I'm Keith Gosland. I'm Ann Charles. I'm Linda Quinlan and it's Tuesday, September 25th. Welcome to All Things LGBTQ. And now we're going to hear some local headlines. Hi, and I'm going to start with some events. And the first one is on November 3rd is the Translating Identity Conference at UBM. You can go online to register for this October 1st. Montpellier Senior Center sponsored by Rainbow Umbrella is an evening with the liaisons. Come talk to us about needs, things that work well, how we can be better advocates. Saturday was Bisexuality Awareness Day, which some people knew. 40% of our community identifies being bisexual, but only 28% of those are out. What are we doing so they do or do not feel supported? Representative Diana Gonzalez is going to be taking on a new role, and we'll talk a little bit about that. Bailey Howe Library at UBM. Maybe it's time for a change in their name. We'll definitely talk about that. And during Ann's interview, look for some themes. Saturday, fire truck pull up Church Street in Burlington, teams of 12 to benefit outright Vermont. You should be seeing some lovely photographs. They raised $72,000. That is good for them. You can start doing early voting as of last Friday. Definitely, you can do it now. People who live in Montpellier, look on the ballot. There will be an initiative to allow noncitizens to vote. And this was the same issue that was recently debated by the Winooski City Council. We'll talk a little bit about their decision and what it was based on. Since the selection season, not only is there a record number of women running for public office, there's a record number of out LGBTQ candidates. We'll talk about some to watch. And then there is my, I gave you fake news. I've got to make it better. And we'll talk a little bit about two stories in particular from the last show and where I led you astray. Trivia, front page out in the mountains. They do not know the answer. October 1986, the article was about the Vermont Republican Party and an initiative they just removed from their platform. What might it have been? And if we have time, we'll talk a little bit about some bullying in red versus blue districts. It's an interesting result. Well, I would like to talk about several matters, including the fact that the Australian Senate has passed a motion to tackle conversion therapy. A Lithuanian artist has launched an LGBTQ rainbow flesh mob after an arson attack. Kenya Judge, lift span and rules lesbian film can be submitted to the Oscars. That's Rafiki that we have talked about. I have some entertainment news from China. South Korea and the LGBT community. I'd like to follow up on a story I didn't get to last time about the protest march and other matters in Korea.  Romania will hold a referendum on changes to the constitution that could effectively permanently ban gay marriage.  And the Queen's cousin, Lord either Mount Benton, marries his new husband after being given away by his ex-wife, ceremonially. The satin lapels. Yeah, I have a picture. It was very cute. Okay. Okay. And I have, first of all, and also a mistake that I made on the last show. And I got this information from our friend Gayle, who is a avid fan and watches the show all the time. A loyal viewer. Yes. So she informed me that Jenna Wolfe and Stephanie Gossk started their relationship in 2010 and gave birth to their second baby girl, not their first, as I reported in the last show. So thank you, Gayle. Colorado makes history as the first state to issue intersex birth certificates. Buffalo Catholic Charities has packed up at a left town. Well, they're going to leave town soon because apparently Buffalo has a non-discrimination law and they would have to give foster children and adoptions. So they don't want to do that. So they're leaving, they're packing up and leaving Buffalo and so down. What an embarrassment. It's just a city ordinance. It's not a state. It's a city, I think. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Abram Devine in 2018 was NCAA champion. And he's come out as gay in an interview with Swimming World Magazine. And we have a picture of him. And also we have a picture in the beginning of the CNN couple with their two children. It seems that Billie Jean King now owns part of the LA Dodgers. Really? Yes. In August the district has suspended Seve Wellendorf, the principal of Beaver County High School, the LGBT proponents of Massachusetts ballot to overturn transgender protections are running an ad that suggests the 2016 law puts women's lives at risk. Gay Rodman, writer, election in Texas, a love story. Dean Cain Slam's LGBT activist intolerance to anti-gay hate groups. An LGBT group sues the governor to stop a drag queen story hour. Janelle Ortiz was a Latinx transgender woman who was killed by the alleged serial killer two weeks ago. And I carried out by the intelligence supervisor for the U.S. Border Patrol Juan David Ortiz. This is the 21st transgender murder in 2018. Vice President Mike Pence has the honor or dishonor this weekend. He addressed the annual Values Voters Summit hosted by the Family Research Council, an anti-LGBT group. He is the first Vice President to ever do so. And Cinema Diverse at LGBT Film Festival in Palm Springs, the Long Road to Freedom, the advocates celebrate 50 years to nearly sold out audience. So that's my. And this was also the anniversary of the repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell. What is it? September 20th. There you go. Useless things floating. It's from Reading the Doodling Book, which we'll talk about at some point. Deanna Gonzalez, who we have interviewed several times on this show, who is a progressive legislator from Winooski, has a new job as director of leadership programs at the Equality Federation. And why this is truly of note, the Equality Federation was founded in 1997 as an umbrella group of state-based LGBTQ advocacy organizations, and they specifically look at trying to provide advocacy, organizational development, and leadership development, which is one of the things that we have talked about on this program about how do we do outreach to our community? How do we bring people together? How do we come up with common causes and set a work progress in place? Deanna, I've got planes for you. Bailey High Library, UVM. Guy Bailey, it was named after him because of his significant donations to the library, but he was also one of the largest private fundraisers for the eugenics project here in Vermont. Was that the 40s and 50s? It was in the 20s, 30s, and 40s because it kind of mirrored what might have been happening in Germany with how do we do better breeding pedigrees, and that's pulled directly from the eugenics language, who they targeted here in Vermont, First Nation Abinacchi, French Canadian, those people of bad heredity, handicapped, or disabled, and those people with dusky complexions, and he was instrumental in passing the 1931 Sterilization Act that was enacted here in Vermont, so yeah, I think it's time to consider renaming the library. Early voting, as I said, one of the initiatives on the ballot is non-citizen voting. Winooski, they had a divided debate, and it was the city council, and they decided not to put it on the ballot, not to pursue it by a three to two vote, and some of it was based from some of the accounting. They're concerned about what the feds might do looking at what had happened to Burlington, Montpelier, and the state of Vermont when the Department of Justice was looking at pulling funds because we wouldn't play with immigration in ICE. We wouldn't report names, was this going to make them a target? And I have to just interrupt and strenuously object to that point of view. Being afraid of Donald Trump will not save us. Absolutely not. So, and then I'll come back to, we'll talk a little bit about how many LGBT candidates we got running this year, and who you might want to watch. There's three gay Republicans running in Connecticut. There is a 101 out LGBT candidates running for state legislators. We have seven of them. There we go. So what you got? I've got Australia. Again? The new Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, is a little bit of a deplorable. He's made a string of anti-LGBTQ comments. Last week he said he would not get involved in outlawing gay conversion therapy. It's just not an issue for me, and I'm not planning to get engaged in it.  And on Tuesday, the 11th of September, when we last taped, the Senate passed a motion to tackle the rise in LGBT conversion therapy in the country. So the good people won. Lithuania.  He's the blonde person named Romas Zabarouskas. He's a filmmaker. He was asked to remove the rainbow flag from his balcony. He refused, and a fire was set inside his apartment.  In response, he has teamed up with human rights advocate Tomas Ilya to launch a rainbow flash mob, raising thousands of euros overnight to buy 500 more flags and distribute them for free across Vilnius. The pair also called on others to hang rainbow flags from their own windows and balconies and share the photos. So their rainbow flags are everywhere now around, in and around Vilnius. Good for him. In Kenya, we have a little bit of marginal good news. I think I reported, in fact, I showed you a clip of the lesbian film Rafiki that means friend in Swahili. And it means friend and it was banned due to its homosexual storyline. Given its premiere at the Kahn festival, the critics lauded it and were hoping it was, you know, the filmmaker was trying to submit it for the Oscars for the best foreign film. The deadline was September 30th. The real deadline, however, was September 23rd, because the rules state it must be screened for at least seven days before the deadline in its home country. And it has been banned in its home country. Director Anur Kayahu sued Kenya and particularly the Kenya Film Classification Board and they, in April, had said it should not be shown in Kenya, anybody renting it will be imprisoned. Sodomy is a crime, but in this instance a judge has chosen to lift the ban for seven days so it can be shown and submitted to the Academy Awards. Gay themes in practice or the practice of homosexuality did not begin with Rafiki, the judge said. I'm not convinced that Kenya is such a weak society that its moral foundation will be shaken by seeing such a film. It began to be screened on the 22nd of September. As we recall from when we saw the clip in April, the plot sees best friends Kina and Zeke wish for something different than becoming good Kenyan wives. Despite the political rivalry between their families, the girls resist and support each other to pursue their dreams in a conservative society. When love blossoms between them, the two will have to choose between happiness and safety. And the filmmaker said she was pressured by Kenya to make it, to make the characters remorseful about their homosexuality. She refused. It was banned and now the ban has been lifted so that it can be in the Oscars. 