So my name is Alison Sieger and my daughter asked me who lives in Boston if we could organize a rally To bring attention to what's going on in Tigray, which is in the north of Ethiopia So I can't refuse my daughter, of course And so I agreed to set up this rally today and a bus load of about 50 people from the Boston Tigray community have just arrived So I'm actually gonna go off and greet them I'm really glad that today is happening And I'm really glad that CCTV is actually filming. What's gonna be happening today? My name is Abia Mbaye. I live here in actually in South Burlington, Vermont And I am also very glad that our friends are coming from Boston as well as from Maine and We just we're here to To show the you know the community that what's happening in Tigray the northern of Ethiopia as Alison was saying And then just create awareness Hi, my name is Awad Adane and I'm here from Maine We're here to get awareness of About Tigray northern of Ethiopia It's still there's no peace and we're trying to get justice for all those people that died Because they do need justice and we're here to get awareness and tell everybody in Vermont what's what's happening there. Thank you Justice now. I'm gonna say independent investigation. You guys say you and all should I say you and you guys independent investigation Okay, I'm gonna say you and you guys say independent investigation. Okay, you will just add independent independent investigation now You Knowing what you know about what's going on in your country in your region. Thank you for showing up today I'm a huge believer in showing up showing up is what makes a difference And you've made a difference today by deciding to be here Thank you to my friends that have chosen to come out on this cold and blustery morning Thank you to the Tigray community of Boston and the Tigray community of Portland, Maine We've got up at the crack of dawn to be here to inform us and the public about what's currently going on in Tigray Thank you to my lovely daughter Alex from there on right here Who had the idea in the first place? Yeah, let's have a round of applause for this young woman here definitely Thank you, Alex. Thank you. I call her Alex Meron. I call her lots of things, but You have the idea in the first place and made it happen you continue to be an incredible fall strategic and very patient leader and I'm so proud of you For those of you who weren't listening to me just now. I'll tell you what the numbers are At the very least half a million people have been murdered Over a hundred twenty thousand women and children have been raped and brutalized Over fifty eight thousand refugees from Tigray are now living in Sudan who by sure has humongous problems of their own right now There's been complete destruction of farms and factories in Tigray, which has resulted in a 95% unemployment rate Bank accounts have been looted and Thousands of Tigrayans have been rounded up and placed in concentration camps in the capital of Addis in the capital Addis Ababa Where many have been tortured rate and some have been executed and You know the toll the toll could be much higher could be much much higher I believe we only know a part of what is going on in Tigray right now We're in a waiting period to see not only what is what happens next in this so-called peace treaty But we are waiting to see what has happened until this point Because like I said journalists and have a still barred from traveling to Tigray. So we are waiting We're waiting to see what exactly the devastation will look like And we can only estimate the loss of life. I also want to thank Beth from senator Sanders office. You want to just It will say a few words in a minute. So Sanders offices here representing much Thanks to you for showing up on a Saturday morning when you really didn't have to so thank you Abbey Ahmed the prime minister of Ethiopia who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize Can you believe it less than a year before he waged war on the people of Tigray? Has so far escaped any consequences for his murderous behavior Resulting in the genocide. He has not been held accountable for the war crimes that he and his government committed In fact, the government of Ethiopia headed of course by Abbey Ahmed has now started what they call a Transitional justice process which says it will deliver accountability for human right abuses The Ministry of Justice has proposed a process based on Ethiopia's domestic courts Rather than an international tribunal as in other conflicts such as Yugoslavia How can this be objective and unbiased It's like the police monitoring the police. It will not work Amidst government has yet to even acknowledge the role irritating troops have played throughout the war Ethiopia's into Ethiopia's national institutions have no power to prosecute foreign soldiers back in Eritrea a separate sovereign country Whose leader has dismissed has dismissed allegations against his military as a fantasy Consequently many human rights experts believe the chances of justice for crimes committed by Eritrean troops are slim So with the Ethiopian courts deciding for themselves whether they have committed crimes against humanity and the fact that the Ethiopian government Haven't even acknowledged Eritrean's involvement in the massacre. It is extremely likely that justice will not prevail There are the monsters here who have ties to Tigray Some of their family members Have been captured and tortured by Eritrean forces They have spent months years in fact worrying about whether their relatives are alive or dead and some of them still do not know We implore you to help us stop this genocide We implore you to bring this war the deadliest this century to the forefront of people's minds and help us seek justice But our loved ones My friend Abby is going to speak more to what we can do here in Vermont in a minute But without justice there really will be no peace Without peace the people of Tigray will continue to live in fear Continue to be killed raped and die of hunger There has to be justice or the peace treaty really means nothing So what do we want? When do we want it? What do we want? When do we want it? What do we want? When do we want it? Beth do you want to just come up and speak for a moment and then and then Abby Can you help me down? Speak for the megaphone if you would type of weather is my second rally that I'm here and I'll be sending a letter to Allison on behalf of senator Sanders with more comments with more common That will share with you all We're happy to support this cause that's happening in Tigray with all the atrocities So thank you for inviting me and thank you for having us here. Welcome to Burlington again And until this point we people here really feel that their voices haven't been heard so thank you again Please thank the senator Yeah You don't have a lot to say because Allison my friend has said it all but First of all, I would like to invite you back my Boston friends and families Again for the third time you're a strong bunch, right? and I would like to thank especially Allison who has been fighting this fight since the inception and Doing everything to support us. I would also like to Say thank you to Vermonters who are joining us today the VT digger the free press senator Sanders is a Representative and in senator Sanders in spirit here So please Give a plot for them as well So the reason we are here Allison has talked about it in detail, but it is it boils down to get Our our, you know our Tigray back To where it was As she said a lot of people have died a lot of people are still suffering Kids have not been to school for three years One year for COVID and two years because of this war People don't have Anywhere to go when they are sick. They are not being taken care of So we need to have a proper care and the proper health care for those people who are sick Most most importantly so we want to have peace and we want to maintain whatever small peace is right now and We want to free all Tigray as As Allison has said Western Tigray and Southern Tigray still being occupied by the Amharas Northern Tigray is still being occupied by Eritreans. That needs to be free and free as soon as possible and Again, thank you everybody for coming and we want free Tigray Free Tigray Thank you Allison wants me to to tell you that we have you know a non-profit here that is established for education and health which Allison is a part of and for those of you who are listening the VT Digger the Free press and others Please support us to support kids back back in Tigray. Thank you So, thank you, Burlington and Vermonters for having us here. Okay Thank you for having us here We are here for at least three important reasons One importantly for peace. We are demanding peace in Tigray It's a good one say Okay We are here demanding three important things peace Justice and the war to stop in our region I think eloquently Allison and I we have addressed this So I don't have much to add but we just want to remind our folks here particularly Vermonters And for them to give and continue their support with our cause It's unfortunate that the world is raging with war in Ukraine particularly in Sudan now I don't know how many people are aware and because we have a substantive population in the Sudan Which is stranded because of the current conflict in the Sudan We have close to about 90,000 and probably heading 200,000 people who are already refugees in the Sudan Bleeding war from Ethiopia from Tigray and they're only four four hours away Just four to five hours away from their farm from their home some governments have been Responsible enough to remove and facilitate the travel of their citizens from cartoon inner Surrounding and pass through methamma to safety which we are very happy and supporting and yet we have 100,000 four hours from their homeland from Murrah from Dancia, but suffering from this So we demand the United States to put pressure on the UNDP on NSR on World Lidford program on ESA or ESAID and other European Communities and European governments to facilitate the return of refugees From and around from Murrah back to their country back to Tigray Even though a peace agreement have been signed November November 3rd, 2022 Unfortunately, the war still continues people continue to suffer Wars still continue to rage and particularly to grants as we speak today We are seeing casualties people are passing because of violence and conflict senseless conflict in just Between yesterday and today in she had we have at least about six people half a dozen people who have been murdered Just south of Nazareth, Adama We have half a dozen people just last night who have been murdered simply because they are childrens or people of origin of Tigray We need to stop this the United States the European Union and other International community need to put pressure on Abiyi to stop this The third is humanitarian assistance as you may be aware We have close to about six million people in Tigray who have been displaced Who were self-sufficient, but now need humanitarian assistance a substantive amount of