South Bend, Indiana; Feb. 6, 2008

Local

Long-Time Hoosier Lawmaker Dies: Veteran Hoosier state representative Richard Mangus, 77, (R-Lakeville) died Monday of a heart attack.
Mangus was first elected to the Indiana House in 1972. He retired after 32 years of service and was succeeded by Republican protégé Jackie Walorski.
Body Found in South Bend: Police have ruled that 20-year-old Clay Township resident Marcus D. Rice was the victim of a homicide.
Rice’s body was found by a passer-by shortly before 7:30 a.m. Tuesday on South Bend’s west side
Election 2008

McCain Takes Commanding GOP Lead: Close Race for Dems’: John McCain took a commanding lead in the race for the Republican presidential nomination after the “Super Tuesday” primaries and caucuses yesterday.
Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama remained in a tight race for the Democratic nod.
Obama won 13 of the 22 states, including a near-sweep of the south, but Clinton won the two big prizes: Her home state of New York and California.
McCain won 9 of 15 states including New York and California.
Clinton leads Obama in the delegate count, 900-824 with 2,025 needed for the nomination. Former candidate John Edwards had 26 delegates.
McCain has 543 of the 1,191 delegates he needs. Mike Huckabee has 159 and Mitt Romney 149.


Announcements

Car Registration: CFH Guests: If you own a motor vehicle, you need to register it with your coach or it could be towed.
“One Step At a Time” Running Group: Three days a week (times and days TBA). Will meet at CFH. Open to Center guests and anyone else who is interested in learning to run. All runners will receive the necessary running gear (i.e. running shoes, shorts, warm-ups, shirts, hats, etc.). There is a sign-up sheet on the bulletin board by the basement stairway near the men’s lounge.
Artistic Newsletter: Are you an artist, poet or writer? Place submissions for the new Artistic Newsletter in Emily Pickerill’s box. Express your talents and ideas by participating. Start submitting as soon as possible.
Art Group: Interested in exercising your creative spirit? Want to see some of your original art work on display in the hallways?
Please see Meg about details for joining a new art group at CFH
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ABE

▪Dead Poets Society: Thursdays, 3-4 p.m., ABE Room. All are welcome.
We will discuss short stories and poems.
▪Writing: Wednesdays, 3-4 p.m., ABE. Improve your basic writing skills under the guidance of a trained instructor.
▪Creative Writing: Thursdays, 8-9 p.m. Develop your creative writing skills. You don’t have to sign up, just show up. Volunteers from Notre Dame will be there.
▪Fractions and Decimals Refresher Courses: Tuesdays, fractions, and Thursdays, decimals, in the second floor conference room. Everyone is welcome. For more information, contact ABE.

International

Maharishi Dies: Beatles guru Maharishi Mahesh Yogi, 91, died Tuesday in his Dutch home.

Letter to the Editor: Our Letter to the Editor today from the Rev. Isaac Francis Githinji is at www.homelessherald.blogspot.com. It was a little too long for the newsstand edition.
Herald Sports