1950s all over again. I'm telling you. Yes. Okay, do I eat? Yes, you have to. All right. She's on it. I know. I know. Walk out. She always is. Alexander, I think it's Carbell Ildo, 40 was chased by the Miami police after he allegedly raped and robbed a gay man. He pulled out an AK-47 and fired at police who were pursuing him.  And so that was, Carpadillo was killed in the fire none of the police were. So in August, the district has suspended Steve Wellendorf, the principal of Beaver County High School. His supporters rallied, pushing for him to be reinstated. Some took it further, including Luke Baradelli, a former member of the Beaver City Council and alumni of the High School with the allegation that the suspension of Wellendorf support because he was a Christian and he didn't want the Christian student group to be in the school. The Beaver County Times, Baradelli alleged last week that there was a toxic culture in the school and that Roe had targeted people who are involved in Christian youth life, a group he said Wellendorf is associated with. During public comment on Monday's meeting, Baradelli asked the board to reinstate Wellendorf. He did not ask the board not to renew Roe's contract as he had previously announced he would do. At Monday night school board, meaning the board solicitor clarified that the suspension was not tied to intolerance but district policies. The reason was remain confidential. What happened? Why was he suspended? They said they were not going to say it was because it was a personal matter but it had nothing to do with that. Because he was alleging that this group was alleging that he was fired because he was Christian. Okay and this principle and that he supported a Christian group in the school and he was fired for I don't know what reasons but you know he's protesting the firing. This is another one of those religious freedom restorations coming after me because I'm Christian and because I support Christian values. This is really kind of creepy because the LGBT proponents of Massachusetts ballot to overturn transgender protections are running an ad that suggests a 2016 law puts women's lives at risk. In the ad there is an obvious cisgendered male entering a locker room as a woman is unbuttoning her blouse. The music in the background is threatening and there is heavy breathing. The law puts our privacy at risk. The female narrative concludes it just goes too far. A new poll in Massachusetts however shows that 73% say they favor keeping the law in place. We will have an update on this after the election in November when this is this initiative is on the ballot in Massachusetts. It doesn't really show much chance of here's another creepy story. Well can we so the law is it's on the ballot in November okay to take away the the bathroom bill and it has little choice of passage it has little seventy seventy three percent of people in Massachusetts say the law find the way it is they like to leave the law the way there's no credible evidence that supports your risk this is another really creepy thing elections in Texas it's Texas Texas I watched the debate it was pretty interesting yeah although there's a new thing about old rock is that you know he he had a DUI yeah and he says he didn't run away but there's evidence he did so there's really some issues in he ran from the scene apparently and so there's some issues there but this is a whole other thing Texas Republicans are so desperate they are insinuating some Democrats are cross-dressers with pictures the Texas GOP has recently made it clear they intend to persist in promoting the various lies that support transphobic bathroom bill and they have taken it to a higher level by claiming that some cisgender Democrats running for office are perhaps transgender the teapotty original and GOP candidate for Texas agriculture Sid Miller called a work a sweet little thing in a flower dress a work apparently was once in a punk band in which they all wore flower dresses as a spoof but they are putting this picture everywhere and the other person is Kulkarni and he's running in Texas District 22 which is now held by anti-trans crusader Peter Olson and apparently he did some performance at what is that in where they all go to the desert something burning man burning man yeah so they found a picture from that it was taken at Burning Man where he's dressed in this regalia yeah and so they're trying to say now that you know so pretty creepy stuff to be yeah anyway so locally so following that up we have 218 out LGBT candidates running across the country 13 of them are running for federal office one of whom we'll be watching in our backyard chris pappas coming out of new hampshire first house district he would be the first openly LGBTQ new hampshire resident voted to congress all right there are four open candidates running for governor oh my one might be christine holquist who was just endorsed by bernie sanders i know i saw and joe biden well that's right yeah our last broadcast joe biden stepped up and said this is who i would vote for so in the category of i didn't really mean to lead you astray texas florida they're so interchangeable it was alex jones accusing marco rubio not ted Cruz of selling out the conservative journalists and for those people who aren't quite familiar with alex jones he's the person who started the conspiracy theory that sandy hook never happened those children never existed and it was all staged plurable so and and the other story was about per tree before congress i didn't mean to say that 45 jr had pled guilty it was that one of the conversations were those people who were part of the muller investigation who were had already testified before congress and for whom the testimony in the muller investigation had showed that oh my you really did perjure yourself before congress such as the testimony from the people who have pled guilty and then the question was okay so will they prosecute this it's one of those convoluted processes where congress would need to report it to the FBI that they think perjury had occurred the FBI would need to investigate the FBI would then need to turn it over to the department of justice to determine if they were going to prosecute and oh my that would be an administrative decision the last time this happened was john poindexter in the iran contra affair and he ended up his perjury conviction was overturned because they determined that when he testified with immunity before congress on a piece of this he influenced some of the witnesses who later testified against him and therefore he did not get a fair process and just a little side note congress doesn't investigate their own perjury cases because they're the ones creating the law it would be you know a conflict to then enforce them so what you got quick oh i got plenty i know you do well let's go to um china if we could i'd like to show you a picture of vocalist named dua lippa who's british um and her ancestry is albanian and her family is from kosovo um they left kosovo and moved to britain for a while when she was born uh she's praised her fan fans bravery she had a concert in shanghai and some of her fans were removed for waving rainbow flags they were also removed for dancing they were supposed to sit quietly in their seats apparently and um so dua lippa i have the picture of her crying when all these people started being arrested in her um and during her performance um she has said that uh well there are videos of it she said that she was horrified by the incident and spoke to her fans i will stand by you all for your love and beliefs and i am proud and grateful that you felt safe enough to show your pride at my show what you did takes a lot of bravery i always want my music to bring strength hope and unity i was horrified by what happened and i send love to all my fans involved she's 23 she's been vocal in her support for lgbt community rights and um to return to china although homosexuality is not illegal the country decriminalized it in 1997 and lgbt visibility has increased there's been creeping cultural censorship since she's in ping came to power in november 2012 in november 2017 human rights watch interviewed 17 chinese lgbt people who said they'd been pressured into undergoing conversion therapy but and a good um thing happening in the entertainment industry in china is that kinky boots is being shown we like kinky boots we did um it encourages drag queens to be themselves um it's an award-winning musical it's broken new ground in conservative china it's filled theaters in beijing shanghai and guanzhou lighting up audiences in the country where lgbt entertainment is often censored and rarely rarely gets major if any billing it reached a broader audience than usual in china because it was the first musical to offer sign language interpreters for the hearing impaired um enact the show um a deaf person um reports and subtitles here to ford only been available in the theater but now i've got access to the whole show he said they memorized the show never looked back during the performance um as we know kinky boots whose music and lyrics were written by pop singer cindy lauber wraps up its two month china tour um it is involves a drag queen who saves a shoe factory um and comes out to his father it's very uh very moving uh gay themed films struggle to make it into movie theaters in china and gay content is forbidden online and online streaming platforms oscar winning comedy by your name was uh pulled from the beijing international film film festival in march another film about a secret homosexual relationship looking for romer was heavily edited for chinese move movie theaters the game theme dance uh has been banned from the broadcast of euro vision in the kinky boots the shoe factory worker saves the business by teaming up with a drag queen named lola who wanted red thigh high stiletto boots and wore them yes um lola she was a show girl i have some pictures to show you in case i'm running out of time yes um belgrade gay pride participants call for a law on same sex marriage and i have a picture of the prime minister the lesbian prime minister ana brunabek she's in the center of the picture her partner is with her the mayor belgrade were there uh they didn't want her to come because they felt she hadn't done enough but she joined the pride festival and all went well romania will hold a referendum on changes to the constitution that could effectively uh prevent gay marriage that vote is going to be on october 7th they didn't want to happen it to happen it's