ESAID money which is taxpayers money which have been provided and Facilitated to be delivered to humanitarian crisis Recipients and victims in Tigray and yet substantive amount of that has been diverted and nobody knows ESAID is trying to investigate what we need is immediate delivery of humanitarian assistance Directly the victims in Tigray and not just once every six months not once every year But every month the need for humanitarian assistance is immediate And we want to make sure that the USAID is following with that The third is remind about justice The State Department have made determinations that war crimes atrocities Mass atrocities Ethnic cleansing has happened in Tigray The perpetrators are Eritrea the government of Ethiopia And the Amhara militia and the Amhara armed forces It falls short of the determination that genocide has been committed in Tigray And we want to make sure the State Department follows through its reports and makes that determination Indeed genocide has happened in Tigray Number two that we want we want to make sure that Independent investigation continues to be happening in Tigray Journalists have not been allowed to move to Tigray Independent investigation have not been allowed to go through Tigray The reports that you have seen the determination that you have heard is based only on self-partisan testimonies if they were to go independent investigation to where to go to actually the places Where those crimes have been committed you can tell You can tell that of course they would make a determination genocide has really occurred So we demand an independent investigation by the international community and the continuation of the International Commission for Human Rights investigation in Tigray So 40 months number one Peace now Yes to peace yes to peace yes to peace yes to peace not to war Alright everybody Yeah, let's actually let's do a round of applause Say thank you to Allison and to those who are here and to all the reps Yeah, so let's just give them a say thank you I mean we're not done yet. We're gonna do a little chanting because I mean the reason why what you're here today is because I mean Everybody explained it, but we're demanding justice for the people of Tigray So we demand for you know justice for the people of Tigray because why a lot as they explained it a Lot of what crimes have been committed and crimes against him He might have been committed and no accountable accountability to this day And the Ethiopian government is trying to cover up this and just say you know what? Let's just forget the past and move forward that kind of that kind of mentality is not gonna help anybody because there are a lot of a lot of Children whose parents have been killed and shot with impunity and no no justice for them the children need justice the woman who are raped They need justice you cannot bury this and move forward. It needs to be addressed. Otherwise Like Allison was saying they will never be a genuine peace So we are here to say to the international community take action do independent investigation They could do it. They have the power But why are they so silent Because they they want to they choose to that's why we are here to demand them say take action take action now Take action now take action now Take action now Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray Justice for Tigray We demand justice for Tigray now Men justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Free Tigray now Shall we out of Tigray now? Every trail force is out of Tigray now I'm having fun out of Tigray now Tigray needs justice now needs justice now Tigray needs justice now What do we want? What do we want? What do we want justice now? Justice now Men justice now men justice now men justice now Men justice now We demand justice now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now We also want to support our people in Sudan currently there is a civil war happening in Sudan a terrible war is Happening throughout the country. We are also on the on the side with them with the people of Sudan And we say stop the war with Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Stop killing civilians Stop killing civilians Stop the war Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Stop the war Sudan now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Free Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Justice for Tigray now Alright thank you everyone Michael Barra needs to come here. He's going to say something. Hello everyone. Some of you know me and my name is Meron. I went to high school here, BHS, Burlington High School. I graduated here and then went to trade school in Boston and then after that started the grown-up life. What I wanted to say is thank you so much to all Burlington, all of you from press, from my family, from friends, all of you. We never, this is like my home here. We never got disappointed. We always get more notification, more support here than actually we live in Boston. So this means a lot to me, especially me and all of us here at UCS. We all have the bad news. We all lost family members. We all lost friends. You know it's very, very important all of you to take action by calling you senators to make sure Tigray does get justice what deserves. So please help us calling and making awareness of what's going on around us because what happens to our neighbors tomorrow will happen to us too. So let's be kind one to another and thank you for supporting us. We appreciate you. Tigray, sir. All right. We will be doing final prayer in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. Dear God, we are here today gathered to ask for your help, to ask for the help of the people of Burlington, Vermont. And we are here today to ask you for the many times that we've asked, we've been asking for the past to help all the victims in Tigray, for they have been massacred, murdered, starved to death, sexually abused, deceived, and bombarded.  We ask you to help all the hundreds of thousands of people that we have lost to receive them to your kingdom. We ask all the women that have been raped and gone-graped to the tune of hundreds of thousands to help them to survive this heinous act and to bring them forth to be better people in their future for what had happened on them have devastated their lives, have devastated their family and have devastated our nation, our beloved Tigray. We also ask God to help all the people that have been starved to death and also being continuing to be starved. God, you have promised us that you will give us our daily bread and we ask in here by the fault of our enemies, all the people that had been working hard, their properties had been destroyed, their farms had been destroyed, all the factories, all the offices, all the businesses had been destroyed and Tigray had been left with nothing. All we ask in here is that for all the people in the world to understand our predicament, for the daily bread to be given to our people so they could survive the day. We also ask God for all the kids that have been born under this besiegement, they have been hurt in the kind of words that cannot be explained, they have been malnourished and all the diseases, all the troubles of health had been upon them. We ask you to heal them, to help them so they would become better citizens. We also ask God all the young men and women that have picked up arms and try to defend their people and who have become pretty much disabled. We want you to help them so they can, as they defend our sovereignty, as they defend our lives, as they defend our families, well-being, God, Lord, please help them out so they would have a better future. We ask you this through Jesus Christ, your son in the intercession of our beloved Mary, Mary of Zion, in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Amen. We are Tigrayans from the northern part of Ethiopia and we're from the New England area, state of Vermont, state of Maine, state of New Hampshire, state of Massachusetts and state of Rhode Island. Why we are gathered here is because in the past we've had two rallies in here and we've gotten a wonderful support from the Senators Patrick Leahy and Senator Bernie Sanders office and a lot of great statements that has come out from there has helped our cause a whole lot and for the third time here we are in Vermont, Burlington, city of Burlington and that is that is the reason why we're here and of course what we are opposing is war, besiegement, man-made famine, executions to the tune of hundreds of thousands, the worst trip has ever been recorded on history by the hundreds of thousands of litigers age five all the way up to old woman age 89 and these terrible people, the army of Ethiopia, the army of Eritrea, the army and militia and irregular army of the Amhara region and armies from Somalia who have come to our land and with the first time 600,000 boots and the second time about a million boots that came in and that pretty much came into our land where there are about seven to eight million people and they kill close to a million people that is about 13 percent of the population that they killed and we are opposing that and we really want the people of Burlington and the people of Vermont to help us with this cause because this is the worst in humanity that this 21st century has ever seen and we really thank you very much for your help. Okay well thank you as Miki said yes we are here today to advocate justice for our people in Tigray because yes a peace deal has been signed between the Tigray government and the Ethiopian federal government which is the right you know step in the right direction but what we need right now is accountability and justice but also we need all the invading for the remaining invading forces to withdraw from Tigray currently there are still Eritrean forces in Tigray and the remnant of Amhara militia found no soul in Tigray all these invading forces have to withdraw completely from Tigray in order to establish a genuine peace in Tigray and throughout Ethiopia so that's what we are here for we are here for the complete withdrawal of all the invading forces from Tigray that's one and two we need to address the accountability for all the raped victims in Tigray but also for civilians who were shot from house to house with impunity no mercy they've been killed these are civilians children would know they didn't do anything they were not they were not soldiers that they were killed by the Eritrean forces by the Amhara militias and found no so these work criminals need to come to justice so that's why we are here today we are here for justice and a genuine peace to be established and a real accountability to be to be done by the international community and for the UN to do its due diligence and do independent investigation I would also like to thank Kasha Ram the local senator she came last time and gave us her support like both of them said we need justice immediately without any delays we need basic assets there's still a places that they don't have access necessary that you know water food drink banks are still closed so we demand