climb the levee with our lawn chairs and settle back, faces to the heavens to witness a grand display of fireworks while across the river loudspeakers stir us with the 1812 Overture and other patriotic music.

This Independence Day, as you celebrate our great nation, take a little time to appreciate its natural wonders.

An Independence Day edition of

Books

Tiffany Washko is concerned this Independence Day about a Nature Deficit Disorder among our young folk and along the way discusses the book (right) Last Child in the Woods. Check out the Natural Family Living Blog:

"I cannot believe the number of elementary school age children that have cell phones, mp3 players, blackberries, and portable video games systems. Now my own son is asking for a cell phone because so many of his kindergarten friends have them."

-Tiffany Washko

Julie Dunlap at Pines Above Snow, who also writes about Last Child in the Woods, reviews a book that follows opspreys south to Cuba: Soaring with Fidel .

"What better way to celebrate the 2007 centennial of Rachel Carson’s birth than a new book about ospreys, a raptor saved by the anti-pesticide outcry sparked by Silent Spring?

-Julie Dunlap

Just last month your host enjoyed watching ospreys hunting from the bay bridge and building their messy nest atop the water tower on Saint George Island, Florida.

On Independence Day, surely we will see something that - like the reviewers of Last Child in the Woods, above - Ms. Bluebird of Bluebird's Classroom says is becoming an endangered sight: children in the out-of-doors. She asks: Where are all the kids? (This and the next entry are not about books but fit the theme of these two reviews.)

Karen Halls presents The Chat Room Addict, Teen Chat Rooms and the Possible Dangers posted at Addiction Recovery Blog.

Charlie at 10,000 Birds has reviewed another field guide, this time it's Peterson's Gulls of the Americas. You'll want to look around at some of 10,000 Birds other wonderful posts about the natural world.

"Many insect songs are at a much higher pitch than bird songs; most range from 4 kHz to 20 kHz and are harder for humans to hear. One aid towards learning to identify different insects is The Songs of Insects, a new book by Lang Elliott and Wil Hershberger."

So writes John in his Review: Lang Elliott on the Songs of Insects and Birds posted at A DC Birding Blog. Perhaps today, between the pop, boom, and sizzle of fireworks and the grand crescendos of man-made music, we can take time to notice the background hum, crackle, buzz, and chirp of nature.

You can count on our next contributor to review a children's book about the natural world often, and this month has been no different. Rather than sizzle, Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect found the book she reviews here a bit of a fizzle, though she likes the idea of the series. Tricia also posts poetry often. We in Georgia are in the midst of the worst drought of a hundred years. Today we got our best rain of recent memory. So when I noticed Tricia had posted a poem called "Summer Rain," I had to check it out.

One of my favorite kid's lit websites is Bookwink where Sonja Cole produces excellent video reviews of children's books. Here she stands below a volcano on Maui to report on two books about volcanoes.

Nature Trails & Outdoor Excursions

During the very first science lesson of each school year your host gleefully announces to his eager fourth graders that this is the year we get to study yucky stuff in science. They are thrilled. The picture is taken without permission from a site that includes a variety of scat photos. Click on the pic of bear scat to further ruin your appetite. The same website features an Einstein quote I'd not heard before:

"Teaching should be such that what is offered is perceived as a valuable gift and not as a hard duty."

- Albert Einstein -

DHM presents Affinities "...the greatest find of all, ever, anywhere, at any time,..."posted at The Common Room.

Sheppard Salter presents Reminiscing On Hiking posted at salterblog.com.

Mark25 presents Planning A Fishing Vacation For The Whole Family posted at HotStrategies.com.

Terrell (your host) at Alone On A Limb says his daughter has just gotten back from quite an excursion. See the pictures here.

Outdoor Classrooms

If you thought the Bear Scat post above was distasteful you may want to skip this paragraph about outdoor yucky ed:

"They also found a dead deer. Hub cut it open and the kids were able to examine it. I was told all four stomachs were full of grass/greens, and that the intestines looked like sausages."

Silvia Barrett writes about this lovely scenario, Living Earth School -- Kate and Hub Knott posted at Po Moyemu--In My Opinion, saying, "This is a fantastic program for kids ages 7 and up. My son is going to be going to a week of summer camp there in July, following in his sister's footsteps."

Terrell (your host) at Alone On A Limb tells about an environmental education conference he attended recently and about how his school has used the environment in the last few years. I think you will find some useful links at How to Teach in the Great Outdoors.

Reigh Belisama at Save the Ribble posts some pics of A Wetland Wonderland in the Mother Country. The same writer posts more great pics. of this wetland at The Ribble Cycle Diaries.

