North Dakota Human Rights Coalition
Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights
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North Dakota Human Rights Coalition Working to effect change so that all people in North Dakota enjoy full human rights |
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~North Dakota Human Rights Coalition PAUR Report~ Visit our Website at www.ndhrc.org
November 25, 2003
Programs ~ Announcements ~ Updates ~ Resources
Hello members and friends of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition!
In this week’s PAUR Report:
Announcements 1) Bismarck Human Relations Committee Documents Available Online 2) NDHRC Web Site Calendar of Events
Newspaper Articles 3) Devils Lake Journal, Bergian promotes establishment of Human Rights Commission 4) The Forum (Fargo), Police call assault a hate crime 5) The Forum (Fargo), Other views: God defines marriage; definition not negotiable 6) Bismarck Tribune, Letters to the Editor 7) Grand Forks Herald, Supreme Court says lesbian couple should keep child custody 8) Bismarck Tribune, Board commits to raising Indian kids’ achievement 9) Grand Forks Herald, ‘Sacred’ teepee disturbed at UND 10) Grand Forks Herald, FBI Reports Hate Crimes Down in 2002 11) Grand Forks Herald, Life span shorter for area’s Indian population 12) The Forum (Fargo), Speaker shares Lakota spirituality
Events No new events this week
Reminders 13) Ford Foundation Program Recognizes Community Leaders 14) “Stolen Dreams” Open House, Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, Moorhead, MN 15) Sisters of the Presentation at Sacred Heart Convent Presents “Peace Studies” 2003 Series (Various Locations in ND and MN)
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1.) Bismarck Human Relations Committee Documents Available Online
The Bismarck Human Relations Committee meeting agendas, minutes and other documents are currently located on at the following links:
http://www.bismarck.org/city_departments/department/services.asp?divisionID=0&dID=4
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2.) NDHRC Web Site Calendar of Events
Visit our web site calendar for information on monthly statewide human rights related activities and events. We welcome your input and comments.
Please send us your news and events for the calendar to humanrights@ndhrc.org.
View the NDHRC web site here
********************************************* Newspaper Articles *********************************************
3.) Devils Lake Journal, Bergian promotes establishment of Human Rights Commission
Bergian promotes establishment of Human Rights Commission By Louise Oleson-Staff Reporter Devils Lake Journal – 11/24/2003
With the intention of helping the Devils Lake community begin the process that might lead to the establishment of its own Commission on Human Rights, Cheryl Bergian, Director of the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition, spoke at Lake Region State College last week.
In 1999 the city of Fargo established its own, calling it the Fargo Human Relations Commission. That model has been used by two other communities to establish their own commissions or ordinances in 2002--Bismarck and Dickinson. Other N.D. cities are looking to adopt their own version.
The commission is not just focused on human rights but on issues between groups of people in conflict. Although they do serve in an advisory capacity to the local city commissioners, and in that capacity often deal with problems when they arise, the Human Relations Commission desires to be pro active, an agent of education and positive action within the community as well.
Bergian told about Fargo's HRC and many of the situations where they have been asked to advise the local city commissioners, have been a forum for controversial topics, and have spearheaded activities within the community where many different groups within the community have come together in positive ways, rather than in conflict.
(For a complete news story see the Nov. 24, 2003 Journal) 11/24/03
View online article here
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4.) The Forum (Fargo), Police call assault a hate crime
Police call
assault a hate crime
The Fargo Police Department is calling the assault of a gay man last week a hate crime.
It is the second time the department has reported a hate crime to the FBI since the federal agency began requesting such information in the late 1990s, Fargo Police Lt. Tod Dahle said.
The first case involved two Sudanese refugees who were beaten in May 2001. Fargo police believe the attacks were based on the victims’ race.
In that case, a father and son pleaded guilty to assault.
In the latest case, Derek L. Puttbrese, 20, Detroit Lakes, Minn., is charged in Cass County District Court with felony aggravated assault and felonious restraint.
He is accused of beating a 44-year-old gay man in the victim’s north Fargo apartment Nov. 18.
<snip>
View full article here
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5.) The Forum (Fargo), Other views: God defines marriage; definition not negotiable
Other views: God defines marriage; definition not
negotiable
In response to Stashenko Hempeck’s letter (Conservatives are wrong about reality of marriage, Forum, Oct. 30) which stated several reasons why the writer believes that same- sex marriages should be allowed:
I strongly disagree.
