Just the other day, I posted about a ?prayer caravan? organized by Cullman County Schools (Alabama) Superintendent Billy Coleman. The idea was that he would lead a group of people to all the schools in the district and pray? becauseI guess that raises test scores in Alabama or something. They?ve been doing this for a few years running.
Superintendent Billy Coleman
We also learned from the Freedom From Religion Foundation (PDF) that the caravan wasn?t the school?s only violation of the law:
We were also informed that schools in the Cullman County system recite the Lord?s Prayer over the loudspeaker each morning. We understand that an attempt to mask this illegal practice is made by giving students ?the option? to participate.
So why bring this all up again?
Because FFRF has learned that they?ve only hit the tip of the iceberg when it comes to violations of church/state separation in the district:
FFRF has received reports from at least seven local families about additional violations in area schools, mostly regarding unconstitutional prayers. FFRF has been informed the district schools lead recitations of the Lord?s prayer during the school day including over the loudspeaker system, have teacher-led prayer before lunch, at graduation ceremonies and according to one student ?every school event? starts with a prayer.?
Cullman Country Schools often hold school events in churches rather than schools themselves. Coleman frequently schedules a student investment dinner and school meetings at various churches around the area.
The most disturbing information FFRF received regards West Point Elementary School. Every Tuesday, according to a complainant a preacher visits to proselytize. Teachers reportedly have told student their teachers ?would be disappointed? if students chose not to listen to the preacher.
Now that people are learning that FFRF is looking at the district, they?re starting to come forward with even more damning pieces of information.
There?s no lawsuit yet, because that?s always a last resort. First, FFRF has requested a response from Coleman by next week. I can?t wait to hear how he tries to explain and get out of all this shit he?s dragged the district into?
Doctors urged to talk to patients about parking cellphonesPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bryan Alary balary@ualberta.ca 780-492-0436 University of Alberta
(Edmonton) Family physicians regularly counsel patients about medical risks associated with heart disease, stroke, diabetes and smoking, and a team from the University of Alberta wants to add cellphone use and driving to the discussion.
Talking on a cellphone while driving raises the risk of collision by four to six timescomparable to getting behind the wheel while under the influence, studies show. Addressing the problem requires educating the public about the risks, and a good place to start is in the doctor's office.
"The evidence is clear and compelling. Epidemiologic, driver simulator and naturalistic studies demonstrate that cellphones and driving are a dangerous combination. Unfortunately, while most drivers view cellphone use as driving as unacceptable, many of them still engage in it," writes Victoria K. Lee, a family medicine resident at the U of A, in a commentary published July 29 in the journal Canadian Family Physician.
Lee co-wrote the article with pediatrics resident Chantelle Champagne and Louis Hugo Francescutti, a professor in the School of Public Health and adjunct professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
The trio maintains that physicians have a role in educating patients through open dialogue about their views to see if they're aware of the hazards of talking while behind the wheel. They offer a number of discussion points, from increased odds of a collision to risks associated with talking on a hands-free device (studies show it's just as dangerous), text messaging (collision risk jumps 23 times) and the lack of hard statistics about cellphone-related crashes.
"Once patients are convinced of the risks of cellphone use while driving, help to prevent them from developing the habit or help them change their behaviour," they write, listing the following advice:
turn off your cellphone when you enter your vehicle or switch it to silent mode and put it somewhere you cannot reach it;
set up caller ID and a reliable voice mail system that lets callers know you might be driving and will return their call at a later time;
ask passengers to help by operating cellphones and other electronic devices. If you are the passenger, speak up and offer to help;
if you need to make an important call, pull over and park in a safe location before reaching for your cellphone;
do not call your friends, co-workers, clients, or family when you know they are driving.
The U of A team says driver education, workplace restrictions, new technologies, media attention and legislation can all play a role in changing cellphone use behaviours, in addition to primary care physicians.
"Patients regard us as community leaders and experts in health and safety. We are in a unique position to influence the thoughts and behaviour of people regarding their overall health and well-being by educating them about the issue of distracted driving."
###
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Doctors urged to talk to patients about parking cellphonesPublic release date: 30-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Bryan Alary balary@ualberta.ca 780-492-0436 University of Alberta
(Edmonton) Family physicians regularly counsel patients about medical risks associated with heart disease, stroke, diabetes and smoking, and a team from the University of Alberta wants to add cellphone use and driving to the discussion.