a step backward but i'll report on that the gay activist in the greek capital of athens was uh i have a picture of him before he died uh he was lynched by a mob out yeah he uh fled to a jewelry store uh where he was lynched and he tried to it's kind of unclear what happened but he tried to he got a fire extinguisher extinguisher and tried to crawl out of the shop and there's um there are pictures of him being kicked and beaten to death when he got to the street somebody tried to help him when the ambulance came he died on the way to the hospital his name was zack costopolis he was 33 gay and hiv activist my final picture for you is of the queen's cousin who's marrying his new husband in fact did james choil was is his name um ivar was given away by his uh ex-wife yes lady pennie mount baton is her name and she and james choil he is on the left um ivor mount baton is on the right and pennie is in the middle this is a picture of them at the wedding ceremony 60 60 people attended including the three proud daughters how liberal wow royal news yeah well this story i found kind of interesting uh mostly because well it takes place in lafayette louisiana and christians they're uh claiming their second class citizens two angry christians yes two angry christian groups have filed suit in lafayette and the governor and the library christ severe and others filed on behalf of the warriors of christ drag queen story out when news broke that drag queens were coming to the local library the mayor said he would do whatever it would take to stop this from happening and this is the really kind of interesting part the lawsuit claims that lgbtq messaging is part of a religion called secular humanism secular humanism i know that's going to get her going for an entire other show you know it i'm strong i i know you do and um this is this love story i have a photo of hailey vitticus and leanna white and what happened was they were pioneer play uh plaintiffs in the process to change the country they were two young women who played for pepidine which as we know has some affiliation with the church of christ and um they fell in love and they're expecting a child now and um there's also a a movie coming out about them so i think we should all watch for that um they were really afraid of uh retaliation they filed suit against the school they did lose the case um but the court did say that sexual orientation was covered by title nine um and their last statement was they're now both intend to go to law school and become lawyers and fight for lgbtq causes so venue for the movie what's the name for the movie um it is called i i'll get back to you on the i have it here somewhere but we're running out of time so i should probably um it's called i think it's a they're an interracial couple oh it's called alone in the game oh so theater netflix i think it's going to be it's a documentary i would think it would probably be on netflix i'm not sure they didn't say in the article i read but um it looks to be pretty good yeah yeah we'll watch for it so and now we've got an interview yeah that and it yeah do you want to introduce it i kind of inspire it is very inspiring um it was with rachel seagull and bevelie little thunder of the peace and justice center so let's take a look hi i'm here with rachel seagull and better bevelie little thunder from the peace and justice center very pleased you're you're going to be able to join us to talk a little bit about thanks for having us what you've been up to thank you let's start if we could with a little bit about the peace and justice center what's the history uh what kind of offerings do they provide and how long have you been involved with them okay rachel cd yeah so you want me to take this and then you can fill in the gaps that i miss so the peace and justice center formed almost 40 years ago as a peace coalition that was doing anti-nuclear proliferation work and um is now a statewide membership-based nonprofit organization and the programs have changed and morphed over the years we have three main program areas that we do educational work and campaigns around they are racial justice non-violence and fair trade and then in addition to those three focus areas we also support a lot of other individuals and activist groups around the state and we do that in in many ways like most recently there was an led equality bloom activist festival just a couple days ago in burlington that vermont women's march put on and they needed insurance for the space they were using so we provided insurance for them or there was the race against racism and they had a press release they wanted to send out and so we sent it to our media contact list which is 135 people so like because we've been around long enough we have a lot of infrastructure that we can share and help uplift other people's work so a lot of what we do is acting as a resource or a hub for other people who are doing work that's aligned with what what we're about and we have a lot of volunteers and interns who we work with and it's a lot more than sort of the standard you work for us for free and we'll give you something for your resume model it's much more about actualizing these individuals we have students as young as middle school who come and spend regular hours with us learning this getting the skills and the motivation to you know be activists for life it's really it's one of the most gratifying things is seeing the the people who come through as volunteers and interns who leave with so much more passion and commitment than they came with and you've been the ed for five years yeah and you were on the city council before that i was and they overlapped for a little bit did they yeah and you decided not to pursue the political career and focus more on grassroots stuff yeah everly how long have you been involved and what you you know what's your well i'm actually on on the board oh good i've been on the board for a little over four years and for a while i did serve as a board chair and step back from that and i've been involved in in a lot of different aspects we have a working board we don't just meet once a month to rubber stamp things that rachel puts in front of us we show up for volunteering at tables we show up to help do presentations we show up to address and stamp newsletters that are going to go out we cook chili for our annual fundraiser we do it all we do it all how many board members are there and you have fixed terms or there are nine board members currently and a couple of people who are poised to join the board they're two year terms and people can be reelected and i've been a reelected obviously um could you tell us both of you how your identity affects your involvement with the peace and justice center and your leadership in the state sure i can try to do that and i think that you're talking about mostly our gender and sexual orientation in terms of those aspects of our identity so i identify as being part of the queer community i identify as queer used to call myself bisexual i'm in a long-term relationship with a man so i'm in that funny world of queerness where i pass most of the time unless i like advertise who my past relationships were with which is just kind of a weird thing to do so you know my kids know my family knows my close friends know two kids yeah it's very much a part of my identity um except for people who don't know me so it's it's a funny thing to be part of a community but be sort of have all the the benefits of not being part of it and it was a very strange transition for me going from my previous relationship which was with a woman into this one and just realizing that even in burlington vermont where i live where it's you know pretty accepting a lot of the time to like walk down the street holding hands with a same-sex partner that then walking down the street holding hands with an opposite sex partner was so much easier like my level like i didn't even know i would be anxious holding her hand but then when i was holding his hand i could then i could tell that my anxiety level was lower so i'm way off topic here but just so i called myself bisexual for a long time i mostly call myself part of the queer community now and my kid has come out as non-binary and pansexual and i had never heard of pansexual is that the person who's who was in the action who was in no my daughter who was arrested with me is um a girl and my other kid is non-binary how old are they um they are 12 my daughter's 14 and my other kid is 12 and so when they came out as pan i realized like oh i'm probably pan you know like i i don't i wouldn't only i wouldn't rule out somebody who's not male or female so i mean being bisexual means like i could choose between two but really i could choose between this whole spectrum exactly so i suppose i'm i'm pan too and i have my kid to thank for that well we're all learning a lot from the youth oh yeah yeah yeah so in terms of how it impacts my leadership i mean i think sort of uh it just adds to my understanding of experiences of oppression i think having having been in same sex relationships and experiencing the the violence that can come our way and the lack of access that could come your way and less so now that you know marriage is legalized but it doesn't solve all the problems um but i think that in a lot of ways my gender informs my leadership more than my sexuality that that being female and being feminist has informed a lot of how i do decision making and how i lead the organization which is very much of a collaborative way of doing it it's very unusual for me to make a decision in a bubble and certainly not a decision that's going to really upset the rest of the staff like if there's a controversy in staff like should we do it this way or this way or this way i usually will say okay well it's going to impact so and so the most so we should do what that person thinks is best so and i think that that's more of a an egalitarian kind of feminist framework than the top-down patriarchal way of doing things Beverly do you want to say anything on this topic about how your identity informs your leadership or your activism more well i think i was born an activist you know as a as a native woman i've always had to be an activist when i came out i didn't even know the words lesbian and gay so it was totally new for me so this learning a whole new language is again learning a whole new language uh in the native community we consider ourselves two-spirit and so i've been very active in the two-spirit community and in coming on to the board for you know peace and justice center it was just another step another role not being from Vermont initially my tribe is from South Dakota North Dakota so i'm not Abenaki i felt like it was important to learn what