IUSB Women Lose Home Game: Senior Jennifer VanderZenden led the Lady Titans (15-9, 2-3 CCAC) with 14 points and nine rebounds.
IUSB took a 9-point second half lead against the #24-ranked visitors (19-4, 5-0 CCAC) but couldn’t hold on.
Niki McDonald scored 13 points for the Lady Titans before fouling out. Cortney Flanagan added 10 points.
Boilermaker Men Hold on to #24 Ranking: Robbie Hummel and E’Twaun Moore scored 17 and 15 points, respectively as the host Boilermakers (18-5, 9-1 Big Ten) held on to their first national ranking in four years.
Purdue’s Marcus Green scored 11 of his 14 points in the second half.
ND Signs Basketball Recruit: Jack Cooley; a 6-8, 235 pound basketball center from Illinois; has signed to play for Mike Brey’s Notre Dame men’s team.
Gasol Lifts Bryant in Debut: Pau Gasol took up the slack for his ailing new teammate Kobe Bryant in his Lakers debut with 24 points and 12 rebounds.
Derek Fisher dropped in a season-high 28 points for L.A. Kobe had a season-low six points. It was his lowest scoring output since a January 5, 2007 game against Denver.
Shaq Reportedly Traded to Suns: Pending a physical examination, the Miami Heat are preparing to trade perennial all-star center Shaquille O’Neal to the Phoenix Suns for Shawn Marion and Marcus Banks.
O’Neal has been hampered by injuries the past two seasons. He is averaging 14.2 points this season and the Heat have the worst record in the NBA this season, 9-37.
Shaq, who is in his 15th season in the league, has helped lead the L.A. Lakers and Heat to NBA championship.
Other Tuesday NBA Scores: Spurs 116, Pacers 89 (Tim Duncan 19 points, 15 rebounds; Danny Granger 16 points); Cavaliers 114, Celtics 113 (LeBron James 33 points, 11 assists; Ray Allen 24 points; Zydrunas Ilgauskas 10 rebounds); 76ers 101, Wizards 96 (Andre Iguodala 20 points; DeShawn Stevenson 19 points; Antawn Jamison 16 points, 14 rebounds; Andre Miller 14 assists); Bucks 102, Grizzlies 97 (Mike Miller 32 points, Mo Williams 32 points, Charlie Villanueva 16 rebounds, Darko Milic 12 rebounds.
Tuesday NHL Scores: Philadelphia 3, Atlanta 2; Los Angeles 4, N.Y. Rangers 2; Anaheim 3, N.Y. Islanders 0; Washington 4, Colorado 0 (OT); Buffalo 4, Boston 2; Montreal 4, Ottawa 3; Florida 8, Toronto 0; Detroit 3, Minnesota 2 (OT); Nashville 1, Carolina 0; Tampa Bay 5, St. Louis 4; Dallas 3, Vancouver 2 (SO); Calgary 4, Phoenix 3 (SO).
Tuesday NCAA Men Scores: (10) Butler 71, Valparaiso 68; Southern Illinois 80, Indiana St. 69; Ohio St. 65, Michigan 55; (6) Georgetown 63, University of South Florida 53, Providence 79, DePaul 65; (7) Tennessee 104, Florida 82.
Tuesday NCAA Women Scores: (7) Rutgers 73, (1) Connecticut 71; South Florida 78, (25) DePaul 73; Marquette 72, Cincinnati 54; (17) Oklahoma St. 77, (5) Baylor 67; (6) Stanford 96, Santa Clara 74.

Ask Aunt Rona

Dear Aunt Rona: I think there should be a ban on singing outside the shower stall, although I would concede the drying-off area. There should be a “No Singing Beyond this Point” sign at the exit of the shower room and it should be enforced.
People with radios, CD players and MP3s have to wear earphones. Singers should be required to wear a sound-suppressing face shield or duct tape.
Everything’s Not Coming Up Roses and It’s Not a Beautiful Morning; Just Let Me Sleep.
Dear Sleepy: How do you know it’s not a beautiful morning if you don’t want to haul your little tushie out of bed and face it, dearie.
You can face the morning one of two ways: “Good God, it’s morning” or “It’s a good morning, God.
Love, Aunt Rona
Should Aunt Rona be timed out again? Unfortunately, she does like a little nip once in a while (and the occasional tuck). Or should she merely be told to haul her little tushie back into bed, pull the covers over her head, and stay there. Let us know.