Talking on a cellphone while driving raises the risk of collision by four to six timescomparable to getting behind the wheel while under the influence, studies show. Addressing the problem requires educating the public about the risks, and a good place to start is in the doctor's office.
"The evidence is clear and compelling. Epidemiologic, driver simulator and naturalistic studies demonstrate that cellphones and driving are a dangerous combination. Unfortunately, while most drivers view cellphone use as driving as unacceptable, many of them still engage in it," writes Victoria K. Lee, a family medicine resident at the U of A, in a commentary published July 29 in the journal Canadian Family Physician.
Lee co-wrote the article with pediatrics resident Chantelle Champagne and Louis Hugo Francescutti, a professor in the School of Public Health and adjunct professor in the Department of Emergency Medicine.
The trio maintains that physicians have a role in educating patients through open dialogue about their views to see if they're aware of the hazards of talking while behind the wheel. They offer a number of discussion points, from increased odds of a collision to risks associated with talking on a hands-free device (studies show it's just as dangerous), text messaging (collision risk jumps 23 times) and the lack of hard statistics about cellphone-related crashes.
"Once patients are convinced of the risks of cellphone use while driving, help to prevent them from developing the habit or help them change their behaviour," they write, listing the following advice:
turn off your cellphone when you enter your vehicle or switch it to silent mode and put it somewhere you cannot reach it;
set up caller ID and a reliable voice mail system that lets callers know you might be driving and will return their call at a later time;
ask passengers to help by operating cellphones and other electronic devices. If you are the passenger, speak up and offer to help;
if you need to make an important call, pull over and park in a safe location before reaching for your cellphone;
do not call your friends, co-workers, clients, or family when you know they are driving.
The U of A team says driver education, workplace restrictions, new technologies, media attention and legislation can all play a role in changing cellphone use behaviours, in addition to primary care physicians.
"Patients regard us as community leaders and experts in health and safety. We are in a unique position to influence the thoughts and behaviour of people regarding their overall health and well-being by educating them about the issue of distracted driving."
###
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Evolution of diverse sex-determining mechanisms in mammalsPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amanda Petrak amanda.petrak@case.edu 216-368-0345 Case Western Reserve University
Scientists historically have argued that evolution proceeds through gradual development of traits. But how can incremental changes apply to the binary switch between two sexes, male or female? Researchers at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine have found that a genetic process among the many species of rodents could have significant implications regarding our assumptions about sex determination and the pace of evolution.
"What we addressed is a long-standing puzzle in natural history: why different types of rodents can exhibit profound differences in how male sex is determined in the embryo," said Michael Weiss, MD, PhD, chairman of the Department of Biochemistry, the Cowan-Blum Professor of Cancer Research and a professor of biochemistry and medicine. "Some rodent populations have both XY males and XY females, and in other populations the Y chromosome has disappeared entirely."
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Weiss and his research team analyzed the Sry gene, which is part of the Y chromosome. This mammalian gene, which steers differentiation in the embryonic gonad toward the development of testes, begins the process leading to the birth of males. For most mammals, including primates, Sry is a conserved feature of the Y chromosome, ultimately giving rise to male anatomy; females generally have two X chromosomes and no Y.
But within anomalous families of rodents, common in South America, activation of the Sry gene may have uncertain consequences. Some of these groups have both XY males and XY females as normal components of the population. Other related species have even lost their Y chromosomes altogether. Without the emergence of compensating ways of specifying sex, the species could not produce malesand would become extinct. For such rodents, therefore, evolution meant inventing entirely different methods of sex determination. These mammals have in essence evolved other ways to play nature's mating game.
The CWRU team attributed the rapid evolvability of sex determination in rodents to a novel protein domain added to the SRY protein. Scientists knew that this domain existed, but Weiss and his team wanted to understand more about its function in gene regulation and its role in evolution. The team determined that the new protein domain acts as a "genetic capacitor," providing a protective buffer to the Sry gene. This buffer allowed male development even when a mutation occurs elsewhere in the gene that might otherwise cause sex reversalbut the buffer is unstable over generations. Slippage of DNA during the production of sperm can lead to sudden changes in the length of the buffer and the degree of protection. By analogy to a capacitor in an electric circuit, the team suggested that this domain can "discharge" to accelerate the pace of evolutionary change. The idea of a genetic capacitor was pioneered by MIT Professor Susan Lindquist in studies of heat-shock proteins in fruit flies in (Nature, "Hsp90 as a capacitor for morphological evolution") and the present paper extended this idea to the pace of mammalian evolution.