justice for all Tigray and for also peace to Sudan thank you well we would like we are here to demand justice we are here to demand end of war and for peace to reign in the region in Tigray the United States has been instrumental in providing humanitarian assistance which we appreciate it has also brokered a peace deal in November with a lot of flows in it but we want the peace to hold and yet close to about 600,000 people have been murdered the State Department did found war crimes did indeed happen in Tigray atrocities did happen crimes against against humanity did occur and also ethnic cleansing in western Tigray and other parts of Tigray the State Department fall short shy of saying and coming clear on genocide we want the State Department to make that determination importantly we would like to see the United States Department to make sure peace holds by putting pressure on the administration on ABE through diplomatic and other measures including sanctions to ensure that peace holds and to make sure independent investigation makes a determination that all these crimes did occur and someone is held responsible and accounted that to make sure journalists visit Tigray and make the evidence out so the world so the international community can see and make that determination on their own there are claims that both sides are responsible let the truth come out let the independent investigation come out let the journalists visit Tigray and make that determination we want the people of the United States to make sure the conflict in Tigray the conflict in Ethiopia the conflict in the entire Horn region does really affect them it's very important for Congress for State Department for Biden administration to put enough pressure attention as much as it puts pressure and priority in Ukraine we are sad the invasion of Russia on Ukraine we are saddened by what has happened to the people of Ukraine and we want peace in that region but we also want peace in Tigray we also want peace in the Horn of Africa the similar attention and support including resource and political will that's shown by the international community and by the United States should be shown also towards Tigray and towards Sudan as well we have been very encouraged by statements from Senator Sanders and others who is in Congress but we want the Biden administration to make more resources and more focus and priority given to Tigray thank you yeah good morning thank you very much cc tv for giving me this chance to express myself about what's going on in Ethiopia particularly in Tigray the northern part of Ethiopia today we are here to to demonstrate for peace and justice for for Tigray as you all know Tigray was under siege for the past two years war and humanitarian access was not there and rape and so on it's for those of past two years actually in the past six six months peace has come thanks to the government of the united states for helping inset this peace as they have done a lot and because of that at least now there is no war in Ethiopia in Tigray especially the northern part of Ethiopia it is true that peace is not there but as you all know the Tigray is is a big a big state the western part the northern part is still under the control of the Eritrean government and the Amhara panel this has to be to stop Tigray has to get free we are here in demand of the united states and its allies the europeans to help us bring the whole territory of Tigray into into account into up into peace and as you all know one of the problem in in Tigray is there is no humanitarian access forces have started but we need more this is a country which this is a state where they didn't get food salary and access to to health and so on the force so our our children has not been to school for the past three to four five years kids have to go back to school for the peace to be completed and then we we are here to ask that at the same time we have I have been and most of us here from Boston and Maine has been to Vermont for three four times I was very appreciative they have been very much helpful especially the senators and congressmen their voice was very much appreciated both in the diaspora and the Tigray they have done good job they have been listened by many of their comrades in the united states and we want them to continue they still do a good job but good job means when the job is done we want that to be completed but please pass our our our appreciation for whatever they have been doing and whatever they are going to do thank you very much thank you thank you for giving me the opportunity to express myself my name is Sandayo Gabriel I am the survivor of 1988 starvation or 1985 I should say I know what's like to have a war as a young child and you know survive that coming to America you attempt to try to forget what had happened this war brought a trauma that I had forgotten for so many years and today my cousins my sisters my brothers are in the same condition that they were that I was in 1985 justice for Tigaro it means we want justice for our sisters for our brothers for our kids that have not gotten justice peace is good for everything however the investigation independent investigation has to be there to find out what had happened to our sisters thousands of girls and women's had been raped and they need justice their pain has to be knowledge a government with guns go into a into a country to their homes and purposely disemain them rape them too for them to hate themselves so for the females here that you would hear my voice I need you to help me find justice for the girls and for the women's of Tigray that are suffering with no medication with no doctors to look at them and they they are losing hope because nobody is actually focusing on them peace comes when you heal peace comes when you acknowledge what you have done peace comes when you apologize or help the the people that have got hurt peace in word it sounds good but in reality the peace has to exist through trauma and you know a therapist and these females that had been raped they need to be acknowledged it wasn't their fault being female it's not a crime born in Tigray is not a crime so I just hear to be the voice for the people of Tigray that you know they don't have voices but they don't get the opportunity to make their voice and I want to make aware for everybody in the United States to help us to give international community and to investigate it you know I wish I could say more but I can't and I'm unable to articulate my word thank you very much


Excellencies, distinguished delegates, ladies and gentlemen, it gives me great pleasure to extend to you all a very warm greeting on behalf of the government and people of the Republic of Anuatu. At the outset, I would like to congratulate Dr. Kyu Tonkyu in his new role as the new FAO Director General. The government of the Republic of Anuatu looks forward to strengthening partnerships and collaborations with you. Mr. Chairman, the role we live today is full of unpredictable challenges and opportunities. What we consider normal no longer makes sense amid the complexities of COVID-19. The challenges of COVID-19 are impacting and changing the existence of our societies and communities and forcing us to reconsider our national investment and development priorities. For small island states like Anuatu, the challenges of COVID-19 are exacerbated by climate change and natural disasters which are projected to have significant impacts, including rising sea levels, more violent tropical cyclones and droughts. Fish stocks are expected to be directly affected by any changes that may occur in the ocean's ecosystem. Warming waters would harm coral reefs and vital fish habitats. Changes in temperature and rainfall would also impact the farming industry due to an increase of investment by pests and diseases in many stable and export crops. In order to deal with the threats of COVID-19, climate change and natural disasters, profound changes must be applied to our food system. This year marks 40 years of independence by the Republic of Anuatu. The pathway we draw first to get to where we are today has not been easy and it will get harder and harder as we draw first development pathway for the next 40 years to achieve our national aspirations. As our population increases, our land space for cultivation of agriculture, livestock, forestry and fisheries products to feed our people will get smaller. Food security demand by our increasing population will outstrip the ability of several of our rural communities to supply food. The negative effect being the unfortunate shift towards dependency on imported processed food that are energy dense and nutritionally poor. As a result, the incidence of obesity and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes will continue to increase. Moreover, increasing reliance on imported foods will make us particularly vulnerable to variation in supply and costs. Therefore, our endeavor to set up development frameworks conducive to building a stable, sustainable and prosperous nation will slowly drift away into oblivion. The need to strengthen our food systems to maintain our food supply is a meaning for the sustainability of our societies. We must look beyond the challenges we see and face today and develop innovative alternative measures to increase food production to meet anticipated food supply shortfalls of tomorrow. In addressing this issue, the government of the Republic of Vanuatu recognizes the importance, contribution of protective sectors and role of rural communities through farming and fishing. By bringing into perspective, community pays mechanized farming approaches to address as shortfall in the supply of local produce to sustain the well-being food security of our rural communities. The government of Vanuatu is investing large portions of national funds on development of each protective sectors, which include agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries and bi-security. Our people are at the very heart of our development aspirations. At this critical time, the government of the Republic of Vanuatu will continue to work to look to file FAO for technical support and funding assistance. At this time of extreme crisis, I call on FAO to pay special attention to federal, Pacific, small island states like the Republic of Vanuatu and to work with us to develop alternative and innovative farming and fishing systems to sustain our food security and livelihoods. We must be ready to take advantage of any favorable impacts that may arise from climate change. More resilient food systems will have to be graded, but more research is needed before development adaptations can apply effectively. Together, we must try to ensure that our nations are stable, sustainable and prosperous, so that all our people have a just and equal opportunity to be well educated, healthy and wealthy. Just as we strive to progress in a way that protects and preserves our natural resources for children and us, we must utilize the challenges of today as key drivers for the development opportunities of tomorrow. I thank you, Mr Chairman.


