Wednesday, October 28, 2009

Hebrew University Jerusalem Notes from 1990 Terrorism Class











1961 photos from World Book Encyclopedia Annual Supplement on my bookshelf showing victim of Castro regime moments before his execution (with clergyman saying the last words of sympathy to victim), photo by UPI won Pulitzer Prize that year; photo of Castro with Soviet leader Khrushchev in 1961; My barely-legible 1990 Terrorism class notes from Jerusalem. We discussed some of Castro's terror tactics in that class, like the tragic one in image shown here.


435.

Unpublished class notes from Hebrew University in Jerusalem, by Lurene K. Helzer, March 18, 1990, Terrorism. I am starting to find some of my old notes now from Hebrew University, though I still have not yet found any (probably poor-work quality) papers I wrote.

The class notes are written in pencil, so barely today legible. But I was able to make them out using bright light and special eye glasses on October 27, 2009. Since these notes are all handwritten, fading, I need to get them into this library immediately now that they are found. They at least show I was in class, paying attention!! Some of lecture material below:


Terrorism
Thursday
March 18, 1990


Terrorism – “reign of terror”, atrocities by Jacobins in French revolution 1793-1794.

1366 people beheaded – even statues!

Latin root – terrere.

Degrees of fear – 4 degrees in psychiatry. The idea of terrorism is to terrorize; induce terror.

Russian Revolutionaries and Anarchists first used terrorism. 19th Century roots.

Levels of terrorism:

1) As a practice – killing to instill fear. Goes far back.
2) As Tactics – to achieve limited goals, planned.
3) As Strategy – main activity of an organization or group. Came out in new left of 1960s – Red Brigade, etc. Came to life in early 70s.

Whoever is engaged in these practices are terrorists – who ever they may be. Not moral term.

In most terrorist activities:

1) Extreme violence; killing.

2) Unconventional extreme violence. Unconventional uses of violence. Usu. rules of war do not apply. Before Geneva Convention, laws of war were sometimes quite strict. Military –vs- military. Terrorism usually against civilians.

3) Purpose of terrorism is to terrify people, not so much to kill. Impress a much larger crowd than the actual victims. (Target crowd, victim, terrorists, observers. Symbiosis between terrorism and the media. The real essence is the message.

4) Political component. Against or by a regime.

There is Israeli terrorism. The Intifadah is not terrorism, though specific acts of terrorism occur...


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Wednesday, October 21, 2009

1994 East Bay Journal: "Berkeley school district under fire in court". First Story...

413.

Published news story by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, March 21, 1994, East Bay Journal, “Berkeley school district under fire in court” with additional facts/history in adjacent text box, “Not the first time for Berkeley school district”. Overall, the reader gets some insight into how California’s schools dealt with -– had to deal with -- allegations of sexual misconduct, and how accused employees (teachers) successfully defended themselves even AFTER they admitted to the sexual misconduct in a California courtroom.

The story goes over a 1994 case against the Berkeley school district, but also has a companion story about past cases of alleged sexual molestation or abuse by Berkeley teachers.

What the reader learned in 1994, and still perceives in July of 2009, is that the sexual abuse of a child is difficult to prove in court. The alleged offender often gets away with the crime, and easily. Why?

For one thing, the victim does not have the same cognitive abilities as the alleged abuser. For another, a California school district must have rock-solid proof that something happened to the student before it can take legal action or even dismiss the teacher.

It also becomes clear to today’s reader that juvenile sexual abusers carefully plan their acts, and plan their explanations in advance in the event they are caught. They know the laws regarding kids and sexual behaviors from the get-go, thus often manage to manipulate those laws, re-humiliate the victim.

In other words, if the child manages to relay the story of what happened to him/her accurately, the offender’s counter-attack through law forces the child and his/her family to re-live the event. So, the reader ends up feeling seriously angry and suspicious of this school district, at least temporarily. In reality, all area school districts face similar problems. Berkeley is not different than Hayward or San Jose when it comes to law.


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1994's Expensive Lawsuit Involving the Berkeley School District

414.

Published news story by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, August 1, 1994, East Bay Journal, “Berkeley: Harassment suit may cost school district”. This story I wrote a little more than four months after my first story about the juvenile sex abuse case involving an accused Berkeley teacher and a student there.

This follow-up story involves the legal costs associated with case on the Berkeley school district and how the insurance company for the district, General Star Indemnity Co. of Connecticut, refused to cover those litigation expenses. I was unable to get an estimate of those legal costs for the story.

In July of 2009, it shines some light on how some of California’s budget problems started years ago, why they kept on and remain today. That is, it shows some of the expenses that have -- over and over again –- crunched happily on California’s municipal, county and state budgets. I cannot in 2009 easily find information about how this incredible 1994 case was resolved, or if it was.

In this 1994 case, it was a matter of General Star Indemnity bringing a lawsuit on Berkeley’s district. Here was part of what the insurer argued in 1994:

• The policy between General Star and the BUSD does not cover alleged Title IX civil rights violations against the two girls.