On what basis do I defend heterosexual marriage? On natural law, procreation, the health and well-being of society, tradition or Holy Scripture? While all of these speak in defense of a one man/one woman marriage, in the final analysis it is Holy Scripture that I unapologetically point to. Feel free to remind me that many people no longer accept the Bible as God’s word, or even believe that there is a God who created them and established marriage; and I will feel free to remind as many as will listen that there is such a God and that He did establish an order of relationships, and prohibit certain others for the benefit and protection of His creation.
<snip>
View full article here
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6.) Bismarck Tribune, Letters to the Editor
Saturday, November 15,
2003 - Bismarck Tribune
The
toleration that condones
<snip>
View full article here
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Semantics
problem
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7.) Grand Forks Herald, Supreme Court says lesbian couple should keep child custody
NORTH DAKOTA: Supreme Court says lesbian couple should
keep child custody
BISMARCK - North Dakota's Supreme Court has ruled a lesbian couple's relationship should not deny them custody of two girls, despite their father's argument that the arrangement provided "the wrong moral character" for the children.
The father, Shawn Damron, did not show the physical or emotional health of the children was endangered or their emotional development impaired by their living arrangement, the high court said Thursday. Damron had to provide that evidence to win his custody fight, the justices concluded.
The girls, ages 10 and 4, live with their mother, Valerie Damron of Minot, and her partner, Ann Elliot. Shawn and Valerie Damron divorced in September 2001. Afterward, Valerie Damron began living with Elliot, and they own a home together.
Mom relieved
Valerie Damron described the decision as a relief.
<snip>
View full article here
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8.) Bismarck Tribune, Board commits to raising Indian kids’ achievement
Cheryl Long Feather is an incoming board member for the North Dakota Human Rights Coalition.
Board commits to raising Indian kids' achievement By Sheena Dooley, Bismarck Tribune
Bismarck Tribune –
11/11/2003
<snip>
View full article
here
9.) Grand Forks Herald, ‘Sacred’ teepee disturbed at UND
CRIME: 'Sacred' teepee
disturbed at UND Grand Forks Herald – 11/15/2003
A teepee set up in front of UND's Memorial Union in honor of Native American Month was disturbed late Thursday or Friday morning and some of its contents vandalized, prompting a police investigation.
University Police Chief Duane Czapiewski said a number of empty beer cans and a 12-pack box was found burned in a fire pit inside the teepee, and informational papers for the public about the teepee also were burned.
He said police received a complaint about the incident Friday morning. Two beer cans were kept by police as evidence.
Czapiewski said, for now, the matter is being treated as criminal mischief, and that any determination on whether a civil rights violation or hate crime had occurred would have to be made at a later date.
<snip>
View full article here
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10.) Grand Forks Herald, FBI Reports Hate Crimes Down in 2002
FBI Reports Hate Crimes Down in 2002
WASHINGTON - Hate crimes were down sharply in 2002 following a spike the year before that was blamed in part on anti-Muslim and Middle Eastern sentiment after the Sept. 11 attacks.
The 7,462 hate crime incidents reported to the FBI in 2002 represented a drop of nearly 25 percent from the 9,730 reported in 2001, the agency said Wednesday. The number also was below the 8,063 incidents recorded in 2000.
There were 155 hate crime incidents listed as anti-Islamic last year, down sharply from the 481 reported in 2001, when the nation suffered its worst-ever terrorist attack at the hands of Muslim extremists.
In addition, there were 622 hate crime incidents listed in 2002 against ethnic groups that include people of Middle Eastern descent, down from 1,500 in 2001. There were 931 anti-Jewish incidents in 2002, slightly below the number in 2001.
Arab-American and Muslim advocates agreed that hate crimes dropped from 2001 to 2002. But they said these people still suffer disproportionate discrimination in the wake of the Sept 11 attacks and the Iraq war.
"There's an uneasy relationship between the Muslim community and law enforcement," said Ibrahim Hooper, spokesman for the Council on American-Islamic Relations.
<snip>
View full article here
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11.) Grand Forks Herald, Life span shorter for area’s Indian population
HEALTH:
Life span shorter for area's Indian population
SPIRIT LAKE INDIAN RESERVATION, N.D. - American Indians who live in Northern Plains states, such as North Dakota, have a shorter life expectancy than other Indian and non-Indians across the country, according to a recent survey by UND's National Resource Center on Native American Aging.
