On a Sesquicentennial, Waiting for the World-to-Come May 22, 2013

In 1844, a religious movement called the Millerites predicted that Jesus would return on October 22nd of that year. The day came to be known as “The Great Disappointment.” Nearly twenty years later, a break-away Millerite founded the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Although they’ve been waiting 150 years, the Adventists still believe the apocalypse is imminent. But they’ve learned their lesson: only God knows the true date.

Rev. Mark Schaefer, instructor and United Methodist Chaplain at American University
David Trim, director of Archives, Statistics, and Research at the Seventh Day Adventist World Headquarters

Rewriting the Story of the Buddha May 22, 2013

These days, most Americans like the Buddha, imagining him as a contemplative, peaceful man who found enlightenment under the Bodhi tree. But just a couple centuries ago, many Westerners saw Buddhists as abhorrent heathens. That all changed in the nineteenth century, when European Enlightenment philosophers recast the Buddha as a model humanist.

Donald Lopez, author of From Stone to Flesh: A Short History of the Buddha

Drones represent a new era in warfare. They are the White House-Pentagon-CIA weapon of choice. Clean 21st century death from above. No body bags. No weeping mothers. At least not in the homeland. The President decides who lives and who dies. It’s a dangerous world. Enemies are lurking everywhere. Let’s get them before they get us. Georgetown Law Professor Rosa Brooks, among others, are ringing alarm bells. She told a Senate committee, “Right now we have the executive branch making a claim that it has the right to kill anyone anywhere on earth at any time for secret reasons based on secret evidence in a secret process undertaken by unidentified officials. That’s not the rule of law. That frightens me.” As Bob Dylan tells us in License to Kill: “Man thinks ’cause he rules the earth he can do with it as he please, And if things don’t change soon, he will.”

Jeremy Scahill is the award-winning National Security Correspondent for the Nation magazine and author of the best-sellers Blackwater and Dirty Wars. He has reported from war zones around the world. His work has sparked several congressional investigations. He is also the subject of the film Dirty Wars, an official selection of the 2013 Sundance Film Festival.

Novelist Gish Jen talks about her intellectual autobiography, “Tiger Writing,” and about the relationship of the independent and interdependent self in her work and in literature in general, with host Richard Wolinsky

On this week’s edition of Every Woman, host Sharon Lockhart welcomes Erin Dziedzic, new curator and head of adult programs for the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art to discuss the new Laura McPhee: River of No Return large-scale photography exhibition slated to open May 17th. The exhibition focuses on the landscape and culture of the American West, with a particular emphasis on the Sawtooth Valley of Idaho.

In the second half, Sharon talks to a representative from The Madam President Camp, a summer camp for girls aged 10-14 hosted by the Women In Politics Foundation and the UMKC Center for Civic Engagement, designed to help them “learn about government, leadership, negotiation and team building.” Campers will meet with local and state politicians, visit civic centers, and are assigned a mentor–a woman who is a leader in business or in politics. The camp was set up to empower these young women at the age when social aggression, low self-esteem and peer rejection start to become pervasive in teen groups, and “teach girls that they have value and voice in our society, that one day  they will be capable of leading our country, and that our country needs them.”

(Quotations courtesy of the official camp press release.)

About the guest(s):

Erin Dziedzic (pronounced “Je-jitz”), a native of Massachusettts, is currently a curator at the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) in Savannah, Georgia. Dziedzic has organized exhibitions at the SCAD Museum of Art, as well as at galleries at the college’s four locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia; in Lacoste, France; and in Hong Kong. Since 2006, she’s worked with contemporary artists, such as James Casebere, Angelo Filomeno, Victoria Fu, Nicholas Hlobo, Jean-Michel Othoniel, Damián Ortega, Yeondoo Jung, Liza Lou, and Deborah Poynton.

Dziedzic is also the founder/editor of the online contemporary art journal called artcore journal. One of her recent articles includes a write-up and photos of exhibitions in Kansas City at la Esquina, PLUG Projects, Grand Arts, and the H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute.

At the Kemper Museum, Dziedzic will take on curatorial duties, as well as organizing public programs (positions which previously had been separate).