the political atmosphere was here and to be able to plug into the areas where they might need help in promoting who they were and i of course i came in just about the time that the Abenaki were struggling to get state recognition and so i was very drawn to the board we have a we've made a decision that the board would be 50 percent people of color minimum minimum and we really strive to do that and so all voices are heard and so i felt very comfortable being in in that kind of an environment in in doing social justice work and of course the anti-racism work is something that just comes natural to me something that i've i've had to deal with all my life and we'll probably have to continue dealing with especially in Vermont especially in Vermont speaking of activism and actions you and your daughter were appeared on wcax and you were arrested recently would you mind sure telling us a little about that yeah we um we were part of a group of people that organized a protest in williston outside the ice offices on july 28th and 13 of us were arrested blocking traffic we got disorderly conduct charges uh two of those arrested were minors one of them was 16 and one of them was 14 who's my daughter and it was a very powerful experience for us i mean the and it's not about us i mean the situation is so atrocious and there's still hundreds of kids who are separated from their families and there's still you know all the people who've been re who've been deported and they there's no way to find them anymore and the kids are not going to be with their parents again and to discover that this office was in monewski williston williston that's right you know right in our midst it was appalling not that you know as citizens of the u.s we don't bear responsibility that was shocking yeah no very local it's the hotline center so if you have a tip if you think somebody's looking shady and you call and you're like check their immigration status the call wherever if you're calling from arizona the call comes in and vermont wherever you are so we had a great opportunity with the pride parade we weren't going to march in at the peace and justice center the lgbt pride parade that happened last weekend yeah a couple weekends ago in vermont um a peace and justice center member contacted us and said hey i want to help you since you're doing all this work toward the abolish ice movement and for family unification let's get a group of people together and make some signs and they ended up making these beautiful butterfly wings that you could wear that said things like um you know support trans migrants and migrant rights are um gay rights and just all this intersectional stuff and we weren't necessarily going to march in the parade but since she helped get a whole lot of volunteers together to do it we were able to and i think beverley will mention there was a controversy also around td bank with pride and so we brought a message about boycotting td bank and we had signs about abolish ice and boycott td and we were right near the front and there were like 15 of us and we were chanting what were we saying queer rights migrant rights uh what's the same struggle same fight and it was powerful and the people packed you know lined up and down church street for four whole blocks were like with us and it felt so good to be able to celebrate pride while also bringing a political message and saying don't forget things are not great like have a fun day and stay active i was um grand one of the grand marshals for the pride parade and um when i found out that td bank was funding some of the pride and pride parade and that the ward was not willing to return that money to td i had a choice of whether i was going to continue as grand marshal or withdraw and i decided that i wanted to continue as grand marshal only the time i carried a sign that says divest from td bank and in my speech i talked about how as marginalized groups we need to investigate the organizations that we're asking for money because i don't want to take money from an organization that is oppressing say peace and justice i you know i i want to support peace and justice as they want to support the native american rights and td bank was a large funder in the pipeline in north dakota south dakota at stanning rock which happens to be the reservation i'm from and as you know that black snake went through thanks to trump and has sprung three leaks already and um it's a fight that's going on all over the country and stanning rock was just the pebble in a still pond and so i had to i had to bring that up and uh so i was very very proud of peace and justice for leading the march and of course i kind of encouraged it yeah we did ask it's like what do you think grand marshal okay we're getting to the close of our interview believe it or not um do you have any last words or concluding remarks you'd like to share with us i just hope that people stay involved that we're heading up to the midterm elections that hopefully things are going to go in the way that most of us on the left think as good but that we shouldn't get complacent that when there's democrats in office things aren't great good point and that everyone can be active in different ways there's lots to do and i would like to see more of the avanaki um population become more active and not be so afraid of being defunded by td bank are being having their status taken away by the state of mont because that seems to be something i hear a lot of well thank you very much for coming in i hope each of you will come back in separate interviews or together whatever thanks again okay there there was entirely too much to be discussed so too little time we are booking them already right yes okay maybe we should extend our interview times well that's a longer conversation because we have such fascinating people on i know and you just get going really just get started in and we're also becoming more comfortable with the format and interviewing and we're looking at more expanded questions so yeah so a little trivia yes do you think you know the answer no abortion no legalizing same sex relations no but there's a sidebar to that october 1986 vermont republican party platform committee removes an initiative what they removed was the equal rights amendment to vermont's constitution here were their arguments they wanted an alternative statement using equal protection instead of equal rights and they wanted to replace sex with gender to make it clear that the party platform does not include support of gay rights the initiative went out for votes for ratification and it was defeated 51 percent to 49 percent the two prevailing issues during the campaign non-gender specific bathrooms and marriage equality huh so with that are we leaving i think so okay we have places to go we do time okay dinner awaits so i think we should all hold our fingers about kavina and hope fingers cross that he doesn't get appointed although it doesn't look good yeah so well on that note even if he does we have to continue to resist


Hi today. I wanted to take a few minutes to talk to you about the power of the mini reset This is about finding just a minute or so in your day at regular intervals to help you kind of Resent to yourself getting yourself back to a place where you're really coping Really managing and able to give of your best self now This feels more important now than it has done in the past for many of us This is something we do regularly all the time anyway But more important now because so many people are struggling Completely understandably with kind of rumbling anxiety much of the time and the problem is that when lots of us are feeling like this We begin to kind of bounce off each other and mirror each other and things get more and more tense and difficult So what we need to be able to do is to press the reset button every now and then and find that place of relative calm And when we're able to do that when we're able just to reset a little bit And we're just more able to cope and manage and thrive in our work This is something that if you do it regularly just means you're more able to kind of get through the day basically So it's just a way of coping And obviously if you've got big kind of underlying stuff then that will need to be dealt with But this is just about how do I get from the moment when I wake up in the morning to the moment I go to bed at night without completely flipping my lid or completely Burning out melting down otherwise finding things too challenging to continue So many research it's literally about finding a minute It might not be more than that if you've got a really busy life many of you I know our educators working in schools Just finding a minute and you can just stop and focus in on yourself and get yourself back to a place of calm Exactly what you do with that minute will depend on what works for you because as we talk about all the time This is different for everybody But things that might be helpful just drink a glass of water Mindfully just thinking about how the water feels and tastes and Noticing as you swallow and as the body as your water moves through your body So just being really mindful of what you're doing there You might do a breathing exercise for a moment. You might pick up the phone or talk to a friend You might step outside and count different things that you can see your hear or smell Have a bit of a mindful moment that way the kind of things that often really helps here are things that will kind of calm or Ground us and keep us in the present moment really connected with what's going around us But as we often do with kind of mindfulness type exercises Allowing all the other thoughts to just kind of pass on by so we notice them But we just allow them to go by and we just give ourselves just a minute to focus in on Rediscovering that place of calm now the reason why this is helpful is because many of you will have heard me talk before about our window of Tolerance and this is what we can cope with basically before we either dip down here and that's into kind of a shut down or like Depressed type state where we basically yes shut down. We stop being able to engage. We become unmotivated It becomes very difficult to energize ourselves or we go up through the top and that's when we tend to be very anxious Or we get very angry and that's kind of either kind of hyper arousal And the more kind of anxious end of it What we're looking to do is to try and stay in this optimal zone within the window as much as we can and in any given day In any given hour we'll be moving up and down within that and what we're looking to do here Is just to bring ourselves back to the middle of that? Okay, and so this doesn't have to be big things This is just pressing that reset button just briefly allowing yourself to just take a breath And then you're in a better position to continue to engage with your day You might feel like you don't have time for this You don't have a minute in your day when you can just stop and take it for yourself and focus in on a bit of self-care for a moment I would argue as I so often do you don't have time not to do this if you take Just a minute five if you can but even if you can just take one minute focus in on yourself Refind your calm Rebalance yourself within your environment and really connect with where you are and how you are right now You will find that you're much more focused You're much calmer your problem-solving skills are better Even your language your ability to find your words and use your words well will improve because you're in that calmer Better state of mind you've given your brain an opportunity just to reset so many resets It doesn't need to take lots of your time doing this little and often makes a really big difference


