EFTA01159891.pdf

From: Gregory Brown < To: undisclosed-recipients:; Bce: jeevac,ation@gmail.com Subject: .Greg Brown's Weekend Reading and Other Things.... 09/07/2014 Date: Sun, 07 Sep 2014 23:02:23 +0000 Attachments: All of_the_U.S.'s_New Electricity_inJuly_Came_from_Renewables_Rebecca_Leber_Ne w ftepublic_August 21—,_2014.docx; 2i Percent in 20 Years Middle Class Wealth Is Evaporating_Samuel_Becker_August_ 14,_2014.docx; I am_a_15-year- old immigrant_ao came to America_because_gangs murdered_my_family._All_Lwant to do is stay_andjeam —Th; Guardian August_21,_I014.docx; th;_Fice:This Time Bob— lietivrt Huff—Post Aug._20,_2014.docx; The Lives of TJuvende Lders_Ashley_Nellis:The_Sentencing_Project- Marh 20I2 31_2014.pdf; The_1114. saYs 77_in_10 Palestinians_killed_in_Gaza_were_civiliansjsrael_disagrees_Wil liam_Boott TV7P_Aug.10,_2014.docx; ISIS Feart—Prompt_Britain to Raise_Terrorism Threat_Level Alan Cowell_NYT_Aug_2 9,_2514.docx; Bank_Land_oral Jefey_Hel ler —Iteuters_Aug.:31,_1014.docx; Ukraine_Deal Imposes_Truce_P—utin_Devised_ciElL_MacFARQUHAR_NYT_Sept._5,_20 14.docx Inline-Images: image.png; image(1).png; image(2).png; image(3).png; image(4).png; image(5).png; image(6).png; image(7).png; image(8).png; image(9).png; image(10).png; image(11).png; image(12).png; image(13).png DEAR FRIEND ,Kenneth Young's Case Web Link for the show's trailer: http://www.pbs.org/pov/15tolife/ A friend send me the trailer of the PBS documentary on POV - /5 to Life: Kenneth's Story — which is about a 14-year-old Kenneth Young who with 24-year-old Jacques Bethea, a neighborhood crack dealer and Young's mother's supplier, committed a series of armed robberies in Tampa, Florida in June 2002. Bethea brandished the pistol and on one occasion was talked out of raping one of the victims by his younger partner. Fortunately, no one was killed or seriously injured during the crimes. And at the age of 15, Young was tried under Florida law as an adult and received four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole. By 2006, all of Young's appeals had been denied. In 2009, his last hope for clemency from the governor's office was also denied. Then, in 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Graham v. Florida declared it unconstitutional to sentence a juvenile to life in prison without the possibility of parole in the case of non-homicidal crimes. This ruling vacated Young's life- without-parole sentences. At his 2011 re-sentencing hearing at the age of 26, Young was resentenced to four concurrent 30-year terms, followed by 10 years of probation. Kenneth Young is set for release in 2030 and continues to seek a reduced sentence that acknowledges his rehabilitation. EFTA01159891 Having been in a supermarket being robbed by a bunch of young toughs, it is an ugly experience. But you can't watch Kenneth's story and wonder why no one in our criminal and courts systems in Florida felt any compassion for this young man, giving the cards that he was dealt with as a child. I grew up in a neighborhood where some of my teenage friends were seduced into crimes by older siblings, friends of the family, other family members or the local street toughs. These were often the only role models that they had and often they really didn't understand the consequences of their actions. While at the same time "Sammy the Bull" Gravano, the enforcer for Mafia Godfather John Gotti, who acknowledged killing 19 people himself was given only a five year prison sentence and then placed in witness protection in Arizona. Which one do you think is more dangerous? There are lost souls who are and will always be a danger to society. And some of them are teenagers and even younger. But to give a fifteen year old four consecutive life sentences without the possibility of parole for something that he did when he was 14 years old and there was no loss of live or bodily harm is not justice in anyway shape or form. It is evident that injustice still exist in our legal system and the unspoken clear disparity is in the cases where the young are Black and Hispanic. Yes there were people mentally, emotionally, and maybe even physically hurt during this spree but no one was killed. Did he deserve some punishment of course, but 4 life sentences come on. More importantly, we know that that our jails and prisons are criminal colleges, so putting a teenager into an institution with murders, rapist, career criminals and other violent offenders is not going to lead to any type of rehabilitation, especially when he or she realizes (or being told) that this is where they will be for the remainder of their life. Again, I grew up in a neighborhood where many of my peers had little to no chance, as they were schooled in criminal enterprise by the adults around them, while my mother hoped that church and school along with a copious amount of corporal punishment would keep me on the right track. But if my mother had been a crack whore, I might have followed her crack dealer boyfriend on a criminal spree. So there but for the grace of God go I. And for kids like Kenneth Young, shouldn't we live in a society that is compassionate enough to try to redeem them instead of putting them in holes and throwing away the keys. The United States is the only country that sentences junivels to Life Without Parole and since the late 199os more than 2500 juveniles have been sentenced to Life Without the Possibility of Parole. This is an outrage THE LIVES OF JUVENILE LIFERS I FINDINGS FROM A NATIONAL SURVEY Ashley Nair:, Ph.D.: March 2012 The United States stands alone worldwide in imposing sentences of life without