How did the Sry buffer arise? "We discovered that a genetic accident 20 million years ago in an ancestral rodent holds the key to solving this puzzle. A simple DNA repeat sequence (called a 'micro-satellite') invaded the Y chromosome and was incorporated into the Sry gene. This invasion accelerated the evolvability of Sry and probably the Y chromosome in general, enabling this subgroup of rodents to explore new molecular mechanisms of sex determination," Weiss said.
Weiss and his team will continue this research, but believe these initial results may have additional implications for our understanding of human evolution and genetics. Because rodents have higher mutation rates and shorter life spans, they also evolve more rapidly and so provide a natural laboratory for studies of mammalian evolution.
Research last year at MIT has shown that in humans and other primates the Y chromosome has been stable for at least the past 25 million years (Nature, Strict evolutionary conservation followed rapid gene loss on human and rhesus Y chromosomes), which Weiss suggests may reflect the absence of micro-satellite-related slippage in the Sry gene. Yet the transcriptional strengths of the murine and human Sry factors are similar. The research suggests that human SRY and its specification of male development has evolved to be just above a genetic threshold of activity, which may in turn enable human communities to benefit from a diversity of male characteristics and behaviors.
"A key lesson of this 20 million-year history is that maleness is a 'close call' as the Sry protein functions near the edge of ambiguity," Weiss explained. "We think that the 'genetic decision' in an embryo to create a testis (instead of an ovary) is tenuous in all social mammals, including us. The critical next question is why?"
###
About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation's top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School's innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes--research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism--to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the School of Medicine.
Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report's "Guide to Graduate Education."
The School of Medicine's primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Evolution of diverse sex-determining mechanisms in mammalsPublic release date: 29-Jul-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Amanda Petrak amanda.petrak@case.edu 216-368-0345 Case Western Reserve University
Scientists historically have argued that evolution proceeds through gradual development of traits. But how can incremental changes apply to the binary switch between two sexes, male or female? Researchers at Case Western Reserve University's School of Medicine have found that a genetic process among the many species of rodents could have significant implications regarding our assumptions about sex determination and the pace of evolution.
"What we addressed is a long-standing puzzle in natural history: why different types of rodents can exhibit profound differences in how male sex is determined in the embryo," said Michael Weiss, MD, PhD, chairman of the Department of Biochemistry, the Cowan-Blum Professor of Cancer Research and a professor of biochemistry and medicine. "Some rodent populations have both XY males and XY females, and in other populations the Y chromosome has disappeared entirely."
In a study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Weiss and his research team analyzed the Sry gene, which is part of the Y chromosome. This mammalian gene, which steers differentiation in the embryonic gonad toward the development of testes, begins the process leading to the birth of males. For most mammals, including primates, Sry is a conserved feature of the Y chromosome, ultimately giving rise to male anatomy; females generally have two X chromosomes and no Y.
But within anomalous families of rodents, common in South America, activation of the Sry gene may have uncertain consequences. Some of these groups have both XY males and XY females as normal components of the population. Other related species have even lost their Y chromosomes altogether. Without the emergence of compensating ways of specifying sex, the species could not produce malesand would become extinct. For such rodents, therefore, evolution meant inventing entirely different methods of sex determination. These mammals have in essence evolved other ways to play nature's mating game.
The CWRU team attributed the rapid evolvability of sex determination in rodents to a novel protein domain added to the SRY protein. Scientists knew that this domain existed, but Weiss and his team wanted to understand more about its function in gene regulation and its role in evolution. The team determined that the new protein domain acts as a "genetic capacitor," providing a protective buffer to the Sry gene. This buffer allowed male development even when a mutation occurs elsewhere in the gene that might otherwise cause sex reversalbut the buffer is unstable over generations. Slippage of DNA during the production of sperm can lead to sudden changes in the length of the buffer and the degree of protection. By analogy to a capacitor in an electric circuit, the team suggested that this domain can "discharge" to accelerate the pace of evolutionary change. The idea of a genetic capacitor was pioneered by MIT Professor Susan Lindquist in studies of heat-shock proteins in fruit flies in (Nature, "Hsp90 as a capacitor for morphological evolution") and the present paper extended this idea to the pace of mammalian evolution.
