10 more days, don't forget the anniversary. Buy some ammo or a gun in rememberance.
Teaching 9/11 history to students too young to remember
The Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks may be the defining moment of a generation, but Purdue University history professor Randy Roberts says the undergraduates he teaches are a bit unclear on the details.
"The sense I get is, 'Something happened,' and beyond that, things get a little bit fuzzy," he says. "We have a new generation for whom this is a story. They know it's an important story, but they just don't know exactly why."
As the 10th anniversary of the attacks approaches, educators at all levels are grappling with endless variations of this problem: How do you teach something that everybody knows about but few understand? And how do you give kids the benefit of 10 years of perspective when the results of that day — two long-standing wars and increased security worldwide — are still playing out?
The first problem is bad timing. Each 9/11 anniversary takes place very early in the school year — for many students, it's their first week back. As a result, educators say, many teachers shrink from presenting accounts of the attacks in any detail, especially to young children, for fear they'll terrify students before they earn their trust.
Though most adults have vivid memories of the events of 9/11, an estimated one in five Americans either have no memory of them or weren't born yet. Most of the members of this fall's high school freshman class were in preschool at the time. Before teachers' eyes, 9/11 has morphed from current events to history, demanding a new teaching strategy.
Until recently, says Frank Tangredi, a social-studies editorial director for the publisher Pearson Education Inc., he and his writers assumed that kids reading their materials would have some personal memory of 9/11. "We're finally reaching that point where it is not part of the memory of any except the oldest high school kids," he says.
In the interim, what they've learned about the attacks isn't always accurate. Google the phrase "Sept. 11 attacks World Trade Center," and up pop YouTube videos, CNN links and an About.com article titled "Did Nostradamus Predict the 9/11 Attacks?"
And 10 years have barely tamped down numerous conspiracy theories, such as one alleging that a controlled demolition brought down the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York City. As recently as March 2010, a poll found that 15% of Americans thought this theory was "credible."
Historians say that even trustworthy sources are problematic.
"I think we're in a crisis in this country in terms of how to teach it," says Mary Marshall Clark, director of Columbia University's Oral History Research Office. "The only real sources we have are news and government sources that tend to flatten out the narrative into a political narrative."
In response, Columbia has amassed a collection of hundreds of videotaped personal 9/11 narratives and is making 358 of them available by request. It has also just published a book titled After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember Sept. 2001 and the Years That Followed.
At New York's Tribute WTC Visitors Center, widely known as the Tribute Center, director Wendy Aibel-Weiss says educators hit upon the idea of producing survivors' personal-narrative videos that pause after two minutes and ask viewers to imagine what they'd do in this person's shoes. The videos then show what the subjects did to help rebuild the city, their lives and the lives of others.
"There's this tremendous humanitarian story that we think is an important part of the 9/11 story," she says. "I think we owe it to the kids so we can share what we've learned. It's the pivotal event of the 21st century."
http://yourlife.usatoday.com/parenting-family/story/2011-08-31/Teaching-911-history-to-students-too-young-to-remember/50208084/1
It is a shame when the police make up there own rules and do as they please and don't have to follow the same laws we do.
Cops Confiscate Lakewood Lady’s Arsenal; Motive Pending
Francesca Rice no longer serves in her country’s armed forces, but she brought a piece of the action back home with her.
It seems the Lakewood vet had stockpiled her Edgewater Towers condo with a home arsenal including handguns, shotguns, a sniper rifle — plus a Thompson sub-machine gun, just in case the pizza guy got fresh.
Her cache somehow caught the attention of Lakewood Police, who paid a visit last September. When they found Rice wasn’t home, they asked an obliging employee of the complex to open up the apartment without her consent. Once inside, they raided the gun rack, making off with 13 firearms worth around $15,000. The only problem: They had no apparent reason to.
When Rice kindly asked to have her toys returned, the cops acknowledged that the weapons were legally owned. But they refused to return them without a court order. And so Rice has filed suit in Lakewood Municipal Court.
So far, nobody’s doing much talking. Lakewood Police Chief Timothy Malley declined to speak specifically about the seizure, citing the ongoing lawsuit. He also declined to speak generally about situations in which Lakewood cops would be likely to seize property on a whim. Rice’s attorney did not return Scene’s calls for comment, and Rice didn’t respond to repeated buzzes on her apartment intercom.
Amid all the zipped lips, there’s a moral here for everybody: Gun owners, beware of law enforcement looking to trod upon your rights. And non-gun owners, beware of neighbors who are particularly well prepared for the zombie apocalypse.
http://www.clevescene.com/scene-and-heard/archives/2011/08/30/cops-confiscate-lakewood-ladys-arsenal-motive-pending
Does this really surprise anyone, they are thives, pedofiles, and perverts now this.
TSA worker pleads guity to conspiring with drug smugglers
A Transportation Security Administration worker has pleaded guilty to helping suspected drug traffickers bypass airport screenings.
Minnetta Walker admitted to one count of conspiracy to defraud the United States by interfering and obstructing TSA security measures.
The 43-year-old was arrested in March the same day as the alleged narcotics smuggler she was helping, Derek Frank.
According to prosecutors, Walker, a behavior detection officer for TSA at Buffalo Niagara International Airport, assisted Frank and other people in avoiding airport checks by leading them along security lines or waiting for them at the departure gate.
Her efforts allowed Frank to travel under another name, to bypass the airport's ticket document officer, who is responsible for checking passengers boarding an aircraft.
In addition, Walker helped Frank avoid a body image scanner as well as a pat-down. On one occasion, she interfered with a screener's ability to monitor Frank's luggage.
Under TSA policy, pat-downs are conducted following checkpoint alarms and if a person opts out of a full body scan. The agency, which is under the Department of Homeland Security, has been beleaguered by controversy, such as uproar over the removal of a 95-year old's diaper and the pat-down of a 6-year-old girl.
Frank is accused of conspiracy, engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise, possession with intent to distribute, and the distribution of 100 kilograms or more of marijuana.
Waker also admitted to alerting two people, including suspected drug dealer Antonio Briggs, that authorities were conducting undercover surveillance of them.
Walker was prosecuted as part of an ongoing probe by the TSA together with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
"A federal employee who worked as a behavioral detection officer made the choice to interfere and obstruct security measures," Christopher Piehota, special agent in charge of the FBI in Buffalo, said in a statement. "Her acts not only defrauded the government but also allowed others to further criminal acts of their own.”
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/90058505?TSA%20worker%20pleads%20guity%20to%20conspiring%20with%20drug%20smugglers#ixzz1WRqUfPZS
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