Outdoor Eating

Just look at that frying pan full of fritters! Your host tried several recipes from Euell Gibbons' books back in the early seventies. I remember trying acorn bread; day lily blossums, buds, and tubers; and poke salad. Stephanie presents Eating Wild Flowers posted at Stop the Ride!, saying, "The Milkweed can't be confused with Dogbane now! :)" (Ed. Note: Don't pick on me Stepahnie!)

Back Indoors

A History Teacher has noticed that TeacherTube has expanded its services and more ways to use GoogleEarth.

While you are at the computer -- there must be a deluge outside -- check out some of the other outdoors oriented Blog Carnivals:
Festival of the Trees
Oekologie
I and the Bird
Circus of the Spineless
Carnival of the Green

Cool VirtualOutdoors website of the month: Click on the logo below to visit EEK - brought to you by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. This electronic magazine is for kids in grades 4-8. Let your students surf around it and learn more about the great outdoors.

That concludes this edition. Oh, I wish I had more time to work on this -- I've only scratched the surface. Please forgive mistakes and omissions. AND please help us out by submitting a few good sites you've found each month.

Our fifth edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors will be hosted by Tricia at The Miss Rumphius Effect. Tricia says she has "...worked as a boat hand on a private yacht, assembled physics equipment in a factory, and even tested dog biscuits for fat content. I now hold the two best jobs in the world. One is teacher, and the other is Mom." Besides The Miss Rumphius Effect Tricia participates in three other cooperative weblogs. We are pleased to have Tricia as the first guest host of Learning in the Great Outdoors. Submit your blog article to the next edition of using our carnival submission form or by sending a link directly to Tricia at pstohrhu(at)richmond(dot)edu.

If you would like to host a future edition of Learning in the Great Outdoors please jot a note to terrellshaw(at)mac(dot)com. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

learning in the great outdoors, blog carnival.

Learning in the Great Outdoors: Second Edition

Welcome to
A Nature Walk at School...
the second edition of
Learning in the Great Outdoors,
the carnival of environmental education.

It has been a busy month for your host here at the Limb. I completed a grant application for an Outdoor Education project at the elementary school where I teach and anxiously await news of its fate.

I have received several interesting submissions for this edition, despite the technical difficulty we experienced with the first edition. I apologize to all who found that post difficult to load. I still have no idea why it kept generating nonsense code. Evidently it was an issue with Blogger because the problem seems to have spontaneously disappeared. (If you should have any trouble loading this post please let me know at thelimb(at)mac(dot)com.)

Let start this month's nature walk in the Library.

Before our walk, a little research in the library...

Tricia at Miss Rumphius Effect has written a wonderful three-part guide to Exploring the Natural World (one, two, three). While visiting with Miss Rumpius be sure to enjoy the poetry!

A few days ago I wrote a post about the need to get kids outdoors so that they can spend time exploring the natural world. I was an outdoor kid, so this comes naturally for me. I always took my kids (students) outside for study, and today I take my preservice teachers and the practicing teachers I work with out to consider all the ways the outdoors can enhance and expand their teaching. Even with structured guidance, I still have students who are reluctant about this approach because they aren't sure how to begin or what exactly to do once they go outside.

- Tricia at Miss Rumphius Effect

Julie Dunlap celebrates the centennial of the birth of the author of Silent Spring with Bring Kids to Carson's Birthday Party posted at Pines Above Snow, saying, "Rachel Carson's 100th birthday will be celebrated May 27, 2007. Reading good books about her life devoted to nature is a good way to celebrate her Centennial with children."

Barb reviews a couple of great nature study books: The Heart of Harmony - Nature Study: Found Some Gems at the Library posted at The Heart of Harmony, saying, "We are encouraging a love of nature in our children through nature study, nature journaling, and sketching in the great outdoors. We love to share what we have found that enoucarges us."

See the Nature Journaling lesson plan link in the Botany section.

Out the garden door from the library...ah...choo!

Speaking of nature sketching, have a look at the sketches of Don West. He has a go a illustrating the stuff that's making us all Sneeze, Cough, Wheeze posted at Idle Minutes this spring.

This blogger found an old issue of Country Living magazine with an article about nature journals and posted Starting a Nature Journal at Ravenhill Cottage.

School at Home is blog of a homeschooling mom who often posts about her experiences teaching in and about nature. In 100 Kids and 4938 Years she talks of ancient trees.

Don't forget to look up at the birds. My wife and I have enjoyed watching the industrious, agile, and beautiful barn swallows and cliff swallows swooping up and down the levee, gobbling insects and building their mud houses on the undersides of Rome's many bridges. The Core Team at 10,000 Birds bemoans the slim pickings in April for birders, but still enjoy, as I do, the return of the gorgeous swallows.