However, with the help of an $345,000 infusion from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the center is planning a study to pinpoint factors that quash longevity and design ways to reverse the trend.
The survey, which assessed the health status of nearly 10,000 American Indians and Alaska natives from 132 tribes, found that native people in the Dakotas, Nebraska and Iowa are plagued by a higher rate of chronic diseases than the rest of the country, dropping their life expectancy by nearly 13 years compared with the national average. North Dakota has about 35,000 American Indian residents.
The survey showed an inordinate number of American Indians in those states are afflicted with congestive heart failure, diabetes, prostate cancer and high-blood pressure. The life expectancy for American Indians in the region, one of 11 assessed nationally, is only 64.3 years, compared to 71.1 years for other American Indians surveyed and the national average of 77 years.
<snip>
View full article here
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12.) The Forum (Fargo), Speaker shares Lakota spirituality
Speaker shares Lakota spirituality
Jon Eagle will face a challenge Monday morning.
He will have 10 minutes to share a sense of Lakota spirituality and culture -- which he has spent years studying -- at Concordia College’s chapel in Moorhead.
Maybe he will start with a story about wakanyeja, or the Lakota word for children, which translates literally as “sacred little ones.”
Perhaps Eagle will talk about tiwahe, the Lakota word for family which can be literally translated as: “Over there stands a sacred lodge.”
It’s not really the lodge that’s sacred, but the relationships within the home, Eagle says.
Maybe he’ll talk about the practice of giving tobacco and other gifts to an elder when asking for help. Or about the thanksgiving meals people host to express gratitude for an elder’s prayers.
Eagle’s goal?
“I try to build upon our similarities while cherishing our differences,” says Eagle, 36, a regional prevention coordinator with Standing Rock Sioux Tribe Prevention Services in Fort Yates, N.D.
<snip>
View full article here
********************************************* Events *********************************************
********************************************* Reminders *********************************************
13.) Ford Foundation Program Recognizes Community Leaders
Deadline:
January 6, 2004
14.) “Stolen Dreams” Open House, Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, Moorhead, MN
"Stolen Dreams" (October 11, 2003? – December 22, 2003) is an exhibition of 70 contemporary photographs by occupational health physician Dr. David L. Parker. Dr. Parkers shows in very real, moving photographs that the issues of child labor is not one of the past, but one that is affecting the entire world community - including the United States.
"My project can never be completed" says Parker, "what exists is too vast to be seen or documented fully, but it is too important to ignore."
For more information about Stolen Dreams visit http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/gallery/intro.html.
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15.) Sisters of the Presentation at Sacred Heart Convent Presents “Peace Studies” 2003 Series (Various Locations in ND and MN)
Presentation Peace Studies has an excellent series of forum speakers for the coming year. Please mark your calendars and more information will be forthcoming this fall!
Nov. 14, 2003 - "Security: An Affair of the Heart" Fr. Johns Sandell, Fargo Jan. 23, 2004 - "What Is a Peace Church?" Dr. Gerald Schlabach, St. Thomas U., St. Paul Feb. 27, 2004 - "What Does My Faith Call Me to in Violent Times?" Panel of three: B'hai, Quaker, Muslim Mar. 26, 2004 - "Jesus against Christianity" Dr. Jack Nelsonp-:Pallmeyer, St. Thomas U., St. Paul April 30 & May 1, 2003 - "Receding Violence, Reseeding the Earth - Harmony in the Web of Life" Helen Prejean and Marya Grathwohl
View additional information here
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***Member Reminder*** Please keep us in mind for your group or church social action/social justice meetings! We’d be happy to provide a presentation at a meeting or provide newsletter articles for your organizations.
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Do you have a Program, Announcement, Update or Resource that you would like shared on our weekly PAUR report? If so, please send an email to n-top: 0; margin-bottom: 0"> Do you have a Program, Announcement, Update or Resource that you would like shared on our weekly PAUR report? If so, please send an email to AndreaDeegan@NDHRC.org and we will do our best to accommodate you.
If you are not yet a member of NDHRC, what are you waiting for? Sign up now! The membership form is available on line at http://ndhrc.org/membership_form_revised.htm.
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