·   

On Urban Connections for Saturday, May 25th, listeners get a preview of the upcoming event “Jazz & Poetry at the Writer’s Place” with featured national jazz artist Angela Hagenbach, poet Glenn North (Poet in Residence at the American Jazz Museum), acclaimed local poet Phyllis Becker, Writer’s Place Board President and poet Jose’ Faus and Al Ortolani, educator and Writer’s Place Jazz & Poetry committee member.

The Real IRS Scandal: Urgent Need for Campaign Finance and Tax Code Reform

Interview with Alex Seitz-Wald, Salon.com political reporter, conducted by Scott Harris
irs

In recent weeks, the Obama administration has been battered by criticism over a trifecta of controversies – or scandals, depending on your political perspective. They include: questions about White House talking points in the aftermath of 9/11 anniversary attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya that killed four Americans; the Justice Department’s covert collection of Associated Press reporter’s phone records in the course of investigating a government leak related to a foiled terrorist plot, and the Treasury Department’s admission that staffers at the Internal Revenue Service office in Cincinnati, Ohio had selected Tea Party and conservative groups for extra scrutiny of their 501(c)(4) non-profit status applications.

Media Activists Organize to Stop Koch Brothers’ Takeover of Tribune Newspapers

Interview with Timothy Karr, senior director of strategy with the media democracy group Free Press, conducted by Melinda Tuhus
koch

Multi-billionaires Charles and David Koch make their money by exploiting fossil fuels. They have funded all manner of conservative and right-wing political efforts and candidates, including organizations and individuals who deny the reality of human-caused climate disruption. Now the brothers are setting their sights on buying some of the most influential newspapers in the country. The Kochs have expressed interest in the bankrupt Tribune Company, which is looking for a buyer for the eight newspapers it owns: the Chicago Tribune, the Los Angeles Times, the Baltimore Sun, the Hartford Courant, and four others in Florida, Virginia and Pennsylvania.

Monsanto Supreme Court Victory on GMO Seed Patent Strengthens Biotech Giants’ Control of Agribusiness

Interview with Bill Freese, science policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety, conducted by Scott Harris
gmo

In a landmark case for the U.S. biotech industry, the Supreme Court ruled unanimously on May 13 that farmers were prohibited from using Monsanto’s genetically-engineered soybean seeds to grow and replicate new seeds without first paying the company a licensing fee. The case, Bowman v. Monsanto, pitted the biotech giant against Indiana farmer Vernon Hugh Bowman, who had purchased soybean seeds from the bottom of a grain elevator, planted those, and then used the seeds produced for a second crop. Monsanto sued Bowman for $84,000 for his use of those seeds, which are genetically engineered to be resistant to the company’s own herbicide Roundup. Writing for the Court majority, Justice Elena Kagan ruled that Bowman had violated Monsanto’s patent rights.

This week’s summary of under-reported news

Compiled by Bob Nixon

Religious violence between Indonesia’s Christians and Muslims arrived with a vengeance in the town Ambon in the late 1990s, after the downfall of the Suharto dictatorship.
Canadian businessman Sakris Yacoubian sat in a Cuban jail for nearly two years, after cooperating with prosecutors in a major corruption investigation. In April, prosecutors filed a 63-page indictment against the 53-year-old businessman, reflecting a new hard line against government corruption by Cuban President Raul Castro. He now faces a possible 12-year prison sentence.
Mexican migrant Carolina Martinez traveled 2000 miles to the U.S. to reunite with her husband in upstate New York. After arriving she was hired to pick potatoes and onions. Carolina worked six and seven days a week.

In this edition, Part 1 of a 2 part In Context War Report, we consider why some military invasions succeed while others fail. In Part 2, to be broadcast on Sprouts later, we will conclude with a discussion of how the U.S., last invaded in 1812, might fare if it were invaded today.

This edition of Sprouts is from The War Report, a monthly feature of the weekly series In Context produced by MDR Productions, Inc. In Context originates at Pacifica affiliate WPKN 89.5 FM, Bridgeport, CT whose signal reaches most of Connecticut and parts of New York. For an archive of programs, please visit www.incontextreport.com or www.wpkn.org. You can watch In Context videos on YouTube at In Context Radio and TV and contact us through Facebook at In Context Report or by email to: ken@mdrtalk.org.

We speak with author and urban farmer Will Allen about the good food revolution.