I was so happy to see Tree Swallows back in their houses, the uncontested masters of a broad swathe of brown meadow. These agile birds, brilliant in a hundred hues of shimmering blue, are among the first species to arrive in spring. It’s fitting that they get the stage to themselves for a while, because they’ve got serious star power!

Another homeschool blog that posts about nature study is By Sun and Candlelight who hosted a Nature Study meeting for homeschoolers in her home.

Got some unwanted botany? Like poison ivy? Here's someone with an alternative to commercial herbicides: Vinegar for Poison Ivy.

So many species of trees! You can find something about most of them at the Festival of the Trees, a blog carnival dedicated to the giants of the botanical world.

Dadgum it! Look at that privet, poison ivy, -- and there's a Bradford Pear growing in the middle of our forest. Let's pull out the invasive species! John Peter Thompson of Invasive Notes considers the wicked inconvenience of tree-planting.

Granny J. of Walking Prescott points out the delicate spring tassels in an illustrated post called Dangles.

Here's a Nature Journaling lesson plan for elementary grades from PBS Kids.

Let's pick a mess of greens on the playground and by the stream...

Years ago your host enjoyed trying out Euell Gibbons wild things. Stephanie makes me want to try it again. She has been eating fiddleheads! Check it out! Wild Greens posted at Stop the Ride!.

Don't forget to take the camera along...

Terrell (your host) posted an account with pictures of his outdoor walk on the day of the Virginia Tech tragedy, At Peace While the Nation Mourns. And when Terrell visited the school during Spring Break he found the wild things enjoying the peace and quiet, The Wild Life, at Alone on a Limb.

Reigh Belisama at The Ribble Cycle Diaries has posted a gorgeous group of photos at Two Spring Evenings at Marshside. I have enjoyed keeping up with the Ribble since Reigh submitted an interesting post to our firt edition last month.

Then there's the 100 Acre Wood next door and a new foal to check out.

While you are visiting the neighbors stroll through Oekologie, another carnival focused on environmental science.

Back indoors, check out these websites for tools and ideas...

Ms. Newburn has a couple of great tools for environmental educators on her blog recently. Look for the teacher alternatative to YouTube: TeacherTube and Free Range Craphics.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Brain Essay Contest for High School Students posted at SharpBrains, saying, "Let's spread the word of this Essay Contest on Learning the Brain for high-school students!"

And as long as you are already at the computer, send along a little something for the next episode of Learning in the Great Outdoors!

That concludes this edition. If this is your first visit please take a look at our first edition, as well.

As we struggle to become established as a clearinghouse for information, ideas, and inspiration for Learning in the Great Outdoors, we will continue to explore the internet for a few extra items that outdoor educators might find interesting. Please take a few minutes to let us know about websites and blogs that you have found helpful in any aspect of environmental education. And please submit your own posts when they might be of interest to outdoor educators, parents or children. I will also welcome guest hosts. If you would like to host Learning in the Great Outdoors on your site for an upcoming month please e-mail me at thelimb(at)mac(dot)com. Submit your blog article to the next edition of
learning in the great outdoors
using our
carnival submission form.
Past posts and future hosts can be found on our

blog carnival index page.

Technorati tags:

learning in the great outdoors, blog carnival.

The Parson on Peace, Peace

Two of my regular reads have come together in one post: The Questing Parson has reviewed the new book of our friend and former neighbor Frank Logue, Peace, Peace : Finding peace in a frenetic world.

You can order the soft-cover or hardback version of the book, or you can save trees and money by downloading the virtual book.

The Top Ten Out-of-Print Books

I happened upon the Bookfinder.com list of the most sought after out-of-print books of last year. Perhaps Scholastic will notice that it includes my favorite children's book, a wonderful adventure story with a strong female lead character first published in 1946 that I have read to each of my elementary school homeroom classes since 1970. It's place on this list makes The Lion's Paw the most popular children's book among all the out-of-print children's books extant, I suppose, at least according to Bookfinder.com. I wish Scholastic or Mickler or someone would reprint it again so my students could find reasonably priced copies.

I have written before about The Lion's Paw here and here.

The top 10 as compiled by BookFinder.com:

1) Sex (1992) by Madonna; A perennial favorite, the pop icon’s first book

2) Football Scouting Methods (1963) by Steve Belichick; Legendary college football scout’s playbook, used by coaches and players

3) Touch Me Again (1978) by Suzanne Somers; A collection of poetry from the devotee of “inside out” self improvement

4) Man in Black: His Own Story in His Own Words (1975) by Johnny Cash; Original autobiography (and the source for the hit film Walk the Line)

5) Treasury of Great Recipes (1965) by Mary and Vincent Price; Recipes from world-famous restaurants reworked for the amateur kitchen

6) The Principles of Knitting (1988) by June Hemmons Hiatt; The ultimate hand knitting resource

7) The Lion's Paw (1946) by Robb White; An enduring children’s adventure story

8) The Secret of Perfect Living (1963) by James Mangan; An influential work in the personal behavior modification genre

9) Once a Runner: a Novel (1978) by John L. Parker, Jr.; Cult classic (a long-awaited sequel Again to Carthage expected soon)

10) One Way Up (1964) by John F. Straubel; Chronicles the history of helicopter development

Read the book: think for yourself.