Hi everyone, Joe for Jasper's casebreaks.com coming at you with 2020-2021 Panini Donner's Choice Basketball Two box random team break number four one spot gets you two teams That's not a bad value for a two box break. And of course it's choice. Everything's gonna ship out of here big. Thanks to these folks Let's double you up and all 30 basketball teams are in let's roll it. Let's randomize it one and a three four times one two three and Four fourth and final time we got Chad down to Brian one and three four times for the teams one two three and Four after four we got the Orlando magic down to the Golden State Warriors Right Chad with the magic Brett with the Rockets spurs for Sean and look at that Seth with the Charlotte Hornets Chad with the trailblazers set with the jazz John with the Nets Daniel with the Pistons Bob You got the Pacers Jason or Jason Josh with the Nuggets Ryan We I think I try to combine Josh and case and together and that somehow turned out to be Anyway Sixers for Ryan case and Edward you got the clip show Brian with the Bucks Daniel with the Wizards Seth with the Suns Roy with the Hawks Ed with the Cavs Dustin with the Kings and the Heat Bob with the Timberwolves Sean with the Raptors Roy with the Grizzlies nicks for Ryan Justin with the Lakers Seth with the Thunder Josh with the Celtics Brett Mavs John Bulls Justin Pelicans and Brian with the Golden State Warriors Let's get all this on one screen. Let's sort by column B alphabetically and We're gonna pause the video and give you a little bit of time to trade if you want to and when we come back We'll have the break stick around All right. Welcome back. There were a little bit of there was a little bit of trade chatter But in the end no deals were done Thanks everyone for Giving it a go on the trade sometimes is better. All right Here it is two quick boxes right here So we got the autographs in the middle some numbered cards on the bottom and the rookie cards right there on the top They're saving Lee Rated rookie for Detroit That's gonna go to Daniel. We got Tyler Bay rated rookie Dallas Mavericks That's gonna be for Brett Tyrell Terry Dallas Mavericks another one for Brett looks like the autographs are behind Peyton Prichard Now there's one more There's Peyton Prichard rated rookie for the Celtics Josh Melton He's been doing been doing all right this season and Let's do the Cards on the bottom here here is not Lamello 11 out of 99 for the Charlotte Hornets Seth There is John Wall 49 out of 49 nice wizards edition going to Daniel and we got the maker of thons thon maker Three out of 99 pistons. That's gonna go to Daniel. All right your two autos Autograph number one It's gonna be a redemption autograph number two is Dominators 12 out of 49. That's David Thompson. I wore this shirt yesterday Denver Josh Melton. There's there's maxi minor right there the old ABA logo You need to bring that back like permanently is that guy at the stadium? Does anyone live in Denver go to Nuggets games or watch Nuggets games? Is there a guy dressed like that wandering around saying hi to kids and stuff?  All right Daniel Nice rooting for rooting for his fellow collector saying I hope that redemption is Lamello for whoever has Charlotte That would be Seth Sinclair Seth is holding his breath It's gonna be it's Lamello Hey rated rookie signatures choice Lamello ball. There you go. Good good good vibes from Daniel And Seth congrats to you you have Charlotte good karma from Daniel Nice and a free top loader too Yeah, now Daniel saying he'll be happy to to have to take a little good karma fee 50% Maybe 10% Good karma fee. We'll let I'll let I'll let you guys work it out. Very nice All right. Oh and a Lamello ball right here on top, too Nice couple boxes here folks Seth is happy At least those two cards are gonna cover They're gonna cover a lot of uh Two boxes are gonna cover a lot more spots There's cash is Stanley James Ramsey We got Jordan and war and warra for the bucks to be for Brian and let's see what the cards are on the bottom We got Demontus Sabonis 61 out of 99 who won me some money uh Over all star weekend because he won the skills competition. There's two 99 miles bridges for Charlotte for Seth Nice, and we've got a ja marant to 49 That is for Memphis. That's gonna go to Roy Oh, right and bob has the Pacers nice to bonus First auto not Lamello.  Devin Vassel. He's got some upside 22 out of 99 He may end up getting if they moved Lamarcus Aldridge Spurs that's Sean Maddock. Then you might see some playing time Some more playing time trickle down to Devin Vassel I want to play these youngsters see what they got in them might as well And there you have it and then the Maladon goes to okc. That'll be for Seth as well And there you have it boys and girls very nice break another two boxes in the store. Let's knock out another one I'm Joe. I'll see you next time for that one. Bye. Bye


The purpose of the training here today was basically to get an interagency response to a hazmat spill in our inspection tent going into Fort Eustis. Our role was to go down with EM to check to see what the substance was with our detection equipment and then we overpacked the substance and brought it back outside to the warm zone and then we made our way to the decon line working with the military police and also working with the EM and just being outside was a whole, you know, great environment to work together with. Trainings like these are very important for the overall mission because you don't want to get caught in a situation where you don't know what to do if one of these scenarios arises.


Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Fisheries Amendment Bill, tabled by the Member for Dennery South. And as the Member presented, this is a long-standing troublesome issue for the Sufra Marine Management Authority. Today I want to say that what we are doing today is in response to the cry of the chairman of the SMMA and the board members of the SMMA. Because as the Member for Dennery South clearly articulated, the SMMA is playing a critical role in the management of the Sufra Bay but it lacked the legal authority for collection of fees and some members of the board and users of the Bay were aware of this and have been using the services of the SMMA and have been very reluctant to pay. So we needed this piece of legislation to give the SMMA the teeth that it requires to collect the fees. I welcome the intervention by the Honorable Member for Ansari countries because what he has presented is correct that there is the entire Bay, you have the Sufra Bay, you have the Ancestne Bay, you have the SMMA and the fishers from countries and Sufra actually use this entire Bay and it is the certain areas designated for fishing and became their fishing priority areas. But at the same time it is the area where there is significant conflict snorkeling, diving, yachting so this Bay rarely requires law and order and the SMMA has the responsibility to do so. The fees collected would add in terms of some of the other services that are needed in the Sufra Bay. The employment of rangers for example, most persons would understand that we've had several unsavory acts in the Sufra Bay and we've had to request support from in some cases the Minister for Finance and in some cases the Sufra Regional Development Foundation have actually provided much support to SMMA. So today I think is a very important day for us in Sufra. I particularly welcome the inclusion of 22B, especially sections 2A, B and C and I want to to mention Mr. Speaker that as I could see the penalty in section C is not 10 but actually $15,000 so that I want to articulate this so that our users are aware of the penalties and to put them on guard that at the moment when this when we are finished with this piece of amendments we need to see some order in the disorder Mr. Speaker. So this evening I want to thank the board staff of the SMMA, I want to thank the staff of the AG's office we've collaborated and worked with us in terms of putting these amendments together and also the staff of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries. So I support these amendments and it is going to the cabinet. I want to support all the Prime Minister and the members, my colleagues in the cabinet for supporting this. Thank you.


So, when you think of organic chemistry, you are usually thinking of organic reactions. If you open any textbook on organic chemistry, you would see several reactions there. Sometimes students think that it is too many reactions and involves too much memorization. Well, the good news for you is that organic chemistry is not about memorization. Organic chemistry is very logical. It is not magic that when you mix two compounds, they give you a particular product which you need to remember. There is clear cut logic as to why reactants come together to form a given product. So, if you want to learn more about this logic behind organic chemistry, I invite you to join the course on reaction mechanisms. Reaction mechanisms tell you the pathway that molecules follow to give you a particular product. And the reason why molecules follow this particular pathway is not random. It is governed by basic principles in chemistry. By the end of this course, you would be familiar with the basic principles in chemistry that help you to write the pathway or write the reaction mechanisms. So once you write a reaction mechanisms, you will be able to prove it by designing appropriate experiments. So, the course will also give you tools to design experiments to prove a given mechanism. I will be your instructor for this course. My name is Nandita Madhavan. I am a faculty at the Department of Chemistry in IIT Bombay and I look forward to interacting with you during this course.


