This is the fourth in a series of photos I took of quotations inscribed in the granite wall behind the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr., part of the new MLK Memorial on the National Mall in Washington, DC.

King used this sentence in a number of speeches, including the commencement address for Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio, in June, 1965. Here is the context in which it was used:

Yes, we shall overcome because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. We shall overcome because Carlyle is right: “No lie can live forever.” We shall overcome  because James Russell Lowell is right:
Truth forever on the scaffold,
Wrong forever on the throne,
Yet that scaffold sways the future,
And behind the dim unknown
Standeth God within the shadow.
Keeping watch above his own.

We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant is right: “Truth, crushed to earth, shall rise again.” With this faith we will be ble to hew out of the mountain of despair, the stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood, and speed up the day when, in the words of the prophet Amos, “Justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream.” 

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Our neighborhood is not distinguished for exotic events, but occasionally...

Today, when I drove to the local shopping center at noon, I found a portion of the parking lot was set aside for an antique auto show. I was hypnotized. Each car was more beautiful than the previous one.  Then I saw a car that was not  glamorous or highly buffed and polished. Yet you could tell it was loved and that the passersby could not resist inspecting it.

It was a 1972 Citroen Camionette, or what the British called a truckette. 12' long and 5' wide, it still showed the name and contact information of its former owner on the side of the truck: La Campagnarde, Service de Livraison, 43 R. Clignancourt, 01-46-06-72-42.

A Silver Spring resident who had lived in France for 20 years and returned in the 1980s brought the Citroen back with her.  Today, she uses it to ferry herself and her garden supplies to do volunteer gardening in Rock Creek Park.  It is reported to get 40 mpg in the city.  

Eat your heart out, engineers! 

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Here's the latest from the town on what's open as of today and what's still under reconstruction, following the Hurricane Irene flood:

SOUTH MAIN STREET:  
Open:  Apres Vous, Twin Valley Creations, Environmental Waterworks, Pettee Memorial Library, Constantin and Young Gallery, Village Dog Grooming, Wilmington Home Center, and the Anchor Restaurant, The Village Pub  
Opening November:  Meg Streeter Real Estate   
Work is underway: Cady and Dugan Law Office, River Bank Park  

WEST MAIN STREET: 
Open: Down in the Valley, Quaigh Design, Wilmington Candle Company, West End Antiques/Wilmington Tile, Bauman's Paints, The Wilmington Inn, 
Crafts Inn, Incurable Romantic, 1836 Country Store, Norton House
Opening Thanksgiving week:  Bartlebys Books
Opening Soon: Memorial Hall, A Place in Vermont, Jezebel's Restaurant, McBreairty's Marketplace, Mount Snow Valley Chamber of Commerce

NORTH MAIN STREET
Work is underway and Opening Soon: Maple Leaf Brewery, Old Red Mill, Roseate Creations, Wright Gallery, Old Red Mill/Heritage Associates 

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Obviously, American grandmothers could learn a thing or two from their Russian counterparts – often called babushkas – who grew up “when rules were rules and babushkas enforced them.”


Ah, ladies! We’re in awe of both your chutzpah and your biceps. And, to think you are not only tolerated but rewarded for being aging know-it-alls!

Go to http://wapo.st/uPHS3B for a delightful story about Russia’s annual search for the best-of-the-best grandmothers in the land.  Pick up the coveted title at your local senior center and you may travel to Moscow to compete as finalist in the Super Babushka competition. 

According to the accompanying photos, Super B herself is feted with ribbons and pins, an armful of borax and floor polish, and denture cleaner for life. As titleholder, her name is added to the list of great old ladies of yesteryear, the ones who could quiet a screaming child, whip up a borsht dinner for eight and replace brakes on the family GAZ, all at the same time, leaving nary a drop of sweat on their colorful headscarves.  


No shrinking violets here. Beauty queens need not apply. Candidates for this award  learned their skills at the feet of their own babushkas and from all who came before. Likewise, their own recipes, remedies, shortcuts and  catalog of life’s lessons will pass down as legacy to today’s and tomorrow’s Russian mamas.

I wonder how many US grandmothers of a certain age would want this title? 

As a grandmother and mother-in-law, I find the urge to boss – I mean, share my acquired wisdom (much of it acquired the old fashioned way, through horrible mistakes and wrong-headedness) – is strong, but not strong enough to start a war with grown children gingerly maneuvering the minefields of parenthood. Instead, I try to spread my "suggestions" and "insights" through feature stories and blog posts. 

It seems a shame to let all this knowledge go to waste, doesn't it? Besides, it's always easier to accept advice from someone you don't know, for some odd reason.  

How do you rein in your underlying babushka tendencies to be the grandmother you want to be or wish you had? 
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Oldest grandson teaches Nana to paint.
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from utmb.edu
What if you could take a drug that would slow down the aging process?

A study reported in today’s issue of the journal Nature explains how researchers at the Mayo Clinic kept mice from aging by purging their bodies of senescent cells, which set off low levels of inflammation that spurs the aging process.

Here is an overview:
“Advanced age is the main risk factor for most chronic diseases and functional deficits in humans, but the fundamental mechanisms that drive ageing remain largely unknown, impeding the development of interventions that might delay or prevent age-related disorders and maximize healthy lifespan. Cellular senescence, which halts the proliferation of damaged or dysfunctional cells, is an important mechanism to constrain the malignant progression of tumour cells1, 2. Senescent cells accumulate in various tissues and organs with ageing3 and have been hypothesized to disrupt tissue structure and function because of the components they secrete4, 5. However, whether senescent cells are causally implicated in age-related dysfunction and whether their removal is beneficial has remained unknown. “

According to Purging Cells in Mice Is Found to Combat Aging Ills by Nicholas Wade,
“The experiment raises the prospect that drugs could be developed that would keep human tissues healthier longer, but it is unclear until further testing is done whether such drugs could eventually help people live longer. The finding indicates that any therapy that rids the body of senescent cells would delay age-related changes.