"Hello! Earth to Emory!"

President Jimmy Carter has been lambasted by some on the knee-jerk right and some knee-jerks on the left for his latest book. How dare he take a balanced approach to the Israeli/Palestinian issue! Jody Powell writes, in a letter to the editor in today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, to point out that Carter is definitely not unused to such vitriol: he's endured it since he first began trying to deal with reality in the Middle East as President in 1977:

01/28/07
Strident 'friends' of Israel
never give Carter a break

In her attack on Jimmy Carter's book, Emory Professor Deborah Lipstadt surmises that he is "unused to criticism."

Hello! Earth to Emory! In 1977, I watched with pride and trepidation as he told the American people the truth —- peace for Israel required a "homeland" for Palestinians. The response from self-styled "friends of Israel" was swift and brutal.

In subsequent years, the same chorus retaliated in similar terms when Carter said that multiplying Israeli settlements on Palestinian land was profoundly destructive to prospects for peace.

More recently, Israel and the chorus seem to have concluded that Palestinians do qualify for a homeland and that those settlements were a costly mistake. Apologies from the chorus were no doubt lost in the mail.

Now, Carter has tried to explain why Palestinians are so angry and what must be done to end the shedding of Palestinian, Israeli, and American blood in that holy, misery-stricken land. The professor responds with the same old epithets and innuendo from the same dog-eared script. She accuses him of "anti-Semitic stereotypes" and "traditional anti-Semitic canards," of providing "refuge for scoundrels," "trivializ[ing] the murder of Israelis," and "minimiz[ing] the Holocaust." She notes that a fellow chorus member describes the man who risked his presidency to bring peace between Israel and Egypt as "moronic." In a final bow to civil discourse, the distinguished professor charges Carter with "giving comfort" to Holocaust deniers.

After all that, Lipstadt can't fathom why one might conclude that criticism of Israeli policy will be met with vitriol and intimidation rather than reasoned debate. She also seems unable to comprehend the corrosive damage that such hateful outbursts do to the cause and the country to which she is so obviously devoted.

For those confused and distressed by all this, one small suggestion: Read the book ["Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid"] and think for yourself.

-JODY POWELL
Powell served as White House press secretary in the Carter administration.

Then Now

The Innocent Man

Grisham's latest - click on the pic to visit his website.

Every juror, judge, sworn witness, prosecutor, policeman, warden, prison guard, and defense lawyer in America should be required to read John Grisham's latest book before assuming their duties. The Innocent Man lays out in no uncertain terms the miscarriage of justice that can happen when police and prosecutors let their opinions and zeal for retribution, instead of evidence and rigorous attention to a full legal procedures, guide their investigations and prosecution.

I am routinely struck from juries. I have never served. I know too many proscecutors, lawyers, and have taught too many family members of defendants. But should lawyers decide one day that I am less disreputable than all but eleven other potential jurors, they can know that the defendant in the case will be innocent in my mind until the prosecution can prove beyond reasonable doubt that the defendant is the guy that actually committed the crime.

I am convinced, beyond reasonable doubt, that O.J. Simpson, for example, killed Nicole and Ron. But I will grimly bear to see an occasional lowlife like OJ slinking around the links and gabbing with the tabloids if that is the price we have to pay to see that our American system of impartial justice for every person accused of a crime is vigorously upheld.

Every accused person should be allowed, with the prosecution, equal access to expert examination of the evidence, always, regardless of mental, financial, or other disability. We all want crime punished, but too often the punishment is misplaced. Because of his wealth and fame, Simpson had immediate access to the best defense lawyers and a squad of experts on every kind of forensics. Ron Williamson had none of that. He was seriously disturbed. He had a history of scaring people with his strange behavior. He, at times, looked like everyone's idea of an alcohol and drug crazed killer. It is easy to see why the police and the prosecutor suspected him.

If Grisham is right, many of the authorities in Oklahoma forgot that, in America, suspicion should not be enough.

PBS Story about Ron

PBS Story about Dennis Fritz

Ward and Fontenot

The Innocence Project

A Different Opinion by Joshua Marquis, the district attorney in Astoria, Ore., and vice president of the National District Attorneys Association.