You need a financial advisor with the freedom to focus on your specific needs. Whatever your goals, Reeve Potter can create a game plan tailored to you. Call Reid at 432-0777 at Pikeville, Kentucky to learn more. Pikeville First Responders responded Tuesday to a crash on Cedar Creek Road in Pikeville. Public Information Officer Tony Kahn reveals more. We got dispatch to a single vehicle collision. The vehicle versus house got up here. The vehicle has basically reached the door of the garage and destructed the damage to the bread. Still a lot of people locate the operator of the vehicle. But everybody inside the house is good and nobody got hurt inside the house. Kahn continues to say that First Responders are checking the home for structural integrity and that they are continuing to look for the operator. For Mountain Top News, I'm Joel Porgyll.


Baxter police are investigating a home invasion burglary at a home on Fox Road. The homeowner was not able to provide many details about the suspect and police believe that this was not a random act. At this time the Baxter Police Department has no reason to believe that the public is in any danger. If you have any information regarding the incident, officials ask that you call the Baxter Police Department. If you've enjoyed this segment of Lakeland news, please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland Public Television.


Income tax 2021-2022, self-employment SE tax. Get ready to get refunds to the max, dive it into income tax 2021-2022. Most of this information can be found in Publication 334, Tax Guide for Small Business Tax Year 2021 on the IRS website, irs.gov, irs.gov. Income tax formula, we're focused down here this time on the other taxes, specifically we're talking about the self-employment tax, which you could think of most likely or oftentimes applied to something like a Schedule C type of business for a sole proprietorship. The Schedule C then being reported on a separate schedule, basically an income statement. The net on which we would be calculating the self-employment tax typically and the net of that Schedule C also flowing into line one income up top. This is the first page of the Form 1040. If we had a Schedule C type of business


The modern-day institution, man's way of organizing belief systems into their different clans, cult-like attitudes, often driven by an existential perception, specialisms of some form or merely a naturally occurring passion. They are either built around a certain series of events or an apparent fact or claim, which stand as the cornerstones of said institution. It is therefore within the profiteers of said ideologies' interests to not only suppress any evidence that may surface that would make their treasured institutions crumble to their very core foundation, but to actively destroy said relics whenever one gets an opportunity to do so. The Bamiyan Buddha, for example, apparently this monstrous carving, perfectly bored into a sheer rock face in the Bamiyan Valley of Central Afghanistan, is not only a relic, which we hypothesize, was left by a now lost civilization, but due to the facial features once masterfully depicted upon the statue, removed at some later time within history, carved flat, not only making its identification as Buddha questionable, it was for some reason completely destroyed during the Iraq War. Its destruction, I propose, supports our prior posit of it indeed being that of a lost civilization's work, this being the sole motive for such actions. Interestingly, hidden voids found behind the carving, if it were indeed a solid carving as one would have once presumed when gazing upon it, how were these hollow chambers once placed behind said carving? Additionally, not only do most modern institutions deny any of the evidence we so often put forward on our channel, often in regards to a past lost civilization, but fields such as geology is simply actively writing off countless ancient sites and anomalies as simply geological coincidences. Their existence being an impossibility according to already established supposedly concluded chronology for human civilization, one reoccurring strategy which I like to call the Paridolia Effect Denial as befallen countless sites of interest. One of the most hotly debated, being the face on Mars, now simply dismissed as a trick of light, the intriguing pyramidal features nearby, which also somehow align with Pleiades. This denial strategy has condemned other said features here on Earth, some of which found in remote places that, according to modern academia, have simply never been inhabited. Thus, regardless of the artificial nature of such places as Gornia Shoria, must be dismissed as mere coincidental geological features. The ruins clearly immense age, often used in an unfortunate twist of fate, as support of such claims as nature eventually reclaims all, thus the older the ruin, the easier this said denial strategy is to argue. That is, until now, in a modern era, where modern technology now allows us to collect a massive amount of information on simply anything, unexplained features, boob parts, and many other advanced unexplained legacies of an antiquity, once hidden, now shared far and wide, evidence which flies in the face of modern paradigm. The Charonian is yet another of these curious, clearly immensely old anomalies that regardless of its form, once being carved from extremely tough rock, maybe this is why our lost ancestors built with such enormous stones and did so in an as yet unexplained, yet clearly highly advanced way known as polygonal masonry. Perhaps they built like this so that their footprint here on our planet be long lived, and to deliberately be resistant to the elements, to reach us now in the modern day, giving all of us an opportunity to understand the real history of our Earth, regardless of what others would like. We find all of these things highly compelling.


It is my absolute pleasure to be here with Deepa Paralad, author and design strategist as we talk about transformation. Deepa, as you know, Brightline is all about transformation and better enabling organizations to transform, recognizing the alarming, I'll say, stats around the ability to actually do that.  Help me understand what you see in terms of challenges to transformation. Well, I think there's some legitimate reasons it's become more difficult. It's not because of a lack of good intentions. I think that the set of issues that companies are asked to weigh in on are extremely complex. Things like sustainability and things like, you know, security don't have a finite set of things we can even test, right? Those are very open-ended questions. They're open to a lot of culture. Even debate about what the end looks like. So you kind of have no fixed set of approaches and no completely shared understanding of what, you know, a successful completion of that task looks like. So I think the complexity is part of it. But in that process, I think in order to come to terms with that uncertainty and still move forward, whatever transformation efforts you undertake really have to have, I would say, you know, more than specific end points, they need to have specific traits. And I think one of the key ones is about inclusion. You know, I think a lot of technology can assist us in some ways, but it's geared toward helping us find a match with people who have common interests that we do. But everything we know about innovation is some of the greatest discoveries come from far outside our field. And so we don't really have technology right now to help us find the mismatch. But I think leaders have to undertake that responsibility and always make sure they're being as inclusive as possible. And I think things like using some of these visual and design tools by definition make it more possible for a better set of people, wider set of people to give input. So inclusion is one. The second is we have to be really transparent about what the assumptions are. You know, there's no guaranteed success or failure in any innovation or any transformation effort. But at least if we're transparent about what our underlying assumptions are, people can comment on those. If there's a lot of, you know, lack of understanding around those, it's very hard for people to get behind. And the other thing is, like I said, a lot of things we're trying to do are pretty hard and you're never sure whether they'll truly be accepted. So I think we really have to focus on making the process a little bit more fun, a little bit more inspiring because that's the only way you can capture the energy of people around you. And you know, I think organizations can hopefully start to design these things so that it feels like a field trip, not like homework. Yes, yes. It's about, you know, as you say, the hearts and minds, right? You want to be able to engage the organization in that conversation to be able to truly see what are the kinds of things that make sense to be able to engage in and do as opposed to just assume to your point. And I think personal trust in relationships, a lot of these issues are beyond the walls of the organization. So whatever your leadership style and however effective it is inside the organization, it's not always sufficient to have an impact, especially now when CEOs and leaders are saying, do something beyond profit, have a social impact. That requires a much wider, you know, set of collaboration than we've ever really had to do before. So I think it's not only communicating your objectives, but really having people understand your intentions that is critical. And I think that takes a huge investment of time. It may be unfamiliar, uncomfortable. But when that happens, I think when we're talking about ecosystems, ecosystems can form very quickly around ideas that are powerful. And I mean, we have recent examples, you know, things like one laptop per child, whether or not the product was a huge unqualified success, I think now people have moved on, but it just made people all get in on this idea of inclusion. How do we deploy technology to help a much wider set of people? Right, that engages people, that really makes people rally around the cause. And while the initial aspect of what it is may not be the best thing, actually it's a start and then it can grow beyond that. And I think also trying to take abstract concepts, I think the design aspect is very critical because once you create something tangible, people are able to comment on it. So I mean, we're not going to solve the debate about vegetarian versus non-vegetarian by discussion. But maybe if I make a plant-based meat, you know, people can see room for improvement when they also have analysts saying maybe this is going to be this $100 billion business in 15 years. All kinds of players can experiment and make it better very rapidly. So I think getting to that point where there's something for people to react to keeps a sustained energy on the process. Because having it completely abstract and word-based is very, you know, after a while you just can't sustain people's energy. Yes, yeah, it's difficult to rally around something that is so ambiguous. But being able to create something that enables people to be able to comment and make it evolve, it's not about being able to define it definitively day one, it's about the evolution of it to what it needs to be. And that's where I think, like, good products are not perfect, but what they do is they form an emotional connection and they build community.  And I think that emotional connection sometimes is even more important, powerful when things fail. Because if people care enough to help you get in the ring for round two. So you'll see all the time when you look at a company like Apple, everyone tends to focus on the aesthetics of their design. But I think with things like 3D printing, over time, other people will be able to copy the aesthetics. But having that community of people who are eager to write a fix all the time because they're so engaged and they care about the company succeeding is really critical. And I think more companies are going to be able to do that. When you give people some choice about how they use it, when you respect their opinions, you know, I think your base can be much wider and that inclusion is going to become more important now for a couple of reasons. Is that the lifeline of CEOs is shortening their tenure on average and the life cycle of anything we create, however successful it is, is also shortening. So if we don't take into account a much wider group of people and consider their tastes and preferences early on, it's very hard to go back and backfill and say, let me now course correct and think about this. Because we know now that good ideas travel, right? There's a global payment infrastructure in place and you can actually have a much larger market than it was ever possible before. And everyone has the same information. So I think that, you know, for me, inclusion, I don't look at it as a philosophical point. I think it's really an insurance policy and it's probably the best business model of all time. Great. Well, thank you for your time and your insights. Thank you so much.