How did the Sry buffer arise? "We discovered that a genetic accident 20 million years ago in an ancestral rodent holds the key to solving this puzzle. A simple DNA repeat sequence (called a 'micro-satellite') invaded the Y chromosome and was incorporated into the Sry gene. This invasion accelerated the evolvability of Sry and probably the Y chromosome in general, enabling this subgroup of rodents to explore new molecular mechanisms of sex determination," Weiss said.
Weiss and his team will continue this research, but believe these initial results may have additional implications for our understanding of human evolution and genetics. Because rodents have higher mutation rates and shorter life spans, they also evolve more rapidly and so provide a natural laboratory for studies of mammalian evolution.
Research last year at MIT has shown that in humans and other primates the Y chromosome has been stable for at least the past 25 million years (Nature, Strict evolutionary conservation followed rapid gene loss on human and rhesus Y chromosomes), which Weiss suggests may reflect the absence of micro-satellite-related slippage in the Sry gene. Yet the transcriptional strengths of the murine and human Sry factors are similar. The research suggests that human SRY and its specification of male development has evolved to be just above a genetic threshold of activity, which may in turn enable human communities to benefit from a diversity of male characteristics and behaviors.
"A key lesson of this 20 million-year history is that maleness is a 'close call' as the Sry protein functions near the edge of ambiguity," Weiss explained. "We think that the 'genetic decision' in an embryo to create a testis (instead of an ovary) is tenuous in all social mammals, including us. The critical next question is why?"
###
About Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine
Founded in 1843, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine is the largest medical research institution in Ohio and is among the nation's top medical schools for research funding from the National Institutes of Health. The School of Medicine is recognized throughout the international medical community for outstanding achievements in teaching. The School's innovative and pioneering Western Reserve2 curriculum interweaves four themes--research and scholarship, clinical mastery, leadership, and civic professionalism--to prepare students for the practice of evidence-based medicine in the rapidly changing health care environment of the 21st century. Nine Nobel Laureates have been affiliated with the School of Medicine.
Annually, the School of Medicine trains more than 800 MD and MD/PhD students and ranks in the top 25 among U.S. research-oriented medical schools as designated by U.S. News & World Report's "Guide to Graduate Education."
The School of Medicine's primary affiliate is University Hospitals Case Medical Center and is additionally affiliated with MetroHealth Medical Center, the Louis Stokes Cleveland Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center, and the Cleveland Clinic, with which it established the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine of Case Western Reserve University in 2002. http://casemed.case.edu
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AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (SXL) (the ?Partnership?) today announced that Sunoco Partners LLC, its general partner, has declared a cash distribution for the second quarter 2013 of $0.60 per common unit ($2.40 annualized) to be paid on August 14, 2013 to unit holders of record on August 8, 2013. This represents a 5 percent increase over the first quarter 2013 cash distribution of $0.5725 per common unit ($2.29 annualized) and a 28 percent increase over the second quarter 2012 cash distribution of $0.47 per common unit ($1.88 annualized). This represents the thirty-third successive quarter that the Partnership has increased its distribution.
?We are pleased to announce our third consecutive 5 percent quarter over quarter increase in our distribution,? said Michael J. Hennigan, president and chief executive officer. ?We continue to execute our strategy for growth. We are committed to growing stable, ratable cash flow for the Partnership and distributing that cash to our owners.?
The Partnership also announced that it will hold a conference call on Thursday, August 8, 2013 at 8:30 a.m. ET (7:30 a.m. CT) to discuss its financial results for the second quarter 2013. Earnings are expected to be released after the market closes on Wednesday, August 7, 2013.
