Miscellany

Military trial in Peace Corps rape case begins Trial for Navy SEAL support team sailor accused of raping Peace Corps worker in Uganda begins By The Associated Press NORFOLK, Va. (AP) ‘ A former Peace Corps worker who taught at a girl’s school in rural Uganda has told a military jury that a sailor who does construction work for Navy SEALs raped her in his hotel room in the country’s capital. The 27-year-old woman testified Monday that her sexual encounter with Petty Officer 2nd Class Camaren Walker started out as consensual. But when his condom slipped off twice, she wanted him to stop. She says he raped her four times. During the military’s equivalent of a preliminary hearing in April, Walker’s attorneys suggested charges were brought because of political pressure. In opening arguments, one of Walker’s attorneys said the woman simply regretted her decision to have sex with Walker. The . . .

miguelito writes: with all due respect to all thr work done by rpcv/washington, i think nan gear of pc/washington, lorette ruppe, and dozens of other donors large and small would dispute the cllaim tht the 25th anniversary had no support other than the local returnees. simply not true!!! if you’d like a copy of the final accounting of funds and expenditures, please refer to the 25th memorial reoprt… venceremos… There is a comment by someone named ‘miguelito’ on my blog yesterday, replying to my item: “More from Mark Shriver’s book about his Dad” He/She was objecting to my remark, “This was the famous reunion organized by the Returned Volunteer of Washington, not by any national group of RPCVs, nor by the Peace Corps agency. The Peace Corps, as we know, never organizes anything for RPCVs.” ‘miguelito’ might not know the full history, and with the passing of time we have all forgotten key . . .

Mark Shriver writes in A Good Man — out this June from Henry Holt — that he applied to the Peace Corps in his senior year at Holy Cross College.  “After waiting months to hear — no one [in our family] from my generation had yet been accepted into the program — I learned that I would serve as an English teacher in Paraguay.” He then went with his Dad to the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Peace Corps held under a enormous tent on the Mall in Washington, D.C.. This was the famous reunion organized by the Returned Volunteer of Washington, not by any national group of RPCVs, nor by the Peace Corps agency. The Peace Corps, as we know, never organizes anything for RPCVs. “Dad . . . gave a terrific speech with a rousing finale,” Mark writes.”I was sitting in the front row, proud of him and motivated to serve.” Mark goes on to . . .

Continuing for a moment on the theme of JFK and Peace Corps Volunteers, I happen to get hold of an early copy of Mark K. Shriver’s book on his father entitled, A Good Man, that Henry Holt is publishing in June.  My wife is a magazine executive and her staff is trained to give her copies of any book about the Peace Corps or Ethiopia that arrives at the office! Mark’s book has the subtitle of Rediscovering my Father.  Sarge, as we know, died in January 2011 at the age of 95.  And in the last years of his long life he suffered from Alzheimer. A story Mark tells in his book  is about the immediate aftermath of Kennedy’s death, and the gathering of world dignitaries in Washington, D.C. for the state funeral. Shriver more or less ran the wake and funeral and on the day of the Mass and burial the White House was jammed with heads of state. Angie Duke, then the chief . . .

Lee Tuveson (Nepal (1962–64) was nice enough to send me a copy of the address that John F. Kennedy made to 600+ Peace Corps Trainees in Washington, D.C. on August 9, 1962. Lee , who was in attendance, was headed off to Nepal with that country’s first group of PCVs,  and Marian Beil and I, who were there as well, were leaving after Labor Day with the first group of Volunteers to Ethiopia. Here are JFK’s remarks to us, but really, Kennedy’s comments were for all the PCVs who would join the Peace Corps in the years to come. It would be great now to get comments from other departing Trainees who were on the White House lawn that August afternoon, and from those PCVs who were at “send-offs” by other presidents, or by Peace Corps Directors, in later years. What do you remember? • Ladies and gentlemen: We are very glad to welcome you here to the White House. This occasion . . .

Maureen Orth (Colombia 1965-67) was kind enough to forward to me an article  entitled “Practical Idealism: How Sargent Shriver Built the Peace Corps”  in the February 10, 2012 issue of Commonweal magazine. The article was written by Jamie Price, the Director of the Insight Conflict Resolution Program at George Mason University and Executive Director of the Sargent Shriver Peace Institute. Commonweal, if you don’t know the publication, is a wonderful liberal independent journal of opinions published by lay Catholics. Their offices are located on the West Side of New York City, and as they say, they have “a good view of the Hudson River and beyond.” The Jamie Price piece is too long to re-print so let me just quote a few paragraphs. Jamie Price writes: “Fifty years ago the Peace Corps represented a brand-new idea. Nothing like it had ever been tried by the U.S. government, and the nation greeted it with widespread enthusiasm–one Harris . . .