Okay, thank you Mr. Chairman you raised so important but very difficult question I don't know whether I have answer to that since I'm a trade expert I will say something about the trade area starting with a brief remarks on issues related to the supply chain global supply chain and possibly I want to touch upon the possibility of future world trade governance. I will start with the three major causes for the recent global supply chain restructuring. First as you know very well COVID-19 pandemic and the war between Russia and Ukraine and various sanctions against Russia are causing supply chain disruptions. Second the US measures trade measures based on the national security concerns are also causing supply chain distortions. For example I think you know this very well additional tariffs on steel and aluminum also quarter imposed on South Korean steel export and export control on China for semiconductor and semiconductor equipment distorting trade in those products. Third trade policies based on politically motivated nationalism which prefer domestic production and resuring also causing supply chain restructuring. So all of these affecting international trade and supply chains of global firms. Looking at these development several concerns are emerging. First we notice that countries like the United States which have criticized China for giving heavy government subsidies in specific sectors now provides industrial subsidies to promote their own domestic sector like a semiconductor. According to US Chips and Science Act the US government will provide 52 billion dollars of subsidies in semiconductor sector. This means the industrial policies could be revived in most countries including the United States and probably the EU triggering industrial subsidies competitions among major countries. We worried that this might we might lose the opportunity to reform the rules on industrial subsidies at the WTO. Second some trade policy measures based on national security concerns, green economy or politically motivated nationalism such as those in the US Inflation Reduction Act may violate the WTO rules of MFM principle and the national treatment. For example the IRA include tax credit provisions which discriminate against electric vehicles produced or assembled outside North American region. Regarding these aspects of the US legislation some trade experts including those even in the US are questioning whether US is in support of defending and reforming the rules-based multilateral trading system or simply pushing for anti-China as well as America First policies. The third concern is about the issue of decoupling between the US and China. As you know very well the US economies and many other economies in the world are already deeply interconnected with Chinese economy through many years of globalization and trade therefore it may not be realistic and even infeasible to suddenly cut off all trade between the US and China. I think we should consider limiting the US decoupling from China to a few technologically sensitive sectors which are directly related to national security. Even in the case of semiconductor decoupling should focus on a few technologically advanced chips. Lastly but not least I have another concern which is related to the decoupling issues I have just mentioned. We now know that the Indo-Pacific economic framework participating countries are discussing the content of the agreement of the IPEF proposed by the United States. Of course we do not know the details yet but probably in the second pillar of the Indo-Pacific economic framework there'll be some provisions for supply chain resilience which might exclude China in their supply chain for certain products and materials. If this is the case we can easily expect China to react in one way or another. So trade experts are actually saying that these kind of confrontations between IPEF participating countries and China might be leading to a serious kind of trade war which we are really concerned. Well these are my concerns to share with you as a trade economist I do not see the World Trade Governance we talk about that in the first session particularly the multilateral trading system of the WTO properly deals with these issues these problems. Furthermore no major countries formally raise this concern these days. So in this context I would like to suggest that the WPC participant start to raise appropriate voices. I particularly think that our session is the right place to discuss some ideas about the future global trade governors. I don't provide any specific solutions but I raise the issue. Well I stop here thank you very much. Thank you thank you very very much in detail. It was very very clear and this danger of nationalism introducing its own fragmentation at the global level and also the decoupling between US and China that you mentioned and the potential war the potential trade war is extremely important in our perspective.