Buy Alex Collins if you guys have been listening this podcast all year, you know This is the first time I'm saying to buy Alex Collins. Usually it's the opposite. Usually it's selling Collins It's because he's in a split-back field He doesn't see all of the team's goal line work his target shares under 6% and he scored far more touchdowns And he should have based on his yardage totals this season, but I sort of just talked about why I think Alex Collins is a buy It's because Lamar Jackson's dual threat ability might open things up in the Baltimore run game And the team schedule is awesome. Each of the teams that I just talked about are also not so great against opposing running backs and fantasy football So Joe Flacco were under center Collins would be more of a hold. I talked about that last week on the mailbag episode Collins can perform like an RB 2 with Flacco But that's not saying that much given today's fantasy landscape at the running back position But with Lamar Jackson, there's upside. There's actual upside with Alex Collins And like I said, the schedule should help Collins provide a nice floor if things do go south at quarterback


Christmas is my favorite time of year. The world has a magical sparkle to it that I absolutely love. People smile more, they hug more, and the spirit of generosity is contagious and real. I always feel full of hope during this time of year. Anything is possible. You ready? Mom's excited for the big trip! This white-haired smiley woman is my mom. My fitness tracker on, so I get some credit today. And Christmas has always been very important to her. We didn't have a lot of money growing up, but she always managed to make the holiday special for me and my siblings. She sacrificed a lot to raise us. Life wasn't easy for her. And as a kid, I was aware of the hardships that she went through to provide for our family. Mom is my hero. And now that I'm all grown up, I get to pay her back. Ten days before departing for Europe, I surprised her with the news that we'd be going on a seven-day trip down the Danube River. Hey, Mom, how's it going? Good. Ryan, how you doing? I have some news. Oh, what is it? Back your bags! We're going to Europe! You're kidding. Nope. Seriously? Seriously? We're going to go all the way to the Mississippi. Mom, sight! Sight! Sight! We've never been on a fancy trip before. For starters, we're not going to be camping. What are you doing, Mom? Well, I'm trying to get the air out of my air mattress that you recommended that I get on. Nice, big, thick air mattress. This past summer, I somehow convinced her to ride a bike 450 miles across Iowa. She was a great sport and certainly enjoyed it. But a luxurious riverboat is more her speed. This is some kind of losh. I don't know if it's goulash. I'm pretty excited about trying this. This is a trip made to spoil a mama. I'm cheering the vineyards for creating this wonderful wine. The cool thing about riverboats is that they're pretty small and intimate, and you see a new city every day. This Viking longship will take us about 400 miles from Budapest, Hungary to Vienna, Austria through the beautiful Vakau Valley and ending in Nuremberg, Germany. Look how cool that is! Wow, look at there. We can watch the world go by. Free entertainment, big screen TV. The older I get, the more I cherish our time together. It sounds cheesy, but life is short. I'm 40 years old, my mom is 65. Who knows if we'll ever get to do something like this again? This is special, and we both know it. Good night, mom. Good night, Ryan. Good night. We wake up to snow our first morning. The kind of fluffy snow that you see in Christmas movies. It's perfect.  It's snowing! It's a Christmas barricade! So cozy. Our ship is all dressed up for the holidays, and the atmosphere is very cheery. Every night, there were games and shenanigans that brought us all together. Mom and I are playing Family Feud here on the ship. Every day, we wake up in a new and exciting place. Europe is an absolute fairy tale, and the cold weather adds to the mysterious beauty of these ancient towns. The Danube is Europe's second longest river, and meanders through 10 countries, more than any other river in the world. Our long ship travels at about 10 miles per hour, the perfect speed to take in all the beauty. Life is good. Life is good. Alright, here we are getting our daily exercise on the little walking track up here. It's a beautiful day. Yeah, even though it's cool temperatures, the sun is shining. So it is just fabulous. It is fabulous. Mom just said this is a good way to spend a day. Yeah. Drinking wine on the deck of a boat, going down the Danube, not bad. It's crazy looking around at all these old castles and churches. They're hundreds of years older than anything in the USA. We really need to up our castle game back home. Okay, back to Christmas. The main draw of this journey are the famous Christmas markets. This is why I brought my mom here. This is her dream come true. Every day we go on historical walking tours and then spend hours wandering around these cozy market villages.  We love the simplicity of the decorations, the classic wooden toys, the sparkly ornaments, and all the handmade goodies. This Christmas market is in the basement of a monastery and I gotta say the handmade stuff in here is some of the best I've seen out of all of the Christmas markets. Following my mom around these markets, watching her have the time of her life brings me a lot of joy. I imagine it's similar to when she would chase me around a toy store when I was a kid.  From Budapest through Austria and into Germany, each market has a different style and most importantly, a different flavor of mom's favorite treat, Mold wine. I just found my mom and she's drinking more hot wine. How you doing? Skull. Which mug is this? This is the Regensburg mug. I like it. I'm incredibly grateful that we have such a tight bond. Mom and I are looking at some German clothes here. As you can see, I've got some Leda Haasen. Looking good. And I credit that with our upbringing. She was always there for us. Through thick and thin, we could count on mom and her love and devotion to the family. I hate to say it mom, but this is our last day. My last blue wine. Your last blue wine. I just cannot believe that things this old can be this beautiful. This was really incredible. Thank you so much for coming. Well, thank you for including me and bringing me along. Of course. This is your trip. Been the trip of a lifetime. I cannot thank you enough. Do you want to go again next year? Yes. I want to go every year. This is Christmas, man. This is amazing. Wait. Before I go, I'm going to take this opportunity to find a good man for my mom. She's single and I'd love for her to have an adventure partner. If you'd like to meet this incredible woman, send me an email at ryanvanduzer at gmail.com and I'll start the screening process. Merry Christmas, everyone. My mom is really easily entertained.  And her bare feet and pajamas in a snowstorm. Watching the boat go up the block. Here we go. Here we go. Look at that. How's it going to get cold? There's the outside world.


Good morning everybody. I hope you had a wonderful sleep and It's wonderful to be here, and I'm deeply grateful to the Association for Baha'i Studies For the invitation to participate in this session. I Also feel extremely privileged to share this platform with somebody I dearly admire and very much love And that is where dear Faraneh Hadim, Varqa Hadim known have for a long time And and was privileged to be in the same community with her and with her dear husband Rami Friends this topic that I have chosen for this session I called it that Eureka moment Because it's about this concept of discovery science progresses through discoveries and I called it as you could see at the end of the Title I added two more words. I called it an exploration Because I've imbibed this sense from The writings and also from observing whether or not really we do progress Because we knowingly or unknowingly rely on the power of divine guidance in whatever field of endeavor we may be To arrive at the greater measure of the truth Now I Have rarely come across a quotation That is so sunk sinked and so capable of truly conveying to us the definitions of these two Most mystical and very difficult to define terms religion and science and This document one common world that has been mentioned many times and I do really hope that there will be a conference completely dedicated to everything that is embodied in this document to guide us into Sharing with the peoples of the world the vision of the fact that we are of one common faith and We find it in page 33 and I have bulleted it so that it could perhaps help us in Understanding this definition and I put the words religion and science in between brackets because they Exact court does not use these terms. So this is just for us to be helped The sentence actually the paragraph starts with the term religion is religion as science as science And then they go into the definitions The one meaning religion discerns and articulates the values Unfolding progressively through divine revelation and this concept of progressing The the the affordment progressively is what we see in religion But is also what we see in science The other is the instrumentality through which the human mind Explores and is able to exert its influence even ever more precisely over the phenomenal world The one defines goals that serve the evolutionary process The other assists in their attainment Together they constitute the dual knowledge system impelling the advance of civilization Each is hailed by the master as an effulgence of the son of truth So before I take you to the premise of this talk I would like to just give you a little bit of a background for to make it a little bit more personal. I Was born in Iraq few years ago and I Always and I think partly because I'm a Leo I always wanted to be an actor and Drama was very important for me from a very young age and I played in drama I directed prom drama and that was my future that was going to be my career And you could see even in my hands when I do this But I think it took a little while of my for my parents to convince me that that's a really a nice hobby and That perhaps particularly in Iraq that was not necessarily the best of careers chosen for me So I began to think about what it is. I wanted to do and medicine was there Screaming loud and clear at me. I wanted to do medicine and I wanted to just be a healer I wanted to be involved in the very process of Helping people to be healed So I was determined to do this and in a way I was also competing with my own cousin Who had been her family pioneers in the Seychelles and never had the chance to do major science But she was so smart that when she came back to Iraq managed to get her British GCE degree advanced level and got the Cambridge exam and not Cambridge, Massachusetts the other Cambridge and Was accepted in the faculty of medicine So I was determined to go in the same direction. I was doing my international baccalaureate and Was had hard worked very hard and I think only few of you here and I know some who are from Iraq here Who will appreciate what I'm talking about when I say those days were remarkably Scary because of the circumstances in Iraq both politically and for the faith that we went to the baccalaureate with Guards with Clashnikov standing by the door to be able to actually sit for our exams and As we're doing this, I'm sitting there in this exam and the exam being taken throughout the country with the same set