Weather

High 33, Low 22
Rain/Sleet
Humidity 92%

Letter to the Editor

THE CENTER FOR THE HOMELESS, SOUTH BEND, INDIANA:MONDAY NIGHT MEETING: JANUARY 28, 2008 I. KENYA PRESENTATIONRequest by: Emily Pickerill; Executive Assistant i. IntroductionPersonal background and visits to the United States of America: 1). October 2004, 2). November 2007.I came to the Center for the Homeless on Tuesday night, November 27, 2007. ii. AppreciationI am very grateful for my reception at the Center and for all the love and care that I have received which is only comparable to that of a caring mother. It is therefore only right for me to say that the Center has become my mother and my all! MyCoach, Andrew has been most real to me just as a bloody brother would be. I reverence him and consider him as my Mentor as I seek relocation here. Surprisingly, though, all the other Coaches have been treating me most dearly!I hope that dear Steve, being the CEO of the Center; will accept my most sinceregratitude and kindly pass this to all his members of staff. Without any exceptions, all of you, my brothers and sisters have touched my heartin one way or another and I remember all of you daily in my prayers. iii. A HomilyPsalm 136 is a "Litany of Thanksgiving."v. 1 says; "Give thanks to Yahweh for "He" is good' and the last v. 26 says; Give thanks to the God of heaven, for "His" love endures for ever" (NJB). It gives God great pleasure to reconcile us to Himself and to make us His children!This was His message to the world 2000 yrs ago when, "with the angel there was agreat throng of the hosts of heaven, praising God with the words: Glory to God in the highest heaven, and on earth peace for those "He" favours"(Lk 2: 13, 14 NJB). God's favour was revealed to all humanity through the incarnation. Being the "Emmanuel, which means God with us", God did not only want to identify Himself with His self image but also in the discouragements in our lives. He wanted to take care of the state of hopelessness in us brought by the sin ofcommon Ancestor Adam. He wanted to restore hope and become the source of genuine change in our shattered and broken lives. However, there is a cost to this! That is, the will to accept and commit oneself to genuine change. Someone wrotethat: "It is a funny thing about life; if you refuse to accept anything but the best, youvery often get it." A young lady who came to serve meals here as a volunteer about a week ago learnt that I am from Kenya. She commented sympathetically; "It is crazy out there!" I responded politely: "Yes, but the world is crazy everywhere." How many times have we seen brothers at the front lounge, their tongues on fire against each other! I thank God for placing me in a dorm named after a priest, the Rev. Edward "Monk" Malloy. Yet, I myself have been subjected to name calling by some of my brothers in the dorm for no particular good reason. According to African culture words related with sex are considered sacred to be mentioned in the bedrooms let alone in public. The craziness in the world is most probably the cause of our being guests here at the Center for the Homeless. As I pray for love, peace, unity and change in my country, I also remember to pray the same for all of us. "Love, forgiveness and tolerance can heal the body. If the mind is dominated by negative emotions, then there is no possibility to develop compassion, kindness, forgiveness and tolerance and the resulting peace of mind that these virtues bring." My message for Kenya today is therefore a message the world and for each one of us. A message of love, peace and goodwill!A message of hope for everyone irrespective of our religious, denominational, ethnic, or cultural differences. A message that is regardless of colour, race, social class and political affiliation.A message of hope to the hopeless!Hope for genuine change without feelings of prejudice for our life-styles. For God's great pleasure is to reconcile us to Himself and to make us His children.In the name of God the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. AMEN! II. Political Background Kenya lies across the equator in the east-central Africa, on the coast of the Indian Ocean. It is twice the size of Nevada. Kenya borders Somaria to the east, Ethiopia to the North, Tanzania to the south, Uganda to the west, and Sudan to the northwest. More than 40 ethnic groups reside in Kenya. There are 25 different languages spoken by various ethnic groups. The largest of there groups are the Kikuyu (22 percent); they migrated to the region at the beginning of the 18th century. The other major groups are the Luhya (14 percent) and, the Luo (13 percent). Kenya became a British protectorate in 1890 and a crown colony in 1920, when it went by the name British East Africa. The lush central Rift Valley Province, commonly known as the "white highlands" was the bee-hive of the influential white settler community who virtually ruled colonial Kenya from Nakuru town. In his memoirs: A Love – Affair with – Sunshine, Sir Michael Blundell – himself a settler at Solai in Nakuru – reckons that no governor would make a decision without having to travel to Nakuru to consult the settlers. "They were the tail that wagged the dog, he writes. Other pioneer settlers such as the Lord Delamere set camp in this significant, hilly and