Miscellany

In July 1962, in an effort to preserve an accurate record of Presidential decision-making in a highly charged atmosphere of conflicting viewpoints, strategies and tactics, John F. Kennedy installed hidden recording systems in the Oval Office and in the Cabinet Room. The result is a priceless historical archive comprising some 265 hours of taped material. JFK was elected president when Civil Rights tensions were near the boiling point, and Americans feared a nuclear war. Confronted with complex dilemmas necessitating swift and unprecedented action, President Kennedy engaged in intense discussion and debate with his cabinet members and other advisors. Now, in conjunction with the fiftieth anniversary of the Kennedy presidency, the John F. Kennedy Library and historian Ted Widmer have carefully selected the most compelling and important of these remarkable recordings for release, fully restored and re-mastered onto two 75-minute CDs for the first time. Listening In represents a uniquely unscripted, . . .

Event Information By: Corporation for Civic Documentaries Event Description Support the upcoming documentary film on Harris Wofford and join us for an evening withSenator Wofford at the New York Public Library. As a special web offer, we are offering a limited number of tickets at $50 (normally $150) to enjoy the event and the reception afterwards, hosted by New York Public Library CEO Anthony Marx. The evening begins with an exclusive preview of the upcoming documentary on Harris Wofford, featuring Senator Ted Kennedy, Rep. John Lewis, James Carville, Bill Moyers, and others.  Anthony Marx then interviews Harris Wofford about the themes of the film, including national service, advancing Civil Rights with Martin Luther King and President Kennedy, helping to start the Peace Corps, and fighting for national health care in the U.S. Senate, and we will hear from other special guests. RSVP today, this special offer is only available for a limited time! . . .

The Peace Corps was mandated by Congress to hire its first advocate for victims of sexual assault. Now the agency has pushed her out. By Lisa Rein January 11 at 6:00 AM Washington Post (Courtesy of Kellie Greene) Two hundred current and returned Peace Corps volunteers around the world have signed a petition to Congress to reinstate an outspoken advocate for victims of sexual assault who was pushed out four years after lawmakers demanded that the agency show it was serious about volunteers’ security. “Survivors and their allies are asking for the immediate reinstatement of Kellie Greene as Director of Office of Victims Advocacy,” says the petition started on Change.org in December. “Kellie Greene has proven herself to be a fierce advocate for Peace Corps Volunteers who become victims of crimes during their Peace Corps Service,” the petition says. “She holds Peace Corps to a incredibly high but necessary standard. She has ushered in . . .

Gearan Center for the Performing Arts The new performing arts building at the heart of the Hobart and William Smith campus – which will unite academic and performance spaces for theatre, music,dance, and media and society – has been officially named the Gearan Center for the Performing Arts in honor of President Mark D. Gearan and Mary Herlihy Gearan. Mark and Mary Herlihy Gearan and their daughter Kathleen listen as Chair of the Board of Trustees Maureen Collins Zupan announces the naming of the building The announcement was made on Friday, Oct. 23 during a commemorative cornerstone installation which brought together students, faculty, staff, alums, the Board of Trustees and the Alumni and Alumnae Councils to celebrate the occasion in advance of the Center’s grand opening in January 2016. The largest project in the history of the Colleges, the fundraising goal of $28 million for the 65,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility was surpassed . . .

The Peace Corps’ Office of Inspector General (IGO) today is directed by a woman named Kathy A. Buller. The IG Office does not report to the Peace Corps Director, though they work in the same building and I am told Kathy and Carrie are friendly. You might they are “equal” though, as we know, some are more “equal” than others. Ms. Buller has a reputation, I’m told, of wanting to increase her own status in DC by being a touch SOB. (Not surprising, knowing government career types.) The IG Office has few friends. (Where is the famous Charlie Peters and his gang of Evaluators from the early days of the agency? We need them again. Everyone loved Charlie! ) IG employees get a lot of flak. And there are plenty of stories about them.  When I was in DC several years ago I heard about another IG, another woman, and . . .

  It’s been a year since the U.S. and Cuba began normalizing relations. Tourism, business and cultural exchanges are booming. And there is another curious benefactor of those warmer ties – Ernest Hemingway, or at least, his legacy. The writer lived just outside of Havana for 20 years, and that house, called the Finca Vigia, has long been a national museum. But years of hot, humid Caribbean weather has taken a toll on the author’s thousands of papers and books. A Boston-based foundation is helping restore those weathered treasures, and who better to lead that effort than the original dean of home repairs: Bob Vila, of public televison’s This Old House. He tells NPR’s Carrie Kahn that he has a personal connection to Cuba. “I’m American-born Cuban,” he says. “My Havana-born parents emigrated during the latter part of World War II, and I was born in Miami, raised there and partially . . .

“Have you no sense of decency, sir?” was the question asked of Senator Joseph McCarthy by army lawyer Joseph N. Welch during the infamous Army-McCarthy Hearing of 1954. A question most Americans might asked today of that loathsome and insufferable Republican candidate Donald John Trump. It is not a question, however, that will be asked by the news media or 24/7 cable networks. They see Trump’s raging’s as an easy and quick way to increase ratings and revenue. The pundits say Trump speak of the ‘rage’ in blue collar America, but, in truth, Trump represents nothing and nobody.  Like the Wizard of Oz, there’s nothing behind the curtain. Donald Trump is an empty suit.  He will not win a primary or collect more than a handful of delegates in this campaign season of 2016.  He will, however, try and leverage the ‘support’ he allegedly has to ‘make a deal’ with . . .

After their return, some Peace Corps volunteers find byzantine health system neglects them By Lisa Rein Washington Post, December 23 at 11:08 AM Returned Peace Corps Volunteer William Harless with his students in Thailand. (Courtesy William Harless) The Peace Corps says its top priorities are the health, safety and the security of its volunteers. But a new internal report acknowledges that some Volunteers who come home sick or injured have been waiting years – even decades – for adequate medical care and have fallen deeply through the cracks of a federal insurance bureaucracy. The report, by a task force set up by the agency in March, is a particularly candid assessment by top Peace Corps officials of government failure to provide top-notch health-care access to thousands of young people who serve in far-flung developing countries. “A wide variety” of returned volunteers “shared their experiences not only about the health issues that impact the quality of their lives but the . . .