of examinations same sort of questions and I Saw a from the window after about half an hour 35 minutes a bundle of paper thrown Right into the hole came and landed exactly beside me And I knew what it was because I could see the person sitting in front of me being very Aware of the fact that it didn't land beside him. It landed beside me. So I Knew that this was answers to the questions and somebody had actually Basically is helping him cheat So I raised my hand I called the invigilator and I said, I'm sorry. This has just come through the window It has nothing to do with me. Please if you don't mind remove it He opened it and it was indeed that and he removed it and I Didn't know that the next few minutes will change the course of my life. I Went back into answering my Questions and I just looked at the person in front of me. He turns around and He flicks his switchblade At me and says I will get you outside. You've just destroyed my future. I was I Was 15 and a half at the time and I was Well, I'm of a high the last thing I want to say, okay, I'll meet you outside. I'll get you Maybe I should Secondly I was really young. I was scared So scared that I just didn't know what to do. I decided that The concept it's better to be killed than kill maybe applicable here But also flight is not a bad concept so I answered sufficiently to actually finish there my paper just enough to pass and ran out and ran 38 minutes to my home and My marks were not sufficient to go to the faculty of medicine So that part finished and I was no longer allowed to go into medical training and I was despairing and I wanted to do nothing else but there what was so I had the only choice open to me was the faculty of science and education and Okay, I wanted chemistry chemistry wasn't available. You have to do biology Don't want to do biology But to cut a long story short within a matter of Six months I fell in love with this subject and that's partly because Again parents and the love that I was surrounded within the encouragement made me understand that it is not until you love Until you get attracted to something and look at the positive part of it that you begin to See things very much differently from when you don't have that vision so I became a biologist and The rest is history. I came to England and was educated the University of London and So on and so forth. I became an immunologist in my training. I say this because When we are forced sometimes in our careers we have to be to do the best that we can and when we do so new vistas open before us new opportunities open before us and Remarkable learning and false Let me come back to the premise of this talk And in a way really this slide and I would like you to concentrate rather than on me But on the material that's going to be on the PowerPoint presentation projected by the LCD To so that we could journey together through this as quickly as possible The concept that I am deeply interested in is how does knowledge become advanced? We know that it is a primary purpose a primary reason for the For both religion and science We know that both are created by the same source God is the source of this and we will visit some of the writings Confirming this he is the fashioner of all and that includes science and knowledge as well as the arts That scientific discoveries are the result of the pursuit of answers To a serious questions. That's what we do as scientists. We are Inquisitors we'd like to have answers to Minor and major questions But how do we achieve this is what is intriguing isn't that it's only our Intellect that guides us into this process and therefore if you're clever You will find out and that's because you are clever or isn't that that? Intelligence is necessary To then be inspired To receive guidance from a divine source So if I want to just give you with the foundation of this is that if there is a realm Where perfection of the sciences and the arts exist? Our task is to make ourselves Through humility, but through also knowledge Expertise make ourselves Conduits so that that science and that perfection of knowledge can continue to flow upon us but that this flow is Is piecemeal this floor is incremental that is Commensurate with the capacity and our ability to not only understand it but to convey it and to apply it So the concept of turning to the source is Prelude to The revelation of that science Through these instruments and I would like to see scientists ultimately consider themselves to be instruments conduits and Means by which that perfection of the sciences will continuously be revealed to us In the writings of Abdul Baha, and I'm so deeply touched by the fact that mr. Banani Gave us the first clue of this of the value of revelation because it helps us to understand This connection in the worlds of God from the tablet of Hikmat from the tablet of wisdom to now turn to the writings of Abdul Baha and to see that Abdul Baha refers to the sciences as Bridges to reality. He says if then they lead not to reality not remains but fruitless illusion By the one true God if learning be not a means of access to him the most manifest It is nothing but evident loss It is incumbent upon thee to acquire the various branches of knowledge and to turn thy face Towards towards the beauty of the manifest beauty This concept of turning Once you have acquired the knowledge is an important concept that Baha scientist and Eventually scientists in the world will realize is a key for discovering The reality of science and the reality of the answers to the questions that we have That thou may us be a sign of saving guidance amongst the peoples of the world and a focal center of Understanding in this fear from which the wise and their wisdom are shut out except for those who set foot in the kingdom of lights and Become informed of the veiled and hidden mystery the well-guarded secret Now the source of science we know is God and the writings Truly not only adumbrated, but they are very clear about it in the summons of the lord of hosts in this Surah Hakel We read or in most heart of this temple We have made the the dawning place of our knowledge and the dayspring of our wisdom and to all Who are in heaven and on earth From thee have we caused all sciences to appear and Unto thee shall we cause them to return So the connection is not that way created and left there for you to discover It's created and they continuously to be connected to that source Erlong shall we bring into being through the exponents of new and wondrous sciences of potent and effective crafts and Shall make manifest through them that which the heart of none of our servants have yet conceived Science Abdul Baha says is an effulgence of the son of reality the power of Investigating and discovering the verities of the universe the means by which man finds a pathway to God Today's science may not be Seen as exactly that but There is no doubt whatsoever that as the change that is already discernible Begins to have its influence in Allowing people to understand that things are being revealed Through them, but not necessarily from them is When we truly begin to discover the answers to the Multiple questions and we talk about medicine It is no wonder that Abdul Baha said Medicine is still in its embryonic form. It is not yet necessarily fully bored Science is the first emanation from God toward man I have added all of this emphasis because of the references to the different Headings here all created beings embody the potentially Potentiality of material perfection, but the power of intellectual investigation and scientific acquisition Is a higher virtue specialized to man alone He refers to it He refers to science as a mirror He says in fact science may be likened to a mirror Where in the infinite forms and images of existing things are revealed and reflected and I I'm deeply Touched by this vision of the fact that what we do here is Reflect the perfection of the sciences that already exist in the realm of God Our task is to be able to be The best possible mirror and the best possible mirror is one that is cleansed The most skillful mirror is the one that has already emptied itself of itself Beside this it is necessary Abdul Baha says that the signs of the perfection of the spirit should be apparent in this world So we are about bringing this into this world So that the world of creation may bring forth endless results and This body may receive life and manifest the divine bounties We need to draw from that source After Baha says although to acquire the sciences and arts is the greatest glory of mankind This is so only on condition That man's river flow into the mighty sea So it is when we merge our Droplets With the mighty sea that we are made to flow as a river We are made to flow as Being supplied by that source That man's river flow into mighty into the mighty sea and draw from God's ancient source his inspiration if then The pursuit of knowledge lead to the beauty of him who is the object of all knowledge How excellent that goal But if not a mere drop will perhaps shut a man off from flooding grace For with learning come with arrogance and pride and it bring it on it bring it on error and indifference to God Now the last part is a feature to a great extent today within scientific and academic communities Because we have not yet acquired that vision of the fact that we are not it We are instrument and that instrument can only function better with the Relative degree of Humility that we express the greater degree of humility the greater the science that will emerge And that has been shown over and over again That the greatest of those who truly discovered and brought about the change in This world those tipping points Were the ones who were humble and I will mention at least one of them at the end But this is also beginning to change so if we are to be Turning to the source The source is going to inspire us This concept of inspiration is very interesting because when I began to look at it I was amazed at how many references are there in the writings about inspiration But Abdul Baha is also very careful about telling us the difference between two types of inspiration But let's define inspiration first Abdul Baha says inspiration. What is it? Whence come it? Whence comes it? Is that which reaches our heart divine or satanic? How can we judge? Reflect on the divine forces. What has assembled us together? It is not a material but a spiritual force which has created this bond between our hearts This attraction and affection for one another a power stronger than reason a power which founds nations creates human unity and Makes us renounce the world To discover sciences and organize laws which work through all creatures But then he asks this question. He says the question arises How shall we know whether we are following inspiration from God or? satanic Satanic promptings of the human soul How shall we attain the reality of knowledge? by the breaths and Promptings of the Holy Spirit which is light and knowledge itself Through it the human mind is quickened and fortified into true conclusions and perfect knowledge This is conclusive argument showing that all available human criteria are erroneous and defective But the divine standard of knowledge is infallible by turning to that source by recognizing that it is coming from that great Ocean of knowledge It is when we connect ourself to it that we know and we pray that our guidance is Driven by the Holy Spirit and it is not driven by satanic fancies Man is said Abdul Baha It was quoted in Bahá'í world faith Man is said to be the greatest representative