Please join me in a moment, few moments of silent meditation. And now if you would join me for our in-gathering hymn, number 391, the words are printed in your order of service. Welcome to the First Unitarian Society of Madison. This is a community where curious seekers gather to explore spiritual, ethical, and social issues in an accepting and nurturing environment. Unitarian universalism supports the freedom of conscience of each individual. As together, we seek to be a force for good in the world. My name is Dorrit Bergen, and on behalf of the congregation, I would like to extend a special welcome to visitors.  Newcomers are encouraged to stay for our fellowship hour after the service and to visit the library, which is directly across the center doors of this auditorium. Bring your drinks and bring your questions. Members of our staff and lay ministry will be on hand to welcome you. You may also look for people holding teal, stoneware, coffee mugs. These are members knowledgeable about our faith community who would love to visit with you. These guides are generally available to give a building tour after each service. So if you would like to learn more about this sustainably designed addition to our national land across the parking lot, please meet near the large glass window on the left side of the auditorium. To welcome children to stay for the duration of the service, however, because it is difficult for some of us to hear in this lively acoustical environment, our child haven and commons are excellent places to retire if a child needs to talk or move around. The service can still be seen and heard from those areas. And speaking of noise, this would be a good time to turn off all electronic devices. I'd like to acknowledge now those individuals who help our services run smoothly. Our lay minister today is Ann Smiley. Our greeter was Hannah Pinkerton. The person serving refreshments is Jean Hills. Our tour guide will be Richard Miller. And I would like especially to thank three people who jumped in at the last minute to serve as our ushers. And that would be Gail Bliss, Ann Smiley, and Kathy Hoover. Please note the announcements on the red floors insert in your order of service which describe upcoming events of the society and provide more information about today's activities. Again, welcome. We hope today's service will stimulate your mind, touch your hearts, and stir your spirit. We begin our service with the words of the African-American preacher and professor of homiletics at Boston University, Howard Thurman. How good it is to center down. To sit quietly and see one's self pass by. The streets of our minds see with endless traffic our spirits resound with clashings with noisy silences while something deep within hungers and thirsts for the still moment and the resting law. With full intensity we seek air the quiet passes a fresh sense of order in our living, a direction, a stronger sure or purpose that will structure our confusion and bring meaning to our chaos. Floating up through all the jangling echoes of our turbulence there is a sound of another kind, a deeper note which only the stillness of the heart makes clear. It moves directly to the core of our being and our questions are answered, our spirits refreshed, and we move back into the traffic of our daily round with the peace of the eternal in our step. How good it is to center down. I invite you to rise in body or in spirit for the lighting of our chalice. Please join me in reading the words of affirmation printed in your program. As we light this chalice may its flame illuminate the inspiration waiting to be discovered in our hearts. As we light this chalice may its light remind us of the hopes to be revealed in the efforts of our minds. As we light this chalice may its warmth renew the dreams brewing in our spirits. May this flame be a symbol of the reality that we can and hope to be. Now I invite you on this fine January morning to turn to your neighbor and extend to them a warm greeting. Enjoy their creations as they march through the auditorium. The parade isn't over yet. Might have been easier if we'd saved the parade till the offering. After all the excitement I invite you now to join me in a few minutes of meditation. So let us be gentle with ourselves just now for a few moments. Let us release ourselves from a world that is too much with us. A world often too noisy, too frantic, too demanding, and too judging. Let us be gentle with ourselves just now. And for a few moments release ourselves into the calm still world that waits to receive us. A world where the quiet is broken only by the sounds of our own making by those of our children chattering, by the ice cracking or the snow crunching in the wintry world outside. And within this welcoming quiet, this personal solitude, let us befriend ourselves where ordinarily we would unfairly and endlessly berate ourselves for our imperfections. For just a few moments let the tongue of harsh judgment be silent. We will do better tomorrow. We will rise to the occasion. We will surprise the world with our goodness and our grace, but for now let us simply rest in the gentleness of this moment. Letting the healing hand of self-understanding and forgiveness touch us with its peace. Let us return to the silence for a few moments more. Blessed be and amen. Please remain seated as we sing together hymn number 90. Been working with and will be working with of solitude was one selected by two members of our congregation, Pat and Charles Stinger. And they purchased this particular topic last year at our annual Cabaret service auction. So I thank Pat and Charles for the inspiration that their idea has provided me. And so this from Henry David Thoreau's classic Walden. There can be no very black melancholy to him who lives in the midst of nature and has his senses still. And nothing can rightly compel a simple and brave man to a vulgar sadness. Now while I enjoy the friendship of the seasons I trust that nothing can make life a burden to me. And sometimes when I compare myself with other men it seems as if I were more favored by the gods than they. I have never felt loneliness or in the least oppressed by a sense of solitude but once. And that was a few weeks after I came to live in the woods when for an hour I doubted if the near neighborhood of man was not essential for a serene and healthy life. To be alone was something unpleasant. But I was at the same time conscious of a slight insanity in my mood and I seemed to foresee my recovery. I was suddenly sensible of such sweetness, such beneficent society in nature in the very pattern of the raindrops in every sound and sight around my house. An infinite and unaccountable friendliness all at once like an atmosphere sustaining me has made the fancy advantages of human neighborhood insignificant and I never have thought of it since. Every little pine needle expanded and swelled with sympathy and befriended me. No men frequently say to me I should think you would feel lonesome down there and want to be nearer to folks rainy and snowy days and nights especially. And I am tempted to reply to such why would I feel lonely? What do we most want to dwell near to? Not to many men surely. The depot, the post office, the bar room, the meeting house, the school house, the grocery. Here men most congregate but rather we to the perennial source of our life went in all of our experience we have found that to issue as the willow stands near the water and sends out its roots in all direction. This will vary with different natures but this is the place where the wise man will dig his cellar. I find it wholesome to be alone the greater part of the time to be in company even the best is soon weary some dissipating. I love to be alone. I never have found the companion that was so companionable as solitude. In any case, I do have a great deal of company in my house especially in the morning when nobody calls. I am no more lonely than the loon in the pond that laughs out loud. I am no more lonely than the dandelion in a pasture or a beanleaf or the sorrel or a bumblebee. I am no more lonely than the north star or the south wind or an April shower or a January thaw or the first spider in a new house. Written 150 years later but in a similar vein Annie Dillard's Pilgrim at Tinker Creek. It was sunny one evening last summer at Tinker Creek. The sun was low in the sky upstream. I was sitting on the Sycamore log bridge with the sunset at my back watching the shiners the size of minnows who were feeding over the muddy sand in skitter schools. And again and again one fish and then another turned and for a split second crossed the current and flash. The sun shot out from its silver side. I couldn't watch for it. It was always just happening somewhere else and it drew my vision just as it disappeared. Flash like the sudden dazzle of the thinnest blade a sparkling overdone and olive ground at chance intervals from every direction. And then then I noticed white specks some sort of pale petals small floating under my feet on the creek's surface very slow very steady. And so I blurred my eyes and I gazed up toward the brim of my hat and I saw a new world. I saw the pale white circles roll up and roll up like the world's turning mute and perfect. And I saw the linear flashes gleaming silver like stars being born at random down the rolling scroll of time. And then something broke and something opened and I filled like a new wine skin I breathe an air like light. I saw a light like water and I was the lip of a fountain that the creek filled forever. I was ether a leaf in the Zephyr flesh flake feather bone. And when I see this way I see truly as Thoreau says I return to my senses. I am the man who watches the baseball game in the silence of the empty stadium and I see the game purely. I'm abstracted and dazed and when it's all over and the white suited players lop off the green field to their shadow dugouts I leap to my feet and I cheer and I cheer. The secret of seeing is to sail on a solar wind hone and spread your spirit till you yourself are a sail whetted translucent and broadside to the nearest. In his 1897 short story entitled An Outpost of Progress, a story set like his later novel The Heart of Darkness in Equatorial Africa, Joseph Conrad describes the experience of two European proprietors of a remote trading outpost. Carlier and Kayerts have journeyed deep into the jungle to procure precious ivory from the natives. And despite the many hardships involved in this lifestyle, the prospect of acquiring extraordinary riches proves irresistible to these two men. And yet before long the isolation that they feel in this trackless tropical environment, it begins to wear on them and then to overwhelm them. The river, the forest, all the great land throbbing with life were like a great emptiness Conrad wrote. From time to time tribesmen would appear in their dugout canoes eager to do business, but for long stretches of time Kayerts and Carlier were completely on their own and they find the absence of any semblance of civilization to be unbearable. Stretching away in all directions Conrad continues, surrounding this insignificant cleared spot of the trading post, immense forests lay in eloquent silence of mute greatness. Two years pass and then during a petty argument Kayerts kills his companion and then shortly afterwards he hangs himself. About the stories denouement the philosopher John Gray comments, removed from their habits these men lose the ability to go on living. Society has always taken care of them, forbidding all independent thought, all initiative, all departure from routine. They could live only on condition of being machines and so when Kayerts and his companion ventured into the Congo, the aliens they met were not the indigenous inhabitants, but rather themselves. They met themselves, perhaps for the first time in their lives and stripped of the veneer of European civilization, they had nothing whatsoever to hang on to. Prolonged solitude brings us face to face with ourselves, but what if that self is little more than a hollow shell? As the Swiss philosopher poet Amiel wrote in his journal, the man who has no refuge in himself, who lives so to speak in his front rooms, he is one of the crowd, a taxpayer, an elector, an anonymity, but not a man.  