Those wishing to listen can access the call by dialing (USA toll free) 1-800-369-2171; International (USA toll) 1-517-308-9315 and request ?Sunoco Logistics Partners Earnings Call, Conference Code: Sunoco Logistics?. This event may also be accessed by a webcast, which will be available at www.sunocologistics.com. A number of presentation slides will accompany the audio portion of the call and will be available to be viewed and printed shortly before the call begins. Individuals wishing to listen to the call on the Partnership?s web site will need Windows Media Player, which can be downloaded free of charge from Microsoft or from Sunoco Logistics Partners? conference call page. Please allow at least fifteen minutes to complete the download.
Audio replays of the conference call will be available for two weeks after the conference call beginning approximately two hours following the completion of the call. To access the replay, dial 1-800-406-7489. International callers should dial 1-203-369-3273.
ABOUT SUNOCO LOGISTICS
Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. (SXL), headquartered in Philadelphia, is a master limited partnership that owns and operates a logistics business consisting of a geographically diverse portfolio of complementary crude oil and refined product pipeline, terminalling, and acquisition and marketing assets. SXL?s general partner is a consolidated subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners, L.P. (ETP). For more information, visit the Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. web site at www.sunocologistics.com.
This release is intended to be a qualified notice under Treasury Regulation Section 1.1446-4(b). Brokers and nominees should treat one hundred percent (100%) of distributions by Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. to non-U.S. investors as being attributable to income that is effectively connected with a United States trade or business. Accordingly, distributions by Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. to non-U.S. investors are subject to federal income tax withholding at the highest applicable effective tax rate.
Portions of this document constitute forward-looking statements as defined by federal law. Although Sunoco Logistics Partners L.P. believes that the assumptions underlying these statements are reasonable, investors are cautioned that such forward-looking statements are inherently uncertain and necessarily involve risks that may affect the Partnership?s business prospects and performance causing actual results to differ from those discussed in the foregoing release. Such risks and uncertainties include, by way of example and not of limitation: whether or not the transactions described in the foregoing news release will be cash flow accretive; increased competition; changes in demand for crude oil and refined products that we store and distribute; changes in operating conditions and costs; changes in the level of environmental remediation spending; potential equipment malfunction; potential labor issues; the legislative or regulatory environment; plant construction/repair delays; nonperformance by major customers or suppliers; and political and economic conditions, including the impact of potential terrorist acts and international hostilities. These and other applicable risks and uncertainties have been described more fully in the Partnership?s Annual Report on Form 10-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on March 1, 2013, and in the Partnership?s subsequent Form 8-K and 10-Q filings. The Partnership undertakes no obligation to update any forward-looking statements in this release, whether as a result of new information or future events.
A chaplain at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska was ordered to remove a religious column he had written titled, ?No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave all in World War II,? because it allegedly offended atheists serving on the Air Force base.
FOLLOW TODD ON FACEBOOK!
Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes confirmed to Fox News that he wrote the original essay that appeared in his ?Chaplain?s Corner? column on the base website.
Reyes recounted the origin of the phrase ?There is no such thing as an atheist in a foxhole.? Father William Cummings has largely been credited with uttering the phrase in Bataan during World War II.
President Eisenhower referenced the phrase during a speech to the American Legion in 1954, noting ?I am delighted that our veterans are sponsoring a movement to increase our awareness of God in our daily lives. In battle, they learned a great truth that there are no atheists in the foxholes.?
Reyes ended his essay with a reflection on faith.
?Everyone expresses some form of faith every day, whether it is religious or secular,? he wrote. ?Some express faith by believing when they get up in the morning they will arrive at work in one piece, thankful they have been given another opportunity to enjoy the majesty of the day, or express relief the doctor?s results were negative.?
Reyes did not attack or insult atheists or non-believers in his column.
However, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation accused Reyes of going on an ?anti-secular diatribe? and publicly denigrating ?those without religion.?
They fired off a letter to the Air Force base allegedly on behalf of 42 anonymous airmen who allegedly complained.
?In the civilian world, such anti-secular diatribe is protected free speech,? wrote MRFF?s Blake Page in a letter to Col. Brian Duffy, the base commander. ?Beyond his most obvious failure in upholding regulations through redundant use of the bigoted, religious supremacist phrase, ?no atheists in foxholes,? he defiles the dignity of service members by telling them that regardless of their personally held philosophical beliefs they must have faith.?