Senescent cells accumulate in aging tissues, like arthritic knees, cataracts and the plaque that may line elderly arteries. The cells secrete agents that stimulate the immune system and cause low-level inflammation. Until now, there has been no way to tell if the presence of the cells is good, bad or indifferent.”

Stay tuned. 
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This is the third in a series of 12 quotations engraved in granite at the site of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial in Washington DC. This is taken from King's acceptance speech for receiving tyhe Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo, December 10, 1964. 

I will try to post one quotation a week. Click on Martin Luther King quotations in the index on the right, for the complete set. 
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Happy Halloween! 10/31/2011
 
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A chilling tale 10/25/2011
 
I have read hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of mysteries, and am not generally shocked at the details of violence and death. But, this news story of a robbery and murder near the Kenilworth Park and Aquatic Gardens in Washington DC, chilled me to my core. This, in a city I lived in and still love, at the entrance to a park where two of my grandkids play so they can run free and enjoy the beauty around them.  

According to a Post blog, the shooter was a 20-year-old, repeat juvenile offender whose aunt works for the city’s Department of Youth Rehabilitation Services.

For the complete story, go here: http://wapo.st/urQ14C

Addendum: This story gets worse. This, from the Washington Examiner at http://bit.ly/rSXPKN :
...witnesses heard [the cab driver] and Slye arguing. Witnesses said Slye was angry about the fare and demanded his money back.
Slye got out of the cab, pulled out a silver handgun, ordered Ezirike to lay on the ground, and rifled through his pockets. He then struck him in the head, and pulled the trigger but it did not fire.
The cab driver pleaded with the suspect, and the suspect ordered him back into the cab.
As the Ezirike sat in the driver's seat, the suspect fired a single shot, and the cabbie fell back into this seat, according to the court documents.

Also:
...Slye had absconded from a group home in Southeast Washington late last month and the city was looking for him at the time of the murder early Saturday morning.
According to court documents, Slye called his aunt, DY RS counselor Charlene SlyeBattle, nine times during his encounter with the cab driver. Police said they found Slye's jacket and the cell phone he used to make those calls inside Battle's home, which is on the same block as the killing. The cabbie's wallet was found outside the rear of Slye-Battle's home, court documents said.
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The ranks of the US poor have grown dramatically in the last four years, according to an analysis of census data reported today in the New York Times.  

Not that this should come as a shock to anyone, but now, with numbers, the awful assumption is fact. Nationwide, more than half of non-rural poor now live in suburban communities, not cities.

As many cities have flourished, suburban communities have suffered. Residents have lost jobs, lost their ability to make mortgage payments, keep their cars running and pay high school taxes. At the same time, satellite communities attracted the poor from  urban centers, as gentrification pushed them further and further away from social services.  

This dramatic population shift occurred between 2007 and 2010, during the deepest part of the recession, while states struggled to keep basic services operating and federal funding shrunk, especially when it came to programs that help the poor.

What makes this situation especially serious is the lack of public transportation found in many outlying areas, by design. Without an efficient way to deliver services,  communities struggle to help those in need.  

Here’s the whole story:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/25/us/suburban-poverty-surge-challenges-communities.html?_r=1&hp

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I hope the New York Times does not mind me reprinting one of today's editorials, in toto. It can be found at http://nyti.ms/nxbDus. Thank you, GlaxoSmithKline. Thank you, Bill and Melinda Gates. 

October 23, 2011
Two Cheers for the Malaria Vaccine

A vaccine to protect children against malaria has been shown moderately effective in a large clinical trial — an achievement that could save millions of lives. The vaccine, known as RTS,S and made by GlaxoSmithKline, is the first ever to be shown effective against a human disease caused by parasites. When tested in 6,000 infants ages 5 to 17 months in seven sub-Saharan nations, it reduced the risk of infection with severe malaria by 47 percent during the year after the shots, far less than the 90 percent efficacy rate typically sought for other vaccines. And there are other big hurdles still to surmount. There are hints that the protection may wane over time and results from administering a booster shot won’t be known until 2014. Side effects could pose a problem; seizures and fevers were higher among children given the vaccine.

If final results of this ongoing study, which involves more than 15,000 children in all, show that the vaccine is safe and effective, the goal is to deploy it in 2015.

Glaxo has pledged to sell the vaccine at its manufacturing cost plus 5 percent that will be spent on research on malaria and neglected diseases. The company has not set a price, and, once it does, international donors and African health systems will have to find the resources to buy and administer it at a time of global recession.

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation deserves major credit. Glaxo spent $300 million over 25 years to develop the vaccine for military personnel and travelers but was unwilling to pay for pediatric trials for impoverished nations without a partner. The Gates Foundation donated $200 million to drive the research to completion, and Glaxo expects to add another $100 million of its own.

The fight against malaria has made gains thanks to effective drug treatments, insecticide-treated bed nets and programs to spray the interior walls of houses. With the vaccine, health experts are talking with renewed optimism about eradicating malaria entirely (some countries already have). But it will take vigilance and money to stay ahead of resistant mosquitoes and parasites.

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