Salon.com > Leigh Flayton

Getting through these dark times

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:44:00 +0000

In 2003, Samantha Power won a Pulitzer Prize for her book "A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide," in which she chronicled the United States' responses to the major genocides of the 20th century. But that's just one of her accomplishments. Power, 37, is a Harvard professor and founder of that university's Carr Center for Human Rights Policy. She is a prominent voice on stopping the genocide in Darfur, Sudan, and addressing numerous trouble spots around the world. She has shot hoops with fellow Darfur activist George Clooney, and once proclaimed herself the "genocide chick."

Beneath her sense of humor is a fierce idealism and dedication to improving world affairs. Now, Power is immersed in what she considers the toughest challenge yet in her action-packed career: serving as a senior foreign policy advisor to Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama.

Lost in America

Thu, 25 Aug 2005 19:00:00 +0000

When Joseph Abil arrived in Dallas in 1995, he represented the first wave of extraordinary refugees, mostly young men, who became known to the world as the "Lost Boys of Sudan." Abil, 20 years old at the time, had fled civil war in his native country that wiped out his village. He survived a perilous migration across Africa, endless hunger, and harsh conditions in a refugee camp in Kenya. When he settled in Texas, with the help of the United States government, he was finally free to lead a life of hope and promise.

But life in America presented Abil with struggles and dangers of a different kind. In 1997, feeling isolated, he moved to Phoenix, where other refugees from his Sudanese community had been resettled. He lived alone in an apartment and worked as a stock clerk at a Fry's supermarket. Although Abil took medication for mental health problems, his friend Martin Abucha said Abil had no trouble holding down a job.

How they learned to love the bomb

Wed, 30 Mar 2005 02:08:00 +0000

In a barren stretch of Nevada desert 85 miles northwest of Las Vegas, a large modular tower and a steel crane, once used for testing nuclear bombs, stand in plain view of anyone passing through the area known to the U.S. government as U6c. They are easily detected by satellites orbiting overhead. Later this year, scientists at the Nevada Test Site will use the structures to conduct an experiment called Unicorn, which will help determine whether the site is prepared to resume full-scale nuclear tests if ordered to do so by the president. Unicorn, which works with plutonium and high explosives, will resemble an old-fashioned underground nuclear test from the Cold War era, when bombs were placed in towers aboveground and lowered beneath the surface by custom-built cranes.

In recent weeks, the Bush administration has focused the world's attention on stopping the proliferation of nuclear weapons. During his trip to Europe in February, President Bush spoke with urgency about shutting down Iran's nuclear program and securing Russia's aging post-Soviet stockpile. North Korea's declaration last month that it already possesses a handful of nuclear warheads has raised new concerns about tensions in Asia. And most security experts agree that nonproliferation is now critical to stopping the worst nightmare scenario: A terrorist attack on a major city using radioactive material.

The wild, wild West

Sat, 05 Mar 2005 00:15:00 +0000

It's been a pretty loaded week for legislative activity in Arizona.

On Tuesday, the Grand Canyon State's House of Representatives approved a measure that would have allowed Arizonans to carry guns, rockets, grenades and other firearms into public buildings, including schools, nuclear power plants, as well as the House and Senate, as long as the weapons were carried for protection and without "malicious intent."

On Wednesday, HB 2666's sponsor, Rep. Doug Quelland (R-Phoenix), killed his own bill. Saying it "did more harm than good," Quelland initially proposed the bill to ease restrictions on gun owners and to protect those with concealed-weapons permits if they "inadvertently" took their guns into prohibited areas. One of the bill's provisions sought to exempt people carrying weapons in fanny packs -- yes, fanny packs -- as long as the fanny pack, "carrying a deadly weapon," was visible.

Quelland, who is currently serving his second term, inspired condemnation from Arizona Democrats last year when he delivered a prayer on the House floor to open the legislative session. In the prayer, which had been circulating for years on the Internet, Quelland denounced multiculturalism, abortion and "alternative lifestyle[s]." It's unknown whether he was packing while delivering his speech, although his "prayer" -- at least according to state Democrats, who filed an official protest -- packed malicious intent.

Setting an example for the kids

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 22:07:00 +0000

On Monday, the same day that it urged Congress to pass a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage, Arizona's Republican controlled House of Representatives voted 56-3 in favor of requiring its school districts to prohibit students from harassing, intimidating and bullying other pupils. In some respect, the legislation is reminiscent of the military's "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" policy toward gays: Schools will now have to find "confidential" means of reporting bullying incidents. Intimidation and harassment take place in schoolyards for a variety of reasons, but under this plan gay kids in Arizona will now be forced to keep their humiliation at the hands of bullies in the closet, along with their sexuality.

Kerry scores in Arizona

Sat, 09 Oct 2004 17:20:00 +0000

Phoenix is a city with far more sports bars than politico hangouts, which might explain why only about 20 people gathered to watch the debate in Portland's Café Royale, located just 2 miles from the Capitol, on Friday night. As Kerry and Bush traded blows over Iraq, the restaurant's waiters certainly seemed fired up, sneaking away from their tables to pop into the bar and peek at the goings-on. One waiter snuck into the bar and made shadow-boxing moves in imitation of what was happening on screen.

Chris Champion, former assistant to past Republican mayor Skip Rimsza, sat at the bar. Champion, an independent, declared the debate a draw. The presidential race, he said, "is still up in the air." But that's not how the rest of the crowd saw it. When Kerry declared that he'd done something the president didn't know how to do -- "balance a budget" -- a big whoop filled the place. A man who had been quietly enjoying his drink blurted out, "Kerry has stage presence!" Red state Arizona was looking rather blue.

Don’t it make a red state blue

Sat, 02 Oct 2004 23:46:00 +0000

Judith Allen, longtime Arizonan and lifelong Republican, says her choice is clear. She is voting for John Kerry on Nov. 2 and says there are plenty more where she came from.

Allen is not a lone voice, crying in the wilderness. She currently serves as a volunteer coordinator for the group Republicans for Kerry, which believes in "putting aside partisan politics to do what is right for America." In spite of recent polls to the contrary, Allen says her fellow Republicans, turned off by the Bush administration's sharp turn to the right, are defecting in droves to the other side. If what these Arizonans want is any indication, Bush may well be in trouble. Since Arizona earned statehood in 1912, no Republican has been elected president without carrying the state.

Allen is also part of a brewing revolution of Republican women called the WISH List (Women in the Senate and House), a Washington-based organization committed to electing moderate, pro-choice Republican women to public office. WISH raises about $1 million a year to elect candidates and boasts a 75 percent success rate for the 1,400-plus candidates it has supported since 1992.