Individually our ancient forebears didn't have a whole lot going for them, they were pretty much at the mercy of larger predators and of the natural elements.  We were instinctually aware of our individual vulnerability, and so our forebears hated the prospect of solitude of being alone. In pre-literate cultures, the only the witches and the shamans felt comfortable spending time by themselves, University of Chicago psychiatrist Mahaley Sikjent Mahai observed. Throughout much of history, the worst fate that could befall the individual was to be exiled, to be ostracized. The Latin locution, the Latin word for being alive, Sikjent Mahai says, was inter hominem essay, which literally means to be among men. Whereas to be dead in the Latin was inter hominem essay decinerate, to cease to be among men. Exile from the city was, next to being killed outright, the most severe punishment for a Roman citizen, no matter how luxurious his country is stayed. Now in more recent times, incarceration has served pretty much the same function. Incarceration was introduced by Quakers and other reformers in the 18th century. And prison was offered as an alternative to the barbaric punishments of mutilation and death. Now prisons did exist in earlier times, but generally they served only as way stations for criminals or heretics who were awaiting execution. But the 18th century reformers had something else in mind besides punishing people. Solitude, they believed, afforded the scoff law the opportunity to reflect upon and repent of his misdeeds. To mend his ways, solitude could be religiously therapeutic. And thus the cells in which prisoners were held resembled those found in monasteries and contact with other inmates was strictly limited. Now solitary confinement or administrative segregation continues to be used today, perhaps in excess in today's prisons. Security staff will remove inmates from the general population either as punishment or in order at times to protect them. For most of these men and women, however, the results have not been as salutary as positive as those early Quakers had hoped they would be. Anthony Stor writes, beyond a few weeks in solitary, many detainees become completely apathetic. Others lose control of their emotions to the point that they believe that they are going utterly mad. And I can testify to the accuracy of Stor's observation because when I was a third-year seminarian, I spent a summer working as a chaplain intern in a northern California prison. And as a chaplain, I was one of the very few staff allowed on the segregation units, the isolation floor of that facility. And the men that I encountered in those cells, some of whom had spent years there, they could barely communicate. Many of them were incoherent, but they were always grateful for the cigarettes that I was allowed to provide them. Now not all inmates suffer from enforced solitude. For instance, Jean Harris. She was the headmistress of a prestigious girls' academy in northern Virginia. But she was convicted of murdering her ex-lover, a prominent physician, in the early 1980s. Harris declared near the end of her 12-year confinement, I am one of the lucky ones, because solitude is my friend. I can think when I'm alone. With people, I'm more likely to react. In here, she says, I get my space where there is the least of it, in my six-and-a-half by 10-foot cell.  Both said that they preferred not to live in a cell that they had to share with another prisoner. And each felt that being alone put them in touch with something truly profound. Both had intense experiences of some higher level of reality, Anthony Storr says, and their solitude enhanced their appreciation of, and their sympathy for, their fellow men. These two men discovered in their prison cells what the trappist monk, Thomas Merton, learned in the deep solitude of the monastery, that here I find the gentleness with which I can truly love my brothers. And yet most human beings have great difficulty adjusting to solitude, whether it's the solitude of a Spartan prison cell, the solitude of a desert, or a deep jungle, or even the strange streets of a large city. Even as children, we dreaded being told, go to your room, as punishment for misbehavior. And probably we spent the hours in that room feeling horribly sorry for ourselves. But what about the exceptions? Why can some take advantage of an experience that repels so many others? Well, according to Mahay Jixxent Mahay, much depends on the richness of the individual's inner life. The intellectual, the imaginative, the emotional resources that we have managed to acquire over the years. A disciplined mind. The cultivated ability to process emerging thoughts and feelings systematically in a coherent fashion. That is absolutely essential if we are entering into the solitude. Otherwise, the result is likely to be mental chaos. Thrown back on ourselves, denied access to a lot of outside stimuli. Other people, entertainment, the mass media. And denied of these things, our attention begins to waver. The mind wanders, distressing thoughts and images surge out of the unconscious. And we enter a state described by Jixxent Mahay as psychic entropy. One can survive solitude, he suggests, but only if one finds ways of ordering attention in order to prevent entropy from destructuring the mind. Now, there are those who've learned how to do this, and they not only survive, but they make extraordinarily good use of their time alone. Robert Stroud. He was a man when young who was given to murderous rages. He was sent to prison for murder. And while he was in prison, he then murdered a prison guard. He spent 42 of his 54 years in prison in solitary. Ten years into his sentence, he was out in the prison yard, and he noticed three fledgling sparrows, their nest had dropped to the ground. He rescued them and took them to his cell, and he raised them, and the rest is history. Robert Stroud, the bird man of Alcatraz. Subsequently, he became a recognized expert in avian diseases and was described near the end of his life as a model of rehabilitation and personal improvement. Stroud's passion for his discipline and the way that it ordered his consciousness that redeemed his time in prison. Outliers like this, Robert Stroud, Gene Harris, Arthur Kessler, outliers like this aside, the fact is that despite our distaste for it, solitude can enhance the quality of anybody's life. And those who have sought it out and those who are able to abide calmly within it will testify to the value it has added, the hidden resources that it has revealed to them. And so, for instance, the well-known essayist, Pico Eyer, spoke recently in the New York Times about his introduction to this unfamiliar experience. He went for a visit to his doctor, his annual physical, and he was informed that he needed to begin limiting his intake of junk food, get up off the couch, and do 30 minutes or so on the treadmill three times a week. Well, having been told this, the 58-year-old Eyer began to consider something else. All the junk that he'd been putting into his undisciplined mind. And he recognized that his need for this constant stream of outside stimulation in the long run, that wasn't doing him much good. And he confided as much to an older friend, and the latter said, Pico, just sit still for a few minutes every day and give your imagination a chance to take a walk. Eyer gave it some thought, and he took his friend's advice a step farther. He had planned to go on this exciting vacation over the holidays, but decided instead to spend that time alone in his mother's house overlooking the Pacific Ocean. And so he says, as others hurried off to the airport bound for Rio or Hawaii, I sat in my little room and watched the sun burn on the water below. And the light flooded into every space every afternoon, and then at the magic hour the whole place began to glow. And moments carried a depth and a weight, both of emotion and association, that I knew they'd never have in Las Vegas. It's not so much that we lack food. I remember Simone Weil once suggesting, it's that we will not acknowledge that we're hungry. At the end of this brief article, Pico Eyer predicts that someday, 10 years from now, 20 years from now, the same sober physician will come into the examining room bearing news that no fitness regime is going to cure what ails him. And then Eyer says, the only thing, the only thing I'll have to turn to will be all that I've done while going nowhere, everything that I might have stored in some less visible account. The capacity to make solitude a profitable experience, a positive one, is indeed a sign of maturity. Here we are able to get in touch with our truest and most essential selves. Here we are able to ascertain what it is that feeds our soul, what we need, what not what someone else has told us that we need. It's important at intervals to put some distance between ourselves and the madding crowd, the surrounding culture that's continually goading us to dance to its own tune. Solitude, John O'Donohue writes, is one of the most precious things in the human spirit. And it's different, he says, from loneliness. When you are lonely, you become acutely aware of your separation. And solitude can be a homecoming to your own deepest belonging. Only in solitude can you discover a sense of your own beauty, a beauty frequently concealed behind this dull facade of routine. In the neglected crevices and corners of your evaded solitude, you will find the treasure that you have always sought elsewhere. Even if it is as desirable as O'Donohue describes, solitude has become harder and harder to find. Most of us live far from the worlds that Henry Thoreau and Annie Dillard occupied, and most of us are firmly tethered to one or more electronic devices whose pull on our attention is almost irresistible. With a disciplined mind, it is possible to experience genuine solitude even in the midst of a crowd. But with those smartphones