• The company should get reimbursement for monies already paid for the defense of the school district in court.

• The company will not pay for bodily injury to minors out of “actual or threatened abuse or molestation” while in the “care, custody or control” of the school district.

The insurance policy, attached to court documents, clearly stated the company will not pay for suits involving molestation, threatened abuse or the negligent retention of any employee who engages in abuse.

The case began when the teacher, Charles Hamilton, was accused of creating a hostile environment for two female students because of his alleged molestation of them.

Former district business manager Anton Jungher was also named in the lawsuit for harassing the girls’ mother, who worked for the district.

415. December 20, 1993: How Fire Victims Got Back To Normal Life in Oakland, CA



Photo of boy in Oakland's Diamond Park in April of 1989 by Lurene is not related to this story, but shows something about how children view life, relate their stories.

415.

Published news story by Lurene Kathleen Helzer, December 20, 1993, East Bay Journal, “Home for the holidays”. Story about how families in the East Bay hills were settling into rebuilt homes. Their former homes were destroyed in the 1991 conflagration.

Revisiting the story in 2009, I am reminded of two things. First, I think there was an editing mistake which we were able to acknowledge and correct. We depict/identify Joanna Piper, 11, as before Hanukah candles in photo, but in the story, the young girl is quoted discussing Christmas. I vaguely remember the family calling editor Robert Bruce about the issue. They were not angry, though. They thought it was an innocent mistake at the cutting/editing table and considered it a cool tale for neighborhood friends, all of whom were recovering from the devastating fire. Mr. Bruce ran a correction in the following issue.

The second thing I think of is how children must be delicately interviewed. The journalist must (try to) use the usual rules of strict accuracy, but simultaneously remember the subject of the interview is just an excited kid.

In this case, I had before me pre-teens who were one minute discussing their lost cats and goldfish, and in the next describing in astonishing detail the loss of the entire home to a devastating fire. These kids mentioned the stays with relatives, the weird, meandering trips to Europe. They were essentially homeless, if only for two years.

Kids are interesting to interview after natural disasters, or in/about unresolved wars. I think the journalist has to listen carefully, let the child talk freely about what he/she remembers.

I don’t think you should suggest quotes to a child. It twists the story. Either use the kid’s words or do not. “If in doubt, leave it out,” as the old newsroom saying advises. This really applies to work with children.

Sometimes that will be the lost rabbit, sometimes the odd experience of homelessness. The thing is, the youngsters are still putting it together in their minds:

As the fire approached on Oct. 20, 1991, Abigail and Hannah’s father, Robert, handed each of them a box and told them to gather all they felt they could not do without in 15 minutes. They had to evacuate.

Abigail said she did not think he was serious, but packed anyway. She saved her toe-shoes from years of ballet. As they walked away, their father told her to take one last look at the house. “I thought he was being melodramatic,” she admitted.

After the fire destroyed their home, they moved several times — first to Lafayette with relatives, then to a rental house in the Adam’s Point neighborhood of Oakland.

Next, the family spent a year living in a 500 square foot apartment in London while Robert was on sabbatical from UC Berkeley.

“I couldn’t just forget about it,” Abigail said, later realizing that being in England distanced the family from the disaster.

While Abigail is a social butterfly, dancer and has a new driver’s permit, Hannah is studious in her behavior, quiet and prone to reading and spending time alone.

“The part of Christmas I’ve always loved is when it rains. I used to sit under the tree and watch it rain … I’ve missed that for the last two years,” said Hannah.


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Monday, October 12, 2009

THANKS TO FORMER "HAPPY DAYS" WRITER NANCY CHURNIN DEMAC IN 1985









Photo of Reno Air Races by Lloyd Francis, 1984; The Spectator, pics of June 7, 1985 issue


433.

Published editorial by Editor-in-Chief Lurene Helzer, The Chabot College Spectator, June 7, 1985, “Farewell Mrs. Demac, Sad To See You Go.” Editorial about friendly resignation of faculty advisor to journalism students at campus newspaper, Nancy Churnin Demac.

Before working in our journalism department, she was working as a writer for the hit television show Happy Days, which ran from 1974 to 1984 on the ABC television network. She would occasionally remind us of the importance of ethics in journalism by using Happy Days character Richie Cunningham, who was played by actor/film director/producer Ron Howard.

It's nearly amusing today to notice how little we saw of the coming changes to media, publishing. I had a cool student staff working with me, including Chris Dear. Editorial running alongside mine by Art Editor Dear questioned the increasing modernization/computerization of college exams in 1985, the growing involvement of IBM. The writer was afraid teaching, thus understanding, would ultimately be truncated to satisfy the dictates of an abbreviated world. "The Ultimate in a Sterile Education; The Scantron Revolution".

Reviewing the editorial by Chris Dear on October 12, 2009, I think the points remain reasonable. At Chabot Community College, I had to study Dante, Chaucer, Socrates, and Plato. I had to outline the book of Genesis. I was forced to correct every factual and punctuation error by my professors. Today, I am not sure students are pressured to digest these ideas or appreciate them to the extent I was in community college.

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