Archive - August 25, 2011

1
Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69) for Rick Perry (just when you thought it was safe to say you were an RPCV!)
2
Theroux Writes His Peace Corps Novel
3
Thank You, Sister Mary David Walgenbach!
4
The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011 H.R. 2337 and S. 1280 – An Overview

Kinky Friedman (Borneo 1967-69) for Rick Perry (just when you thought it was safe to say you were an RPCV!)

Kinky for Perry Rick Perry has never lost an election; I’ve never won one. Maybe that’s what’s wrong with the world. On the other hand, I’ve long been friends with Bill Clinton and George W., and Rick Perry and I, though at times bitter adversaries, have remained friends as well. It’s not always easy to maintain friendships with politicians. To paraphrase Charles Lamb, you have to work at it like some men toil after virtue. I have been quoted as saying that when I die, I am to be cremated, and the ashes are to be thrown in Rick Perry’s hair. Yet, simply put, Rick Perry and I are incapable of resisting each other’s charm. He is not only a good sport, he is a good, kindhearted man, and he once sat in on drums with ZZ Top. A guy like that can’t be all bad. When I ran for . . .

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Theroux Writes His Peace Corps Novel

The opening of The Lower River, the next novel by Paul Theroux (Malawi 1963-65), is coming out in the Spring, 2012. It begins: Even in his best days in Medford, running the family clothing store, Altman had always imagined that he would return to Africa, to the Lower River. It had been his Eden, for those four years he had spent in a village called Malabo as a young man. Now, after nearly forty years, he was on his way back. The decades in between seemed almost a digression: the business, the marriage, the children. Altman’s Store for Men had closed, the marriage had failed, Altman’s children were grown, absent, living their lives. A little over sixty, he was alone again. He had enough money to see him into his old age, yet he wanted more than that. No one needed him in Medford, and he wondered if the people of . . .

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Thank You, Sister Mary David Walgenbach!

The New York Times on Sunday, August 21, 2011 asked the question “If I Were President…..to nine citizens and among them, Sister Mary David Walgenbach, Prioress of the Holy Wisdom Monastery of Middleton, Wisconsin who said, “I would invest half of our defense budget in children, young people and in energy conservation….I would expand the Peace Corps and AmeriCorps and grow both for the next ten years.” Thank you, Sister!

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The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011 H.R. 2337 and S. 1280 – An Overview

The Kate Puzey Peace Corps Volunteer Protection Act of 2011 seeks to amend the Peace Corps Act to enhance the safety of serving Volunteers. The legislation has been introduced in both Houses of Congress with bipartisan support. It has already been voted out of the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and is pending action in the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. The goal is to legislate administrative systems designed, first, to prevent sexual assault of Peace Corps Volunteers, and then, to provide for adequate treatment if such crimes occur and finally, to make Peace Corps officials accountable for the implementation of these provisions. The law draws  from the Congressional testimony of Returned Peace Corps Volunteers who were assault victims as well as from experts in the field. The First Response Action Group, of RPCVs, is responsible for leading this effort. The legal status of Volunteers and the Five Year Rule . . .

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