most agriculturally productive province in early 1930s. This was about the same time that my own parents migrated to the area from Kikuyu land in such of employment. I and others from many other different tribes were born and brought up here without ancestral attachments elsewhere. We knew each other as members of the same family, went to school together, attended church together, hunting together and sharing our food. This was without acrimony and tribalism was an animal unknown to us at the time, otherwise instead of hunting rabbits, we would have hunted this beast rather than take bows and arrows now to hunt, main and kill the same people with whom we shared life from childhood. National stirrings began in 1940s, and in 1952 the Mau Mau movement, made up of Kikuyu militants, rebelled against the government. The fighting lasted until 1956. Seven (7) years later, on December 12, 1963, Kenya became fully independent. Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu nationalist leader during the independence struggle who had been jailed by the British, became the country's first president. After the country acquired self-governance, some of the British settlers were in haste to leave the country though Kenyatta had given them the assurance of a peaceful co-existence and respect to their property. In his speech to the settlers at Nakuru municipal hall: Mr. Kenyatta told them; "We will have to build this country together." However, an agreement was entered that those who felt that they must leave were free to do so and to dispose of their property to the locals on a willing buyer willing seller basis. It was on these grounds that some of us acquired land in the Rift Valley Province though our parents had originated from the Central Province. When Kenya was a British colony, until Mzee Kenyatta's death in August 1978, the tribes co-existed in harmony without experiencing the current madness. Exit Mzee Kenyatta and enter Mr. Daniel T. Arap Moi, the then vice president; in his own style. Mr. Moi was president of the country for 24 years. From 1964, the country was ruled as a one-party state by the Kenya African National Union (KANU), first under Kenyatta and then under Moi. Demonstrations and riots organized by oppostion leaders and human rights activists pressured Moi for multiparty elections in 1992. In August 7, 1998, the United States Embassy in Nairobi was bombed by terrorists, 243 people died and 1000 were injured. III. Current Political Situation On December 2002, Mwai Kibaki, the then opposition leader and a one time Moi's vice president, won the presidential elections. President Mwai Kibaki promised to put an end to the country's rampant corruption that had greatly affected the country during the reign of Mr. Moi. In his first few months, Kibaki did initiate a number of reforms – ordering a crackdown on corrupt judges and the police and instituting free primary school education – and international donors opened their coffers again. But by 2004, disappointment in Kibaki set in when little further progress was evident, and a long-awaited new constitution, meant to limit the president's power, still had not been delivered. This was the bone of contention between President Mwai Kibaki and Mr. Raila Odinga whose ambition was to be Kenya's prime minister under the new constitution. Rift Valley Province to bear the brunt of the madness that Kenya descended into following the disputed election results. Over 400 lives have been lost; over 7,000 children have no where to study and over 10,000 people have no place to call home. At night they huddle in the schools, chiefs' camps, and police stations, churches under police protection while others spend the night in the bush while their neighbours torched their houses, maize fields and livestock pens. IV. Conclusion Kenya is situated in one of Africa's most volatile and troubled regions, yet it has one of the continent's most attractions and stable democracies for the last 43 years of independence. I wish to quote Gwynne Dyer, a London-based independent journalist who rightly said in an article in the South Bend Tribune that; "Despite the ugly scenes of recent days, Kenya is not an ethnic tinderbox where people automatically back their own tribes and hate everyone else." The people have long moved from cultural, traditional and ethnic primitivism and developed a culture that is modern. For many years now, intermarriage has been in existence among different tribes in Kenya, a relationship that was not well accepted in the past. Marriage is generally accepted among the majority of African tribes as a lasting relationship that strongly bind two different families together as one family, whatever their cultural, tribal or ethnic background. The deeply grievious situation that is affecting my country is the result of individual ambition and greed for polical power and must be highly condemned. After being subjected to a shameful humiliation in a public arena by his boss, one of Kenya's vice president declared in resignation that; "there comes a time when a nation is more important than an individual." The Kenyan nation is more important than President Mwai Kibaki or Mr. Raila Odinga. Religions: Protestants 45 percent; Roman Catholic 33 percent; Indigenous 10 percent; Islam 10 percent. Isaac F. M. Githinji