The Air Force agreed and approximately five hours after the MRFF complained, they removed the chaplain?s essay.
?While certainly not intended to offend, the article has been removed from our website,? Col. Duffy wrote in an email to the MRFF. ?We remain mindful of the governing instructions on this matter and will work to avoid recurrence.?
But that?s not good enough for the Military Religious Freedom Foundation. They want the chaplain punished for what he wrote.
?Faith based hate, is hate all the same,? Page wrote. ?Lt. Col. Reyes must be appropriately reprimanded.?
Duffy?did not respond to an email requesting information on the specific Air Force policies that the chaplain?s essay violated. Ironically, the Air Force left?six complaints about the essay on their website.
Ron Crews, the executive director of Chaplain Alliance for Religious Liberty, told Fox News the chaplain was well within his duties to write an article about faith.
?To say ?everyone has faith? is correct,? Crews said. ?For Weinstein to say, ?I do not have faith? must mean he has never flown because to step in an airplane is to have faith in a pilot?s ability and faith that mechanics have properly maintained the plane.?
Crews said the incident is yet another example of chaplains facing attacks for expressing their religious beliefs.
?Chaplains have religious liberty as well to speak to issues,? he told Fox News. ?Mr. Weinstein appears to want to silence any speech of faith in the military. It is a sad day for the Air Force and for our country when officers obey every command from Weinstein to silence even chaplains from talking about their faith.?
Following is the column that the Air Force censored:
?Chaplain?s Corner: No Atheists in Foxholes: Chaplains Gave All in World War II?
By Lt. Col. Kenneth Reyes
Many have heard the familiar phrase, ?There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.?
Where did this come from?
Research I verified in an interview with former World War II prisoner of war Roy Bodine (my friend) indicates the phrase has been credited to Father William Cummings.
As the story goes, Father Cummings was a civilian missionary Catholic priest in the Philippines.
The phrase was coined during the Japanese attack at Corregidor.
During the siege, Cummings had noticed non-Catholics were attending his services.
Some he knew were not Catholic, some were not religious and some were even known atheists.
Life-and-death experiences prompt a reality check.
Even the strongest of beliefs can change, and, I may add, can go both ways ? people can be drawn to or away from ?faith.?
With the pending surrender of allied forces to the Japanese, Cummings uttered the famous phrase ?There is no such thing as an atheist in a fox hole.?
In one of my many discussions with Roy, he distinctly remembered a period on the ?Hell Ships? ? these were ships the Japanese used to bring POWs from the Philippines back to Japan.
They were unmarked and thus ?fair game? for attacks from the allies from the air and sea.
Of the 3,000-plus POWs listed on the ships, only 180 survived the journey.
?When our own planes were attacking us,? Roy said, ?I remember Father Cummings calming us down by reciting the Lord?s Prayer and offering up prayers on our behalf.
For a brief moment I did not hear the yells and screams of dying men as our boat was attacked by our own men.?
He went on to say, ?There was a peaceful quiet during the attack that I cannot explain nor have experienced since.?
Later on during the trip to Japan, Cummings, after giving his food to others who needed it more, succumbed to his own need and died of starvation.
Everyone expresses some form of faith every day, whether it is religious or secular.
Some express faith by believing when they get up in the morning they will arrive at work in one piece, thankful they have been given another opportunity to enjoy the majesty of the day; or express relief the doctor?s results were negative.
The real question is, ?Is it important to have faith in ?faith? itself or is it more important to ask, ?What is the object of my faith???
Roy never affirmed or expressed whether his faith was rooted in religion or not, but for a moment in time on the ?Hell Ships,? he believed in Cummings? faith.
What is the root or object of your faith?
Is it something you can count on in times of plenty or loss; peace or chaos; joy or sorrow; success or failure?
Is it something you can count on in times of plenty or loss; peace or chaos; joy or sorrow; success or failure?
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Source: www.behance.net --- Sunday, July 21, 2013 When I created this site I was trying to get my hands on as many mobile projects as possible; this was an opportunity to design and concept a website where content was constantly updated, personalized and exclusive to location. ...
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Public release date: 30-Jul-2013
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When I created this site I was trying to get my hands on as many mobile projects as possible; this was an opportunity to design and concept a website where content was constantly updated, personalized and exclusive to location. ...