in our pockets and the tablets in our backpacks, who among us is still open to the possibility of a little private reverie? Walk into a public park, sit on a public bus, count how many, including yourself, are surfing the Internet, reading email, or writing a text message. Today, Michael Harris laments, claiming silences of our lives are all filled and the burning solitudes are extinguished. This is not entirely a matter of personal choice, I regret to say. For like the proverbial sorcerer's apprentice, technology has now assumed a life of its own and is programming us to live in a world of unremitting connection. Perhaps some of you have heard of teams. T-E-M-E-S. That was a word coined by the British psychologist Susan Blackmore. Teams are technological replicators analogous to genes that are copied, varied, and selected as digital information. And in the manner of human genes, the most successful teams give rise to more sophisticated and more addictive technologies. And so over time, the ability to limit our exposure to and control over these technologies, it progressively weakens. We push technology down an evolutionary path that results in the most addictive outcomes, Michael Harris writes, which means that it requires a real effort of will to put those devices back in our pockets. In the end, you may find that it's well worth the effort. Now, let me just say, this has never been an either or proposition. The experiences of solitude and community complement each other, each contributing to the quality of the other. We have much to learn from within, Parker Palmer says, and we have much to learn from others. So we need community and solitude simultaneously because what we learn in one mode can check and balance what we learn in the other. Together they make us whole just like breathing in and breathing out. And so despite his lavish praise for solitude, Thoreau himself was hardly a hermit during the two years he spent at Walden Pond. He died frequently with Ralph Waldo Emerson and his family. He could often be seen strolling the streets of Concord, chatting with the shopkeepers. There is, as the Buddha would say, a middle way between these two poles, a middle way where life fulfills itself and we reach our full maturity. Buddha, Jesus, Muhammad, they were public figures, but they prepared themselves for their respective ministries by spending extended periods by themselves. And even the ancient desert monks of Egypt and Syria, the wandering sannyasa of India preoccupied with their solitary prayer and meditation lives, even they needed each other. At intervals these athletes of the spirit would meet to share their meager resources to discuss their struggles and to reinforce each other's discipline. As the Roman writer Seneca put it, our distaste for the crowd will be cured by solitude and our boredom with solitude will be cured by the crowd. Although Seneca's words may sound rather archaic to the citizens of today's wired world, that doesn't make them any less valid. May we each take the time to test the validity of those words for ourselves. May it be so. This is the second week that we are sharing our offertory with the UW Odyssey Project. They have a display out once again where you can learn more about the wonderful work that they are doing with students to prepare them for gaining their degrees and achieving a better vocational future. Please be generous. We gather each week as a community of memory and of hope and to this time we bring our whole and at times our broken selves. We carry with us the joys and sorrows of the recent past seeking here a place where they might be received and celebrated and shared. So now we would acknowledge FUS member and former church administrator Susan Koenig who informed us of the death last Tuesday of her mother Shirley Jean Koenig. Shirley passed away peacefully at a Grace Hospice Center at the age of 92. A memorial service in Illinois is planned for next Saturday and in the meantime we hold Susan in our hearts during this difficult time, this time of loss. And in addition to that just mentioned we would also acknowledge any unarticulated joys and sorrows that occurred to you as I was speaking we hold those with equal compassion in our hearts. Let us sit silently for just a few moments more in the spirit of empathy and of hope. And so by virtue of our brief time together today may our burdens be lightened and our joys expanded. I invite you now to rise in body or in spirit as we sing together our closing hymn number 352. We have lost the ability to be profitably alone. We have lost it through disuse. If we retire to be alone it is no delight our minds do a hop, skip and jump and we find ourselves unable to concentrate. The bed's unmade, the letters unwritten they set up a clamoring demand and we experience none of the tranquility that we had come apart to enjoy. But this is only to say that the discipline of solitude is difficult and so the only remedy is to learn the art anew. Like swimmers we must learn not to thrash about but entrust ourselves to the buoyancy of the silence. Blessed be.


The O'Hanez and Ibo has raised an alarm that some people want to turn the Ibo land into an environment for terrorist activities. Speaking during a press conference in Abuja, the president general of the group, Professor George Obiozzo, called for the harmonization of security operations in the southeast region. Reacting to the recent violence in the southeastern states, notably Ibo, Anambra, Ebuyan, Abia, Obiozzo said it is not in the character of the Ibo to be lazy or violent. He called on the police not to associate the southeast with kidnappings or violence, adding that undue publicity should not be given to trivial issues.


And I'm now going to recognize Senator Schatz, who will be joining us remotely for his opening statement. Senator Schatz. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, for holding this hearing today to discuss Section 230 of the Platform Accountability and Consumer Transparency Act, the PACT Act. Before I go any further, I just want to offer some thanks to the chairman of the subcommittee, Chairman Thune. Our process has been serious. It has been bipartisan. It is the way the Senate should work. It is the way the Commerce Committee should work. And I'm proud to partner with him on this legislation. Unfortunately, a lot of the discussion around Section 230 has been focused on provocative, but sometimes reactionary, and in some cases unconstitutional ideas based on the perceived political slights of the day. And there may be some who try to use this hearing as an opportunity to create a clip for social media or to make a few partisan headlines, but that's not what this hearing is for. We are here to legislate. The work we are doing here today is a serious effort to review Section 230 objectively and on a bipartisan basis. To evaluate how this law should be amended to benefit the American people. This work is already difficult and it has made much more difficult by grandstanding. Section 230 was, by all accounts, a prescient and novel idea back in 1996 when it became law. It prevented online platforms from being treated as the publisher or speaker of third-party content and that avoided liability for their users' content. And in so doing, this allowed innovators in the United States to create and build products using third-party content without the threat of litigation. This unique idea is one reason why the largest tech companies began in the United States. And because they started here, many of these platforms became a vehicle for the spread of free speech and democratic ideals across the planet. But today's internet is different from when Section 230 is adopted and this brings me to a fundamental point. It is okay to update a law. It doesn't mean you think the law was badly written or is deeply, deeply flawed. It just means that as the Telecommunications Act is periodically amended as the National Defense Authorization Act is periodically amended, that this law needs to be updated so that it continues to work well. Now that the internet has involved, it is important to ask how Section 230 should evolve along with it. And last month, I introduced the PACT Act with Senator Thune. The bill amends Section 230 and imposes new responsibilities, but not unreasonable ones on online platforms. It focuses on three concepts, accountability, transparency, and protections for consumers online. To make platforms more accountable to their consumers, the bill requires platforms to respond to consumer complaints about content that is against their own acceptable use policies or that a court has already determined to be illegal. To improve transparency by requiring platforms to publish reports so that people know what a platform is doing to moderate based on its own rules. And it increases online consumer protections by fixing the current legal disparities between online and offline commerce and communications. Some view the debate about Section 230 reform as an opportunity to work the refs or claim bias or make people fearful of the enforcement of content moderation policies. Our approach has been different. This bill is not targeted at a specific type of content, business model or company, and its purpose is not to censor or control or even influence free speech. Diverse viewpoints make us stronger as a nation. It's better for the internet. And I believe that we should preserve robust protections that enable discourse in our country online and offline. But I'm proud to be working on such a measured approach to Section 230 reform. And I appreciate the partnership with Senator Thune and his excellent staff. This has been truly a bipartisan effort. And I thank him for the hard work. Section 230 proponents say that Congress can't possibly change this law without disrupting all of the great innovation that it has enabled. And I just disagree with that. The legislative process is about making sure that our laws are in the public interest and the PACT Act offers some common sense changes to the way that the statute functions. So consumers have protections. So platforms have accountability and transparency. And so that the statute works today for the internet. I want to thank the witnesses for joining us and sharing their expertise on this issue. As part of its jurisdictional oversight on these issues, the subcommittee looks forward to hearing from you about how the PACT Act's provisions might be a realistic step towards modernizing Section 230. And I look forward to hearing their testimony.


Checkpoint antibody inhibitors such as Anti-PD-1-PD-L1 are a promising cancer therapeutic approach that modulate immune cell-tumor-cell interaction to suppress tumors, with four commercialized drugs targeting PD-V1, PD-L1, and CT-L84. However, the success of Anti-PD therapy is limited by insufficient and heterogeneous expression of PD-1 in the tumor microenvironment, and ongoing clinical trials are exploring combination drug therapies, safety, and future applications for multiple types of cancer. This article was authored by Hashim O'Alsab, Hashim O'Alsab, Sumrish Sao, and others.