By Ashley Fantz, Jason Puracal, a 34-year-old American, is seen in this image shot last year, imprisoned in Nicaragua. Well-known human rights attorneys, FBI agent, Iran hikers defend imprisoned American Jason Puracal, 34, was a real estate agent working in Nicaragua No evidence was presented to support his conviction and 22-year sentence, defense says Supporters: Puracal has been behind bars for 15 months, is seriously ill (CNN) — Since last summer, a former Peace Corps volunteer from Washington state has been wasting away in a Nicaraguan prison, wrongfully convicted of international drug trafficking, money laundering and organized crime, his supporters say. A growing chorus of defense attorneys, investigators, human rights activists and lawmakers is calling for 34-year-old Jason Puracal’s release. Puracal’s advocates include the director of the California Innocence Project, the human-rights attorney who helped win freedom for Burmese Nobel Peace Prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi and an ex-FBI . . .

Questions on the famous Peace Corps Locker came back to me recently and once again I went searching through files looking for lost documents and I came across a letter written to me by Jack Hood Vaughn on December 3, 1999. For those RPCVs who never received a Peace Corps Book Locker, they were given out to all of us in the early days.  The Book Locker was sent overseas  with the first Volunteers so we might start a small library in our schools, as well as having something to read. These paperback books were to be left behind when we left our towns and villages. Now, of course, PCVs have cell phone and laptops, iPods and iPhones….who needs a book! Well, we certainly did. What I had been trying to track down, back in the ’90s, was how did the Book  Locker come to be? I have heard that it was Eunice Shriver who first had the idea, and . . .

Very early this morning, Maureen Orth was on Morning Joe. It was a much better opportunity for her to talk about her Peace Corps Post Card Blog and to show some PCVs in China. I’m told by ‘those in positions to know’ that the agency was very helpful in arranging the trip to China, though as an RPCV Maureen and her partner, Susan Koch, were on their own with contributions from American Express, and, I believe, Bank of America. Check out the website: www.PeaceCorpsPostcards.com  and this morning’s appearance on NBC Morning  Joe. Luckily Joe wasn’t around so Maureen didn’t have to deal with him and his super ego! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3036789/ns/msnbc_tv-morning_joe/

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/26184891/vp/46309664#46309664 Also Morning Joe tomorrow, Thursday at 8:20 on NBC!

Maureen Orth (Colombia 1965-67) will be on tomorrow’s  NBC’s Today  Show–Wednesday, Feb. 8– supposedly in the 8:30 half hour with videos from China made for www.peacecorpspostcards.com.   She will also be on Morning Joe either Thursday or Friday.www.peacecorpspostcards.com Maureen launched, with her friend Susn Koch this  interactive website: www.PeaceCorpsPostcards.com  shortly after the 50th celebrations to  celebrate the Peace Corps 50th anniversary, and to share the stories of  volunteers across the globe. Susan, an  award winning filmmaker, and Maureen has produced a series of video postcards that feature PCVs and RPCVs. With assistance from American Express and the Bank of America there is a website which allows anyone in the Peace Corps community to post his or her story, picture or blog.  Maureen served in  Medellin, Colombia and is still involved in Colombia  through her foundation www..MarinaOrthFoundation.org. Check out these video postcards at  www.peacecorpspostcards.com And watch the Today Show tomorrow morning. Once again, an RPCV is proving she can get more PR for the Peace Corps than the . . .

Apparently Charles Murray (or more likely, the American Enterprise Institute) has a website offering the following quiz, How Thick is Your Bubble? You answer questions and find out how completely isolated you are in the Belmont or Fishtown bubble. A more detailed quiz is in his book, Coming Apart: The State of White American, 1960-2010. My score–13 out of 20.  Since we’ll be doing a review online shortly of the book, you can take the quiz and then read the review.  Here’s the quiz: http://www.proprofs.com/quiz-school/story.php?title=how-thick-is-your-bubble

The Florida results are in. (if anyone is awake or paying attention) and this is what I think will happen. Neither Romney or Gingrich will be the candidate. This is what I think will happen. (Remember, I write novels.) Because of this new allocation of delegates, and the fact that Ron Paul will score heavily out west, we won’t have a candidate with enough delegates when it is time for the Convention. Then the Republican Establishment will move in and after several exciting ballets (like the old days) Jeb Bush and, I also think, Tim Pawlenty, will be on the ticket for the Republicans. This gives them automatically two south states, Florida and Texas, and add to that Poleteis’ Midwest states: Minnesota, Wisconsin and Illinois.

In this morning’s New York Times, David Brooks in an Op-ed weights in on Charles Murray’s (Thailand 1965-67) new book, Coming Apart, writing, “I’ll be shocked if there’s another book that so compellingly describes the most important trends in American society.” Brooks recaps the narrative Murray lays out about our two American societies, and adds a few ideas of his own. “The word “class” doesn’t even capture the divide Murray describes,” Brooks writes, “You might say the country has bifurcated into different social tribes, with a tenuous common culture linking them.” Summing up his column, Brooks has his own solution to the dilemma facing our culture: “I doubt Murray would agree, but we need a National Service Program. We need a program that would force members of the upper tribe and the lower tribe to live together, if only for a few years. We need a program in which people from . . .