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JINN MAGAZINE

PACIFIC NEWS SERVICE

Issue No. 3.11

05/19/97 - 06/01/97

CONTENTS


* VOICES: First-Person Essays Linking the Private to the Public

    Censoring A Poet's Voice -- NPR Decision A Dangerous Precedent
    By Dennis Bernstein
    Date: 05-20-97
    When National Public Radio commissioned a "news" poem from this year's American Book Award winner Martin Espada, no one (including the poet) foresaw that he would draw his inspiration from a story about death row inmate Mumia Abu-Jamal. NPR rejected the poem -- an act that many critics, including the poet, view as censorship. PNS associate editor Dennis Bernstein is a producer for Pacifica Radio and an award winning investigative reporter.

    Tio Poy's Tree of Life -- Remembering Mexican American Veterans of World War II
    By Dan Ramirez
    Date: 05-22-97
    Alessio Ramirez, known as "Tio Poy," has always been reluctant to toot his own horn about his service during World War II. But this Memorial Day, more than 50 years later, two Senators and a Congressman will toot it for him and 73 other veterans from the neighborhood of Eden Gardens. PNS correspondent Daniel Ramirez -- Tio Poy's nephew -- is pursuing a Ph.D. in Religion at Duke University.

    Postcard From Mashad -- Young Afghan-American Woman Found Iran Was "Therapy"
    By Fariba Najab
    Date: 05-28-97
    A twenty-day visit to Iran's holy city of Mashad proved therapeutic for a young Afghan-American woman after working for eight months in Cairo and growing up in California. Not only was her faith in Islam strengthened; she found women leading much freer public lives than she had expected. PNS commentator Fariba Najab visited her grandparents, refugees from Afghanistan, in February-March 1997.


* HERESIES: Thinking the Unthinkable About the Future

    "Zero-Point Energy" Could Change the World -- If Anybody Can Find It
    By Walter Truett Anderson
    Date: 05-27-97
    Burned by premature enthusiasm for cold fusion experiments some years back, the news media has shied away from reporting the multiple efforts to develop new energy sources. Yet one in particular -- the Patterson Power Cell which taps the mysterious properties of empty space -- may hold out real promise. PNS associate editor Walter Truett Anderson, author of "Evolution Isn't What It Used To Be" (W.H. Freeman), is a political scientist who writes widely on technology and global governance.

    Who's Crazy Now?
    By Jayne L. Walker
    Date: 05-30-97
    Hamlet went mad, the Marquis de Sade was insane, Jeffrey Dahmer psychotic -- the terms change, as part of an effort to destigmatize mental illness, but those changes cannot alter the fact that some behavior goes beyond the ordinary and frightens us. This disparity between words and reality has created considerable confusion, and this is particularly marked when it comes to attempts to guide public policy on mental illness. Jayne L. Walker is writing a history of "madness" in America since the '40s. She teaches at the University of California, Davis.


* CALIFORNIA COLLAGE: California as Trendsetter for the Country and the World

    The Morning After -- A Bacchanalia That Flopped Signals New Era for San Francisco
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 05-19-97
    Since its beginning as gold town, San Francisco has basked in its exceptionalism. Now, the scandal over a bacchanalia feting one well-known pol suggests that the city's libertine days are over and a new era is about to begin. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Days of Obligation: An Argument with my Mexican Father," writes regularly for the Los Angeles Times, Harper's and the News Hour with Jim Lehrer.

    Why the Drop in Black and Hispanic Enrollments? -- Blame Affirmative Action, Don't Bring it Back
    By Richard Rodriguez
    Date: 05-29-97
    Proponents of affirmative action argue that declining black and Hispanic enrollments at state institutions of higher learning in California are evidence of why the policy should be restored. The real question is why after 25 years of affirmative action, the policy that was supposed to change America has produced so few black and Hispanic students able to compete -- especially children of poverty who were supposed to be its primary beneficiaries. PNS editor Richard Rodriguez, author of "Hunger of Memory: the Education of Richard Rodriguez," is an essayist for the News Hour with Jim Lehrer and writes regularly for the Los Angeles Times.


* CIVIL CONFLICTS: Interpretive Reports on Ethnic, Religious, and Inter-National Conflicts Worldwide

    More Than Military Assessment-- Pentagon Budget Reflects Political and Economic Choices
    By Sanford Gottlieb
    Date: 05-21-97
    Defense spending seems immune from serious cuts, even in a time of budget-balancing. In part, this is because support for the military is based on economic, not military, choices, and reflects Congress members' desire to keep funds flowing into their districts. This desire is so strong that the $250 billion defense budget -- half of all spending that Congress controls -- has been "off the table" in budget negotiations for several years. PNS commentator Sanford Gottlieb is author of "Defense Addiction: Can America Kick the Habit?" published by Westview Press, and has worked for over 30 years for private organizations in the field of international arms control.


* YOUTH OUTLOOK: The World Through Young People's Eyes

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