of God if he comes under the shadow of the true educator And is rightly trained he becomes the essence of essences the light of lights the spirit of spirits He becomes the center of the divine appearances the source of spiritual qualities The rising place of heavenly lights and the receptacle of divine inspirations If he is deprived of this education he becomes the manifestation of satanic qualities the sum of Animal vices and the source of all dark conditions Further quotes from the writings about inspiration Abdul Baha again says it is evident therefore that man is in need of divine inspiration Divine education and inspiration that the spirit and bounties of God are essential to his development essential Where it not for the inspiration of the breath of the Holy Spirit this life would be a farce The you the heart in of man is open to inspiration. This is spiritual communication You shall see the host of inspiration descending Successively from the supreme world the procession of attraction Falling incessantly from the heights of heaven the abundance of the kingdom of al-Abha Pouring continually. I cannot see this Not applying to our scientific endeavors to our artistic endeavors to our creativity That creativity that comes from the realm of the creator himself Now there are parallels and this is what is also fascinating when you begin to put yourself in that posture of Wanting to continuously observe The the parallels between the spiritual realm the spiritual Understanding that we have and the scientific facts that we have you could become Absolutely amazed if not mesmerized by the fact that they Converge and move in parallel lines at times to an extent that I could absolutely Come home dancing with a reality realization that there are images Shapes and I don't mean just physical shapes But principles and concepts that regulate the very essence of the body of man That reflects the world order of Bahá'u'lláh and I hope one day we will have another opportunity When we have another conference on science or religion to talk about some of these parallels, but I'm going to give you one example So there is this reciprocity between the two realms of of science and spirituality science and religion in the body of a man Which is the true divine example or parallel the spirit when in ideal control of all the lesser parts of the organism Finds the utmost harmony throughout the whole body each part is in perfect reciprocity with the other parts I Study lungs I like breathing and I'm an immunologist by training and Immunology is one of those fields that are a bit like kind of astronomy to an extent because you are delving into the unknown and It is very mystical it is a science that is constantly being shaped and finding its ultimate Answers to Remarkable questions and these questions and this is what sometimes I'm amazed about are about the propagation and the protection propagation and protection of The order of the body I study diseases that are Very important particularly since some of them are now epidemic asthma is now an epidemic particularly in the so-called developed world COPD or chronic obstructive pulmonary disease is the disease that is the result usually of smoking is Going to be within the next eight years the number two killer in the whole world Even if every smoker stops smoking today It still will be the number two killer in in the world And also cancer These are the areas that we are covering in in our study In the field of immunology there is this concept of almost universe within universe as you discover one layer of this onion You then peel it off and there is another layer We're now beginning to discover that there are almost Worlds within worlds within the very cell we could begin to see that there are at a molecular level the signs and symptoms of a system within the smallest tiniest units of that very cell It's almost like there are cells within cells and when you go to the writings. Bahá'u'lláh tells you That there are worlds within worlds that there are universes within universes sons within sons So my work is about Particularly with the field of asthma. That's outlined in the bottom there How does it start? We've got some wonderful observations that I'm going to be pursuing on as Mr. Banana and he put it my holiday I wish it was In Australia and two laboratories pursuing three questions there one of them is how does it start we have evidence that's the uterus and the early New natal stage of life is extremely important in regulating the whole process that may lead to this set of complex syndromes What regulates it? What are the mechanisms that regulate it and can we identify? rapid accurate and Reliable markers that are non-invasive that you could very quickly tell whether or not The patient is going to respond to a bc or d treatment or a combination thereof today This disease is treated by shotgun Therapy everybody gets the same thing and compliance to treatment is one of the worst in the world It's less than 50% people give up treatment and ultimately die of asthma Because there the medicine does not work for them. We are now targeting Individuals not targeting the disease But we are addressing the individual in the treatment itself. I'm interested in inflammation as one angle of this science of immunology and I don't want to go into too much detail here because we don't have time but The concepts that are there you could hear words that we find extremely Abundant in the writings we find the concept of attraction the concept of mobilization the concept of stimulation and Putting the the emphasis on the ability of these cells to become activated to become responsive to respond to Messages that they receive in order to perform The tasks that they have to perform Again, I don't think I have enough time to take you through some of the Things that I would love to talk to you about some of our work but just see the difference between the airways of the one in the bottom panel where the The hole is open for the air to travel and compare it with the other two Where in an asthma the patient has no space to breathe. This is a child who died of asthma and And you could see the cell that I'm interested in the cells that are staining pink there Or red are the cells that cause much of the damage there And it is our intention to try and reverse this this condition and not allow any more Children to die of this of this disease. This is the goal I give to my students my graduate students before they come that their goal must be lofty and that lofty goal is providing help and support and eliminate the suffering and ultimate potential death of the ones who are afflicted by this condition I'm studying the cell that is Moving around before you and that's the one that I was telling you about where we're beginning to find There are words within it and that you find also in the writings were Bahá'u'lláh says With the hands of power. I made thee and with the fingers of strength. I created thee And within thee I have I placed the essence of my light in Esselmont we see Him referring to the fact that in the writings Bahá'u'lláh wants us to express our inner true self This concept of inner true self is a concept in immunology that a cell begins to express its true self Once it is Stimulated to realize what capacity it has that's Very much applicable to us and you see it here in another cell type that we studying called the mass cell where you could see The cell as beginning to respond to the message and to begin to produce what is capable of Generating otherwise it is sitting there resting and not Dealing with with anything because it appears to be in a random phase Turn thy sight and to thyself Bahá'u'lláh said That thou mayest find me standing within the mighty powerful and self-subsisting I'm gonna move quickly here Spiritualizing science therefore is a goal that we have The nature Shogya for the house of justice says and scope of such a civilization are still beyond anything the present generation can conceive The prosecution of this vast enterprise will depend on a progressive Interaction between the truths and principles of religion and the discoveries and insights of scientific knowledge This entails which I love this quote Living with Ambiguities as natural and inescapable feature of the process of exploring realities Scientists are beginning to realize that there are not going to be any black and white answers that Particularly in the field of biology. We are not about the Cartesian pattern of thinking which is By reductionist approach, we find the little Nut or screw that is loose. We tighten it disease is gone because the machine is now functioning We are far more complex and genetic variation as well as Other environmental reasons are going to continuously influence this and keep us Busy trying to find answers we talked about the necessity for humility in Our seeking to find that truth Bahá'u'lláh says humble thyself before me that I may graciously visit thee scientists and academics This is our motto It is when we do so that we begin to truly acquire the knowledge that God wants us to reveal to this humanity and that Humble man without learning but filled with the Holy Spirit is more powerful than the most no Nobly born profound scholar without that inspiration He who is educated by the divine spirit can in this time lead others to receive the same spirit Albert Einstein was one of those people who Once finished his work began to realize the power of the mystical on him Realize that to become a true scientist you cannot do so without the profound effect of Religion and spirituality and I'm not going to take you through the quotes because of the time that we have He says science can only be created by those who are thoroughly imbued with the aspiration Towards truth and understanding. I cannot conceive a genuine scientist without that profound faith Science without religion is lame religion without science is blind and he did indicate that what came What he gave did not come from him, but through him. So beloved friends It is when we acquire facts when we contemplate reflect and imagine when we have a vision We arrive at that Eureka moment when our comedies Shouted having got into the tub and displaced water Commensurate with his own volume and shouted Eureka It may not necessarily be that he found the answer but that because he was specialized and because he was seeking that the That realm of knowledge found him to be the instrument to convey that knowledge He was able to articulate it. He was able to give us that very important law and that as we become conduits We have to realize that that truth that will be relieved revealing will be a measure of the truth Because it's a world that is full of endless discoveries if we do so We truly will influence and change the academic world today because we bring in an end to arrogance and end to unnecessary competition and an end to Thinking that each one of us as scientists are It and if you want to again knowledge come to me because I am going to purvey to you We are only Learners and when we acquire that posture that is when we are most effective. I Close friends with this quote from Abdul Baha He will come to your aid with invisible hosts and Support you with armies of inspiration from the concourse above He will send unto you sweet perfumes from the highest paradise and Woffed over you the pure breathings that blow from the rose gardens of the company on high He will breathe into your hearts the spirit of life Cause you to enter the arc of salvation and reveal unto you His clear tokens and signs. Thank you friends