parole on juveniles. The U.S. achieved this unique position by slowly and steadily dismantling founding principles of the juvenile justice system. Today a record number of people are serving juvenile life without parole (JLWOP) sentences in the U.S. for crimes committed before their 18th birthday. Sentences of life without parole are often erroneously believed to translate to a handful of years in prison followed by inevitable release. The reality is that a life without parole sentence means that the individual will die in prison. EFTA01159892 This report provides a new perspective on the population of individuals serving life sentences without parole for crimes committed in their youth. It represents the findings of a comprehensive investigation into this population that includes the first-ever national survey of juvenile lifers. Through this effort we obtained in-depth information from these individuals about their life experiences prior to their conviction, as well as descriptions of their lives while incarcerated. The findings are sobering, and should become an element of policy discussion regarding this extreme punishment. KEY FINDINGS Although it does not excuse their crimes, most people sent to prison for life as youth were failed by systems that are intended to protect children. Survey findings from 1,579 individuals around the country who are serving these sentences demonstrate high rates of socioeconomic disadvantage, extreme racial disparities in the imposition of these punishments, sentences frequently imposed without judicial discretion, and counterproductive corrections policies that thwart efforts at rehabilitation. Highlights of this report include the following: Socioeconomic Disadvantages, Education Failure, & Abuse Juvenile lifers experienced high levels of exposure to violence in their homes and communities • • 79% of individuals reported witnessing violence in their homes; • • More than half (54.1%) witnessed weekly violence in their neighborhoods. Juvenile lifers, particularly girls, suffered high rates of abuse • • Nearly half (46.9%) experienced physical abuse, including 79.5% of girls; • • 77.3% of girls reported histories of sexual abuse; overall, 20.5% of juvenile lifers report being victims of sexual abuse. Juvenile lifers generally experienced significant social and economic disadvantage in their homes and communities • • A third (31.5%) of juvenile lifers were raised in public housing; • • Eighteen percent (17.9%) of the respondents were not living with a close adult relative just before their incarceration; some reported being homeless, living with friends, or being housed in a detention facility, treatment center, or group home. Juvenile lifers faced significant educational challenges EFTA01159893  • • Two in five respondents had been enrolled in special education classes; • • Fewer than half (46.6%) of these individuals had been attending school at the time of their offense; • • The vast majority (84.4%) of juvenile lifers had been suspended or expelled from school at some point in their academic career. Extreme Racial Disparities in JLWOP Sentences The racial dynamics of victims and offenders may play a key role in determining which offenders are sentenced to juvenile life without parole • • The proportion of African Americans serving JLWOP sentences for the killing of a white person (43.4%) is nearly twice the rate at which African American juveniles are arrested for taking a white person's life (23.2%); • • Conversely, white juvenile offenders with black victims are only about half as likely (3.6%) to receive a JLWOP sentence as their proportion of arrests for killing blacks (6.4%). JLWOP Sentences Frequently Imposed Mandatorily The majority of JLWOP sentences are imposed in states in which judges are obligated to sentence individuals without consideration of any factors relating to a juvenile's age or life circumstances • • States such as Pennsylvania, which holds the nation's largest population of juvenile lifers, require that youth of any age charged with homicide be tried in adult court and, upon conviction, sentenced to life without the possibility of parole. Corrections Policies Curtail Efforts at Rehabilitation Most (61.9%) juvenile lifers are not engaged in programming in prison, but this is generally not due to lack of interest, but because of state or prison policies • • Among the juvenile lifers who were not participating in programming, 32.7% had been prohibited because they will never be released from prison; an additional 28.9% were in prisons without sufficient programming or had completed all available programming. Many juvenile lifers are engaged in constructive change during their incarceration when they are permitted the opportunity to do so • • Two-thirds have attained a high school diploma or GED; • • Despite long distances from home and family, many juvenile lifers attempt to maintain close ties with loved ones through phone calls, letters, and visits; • • As years in prison pass, lifers are charged with declining numbers of disciplinary actions. Web Link: http://senteneingprojeeLorpjdoe/publicationsth The Lives of Juvenile Lifers.pdf For the entire report download from the above web link and it is attached. EFTA01159894  RECOMMENDATIONS FOR REFORM Public safety is compromised when at-risk youth are not provided with adequate, evidence-based, early intervention and violence prevention programming. As a society we can invest early in the lives of high-risk youth to provide skills and support and thus alter the pathways that lead to crime. Waiting until a young person commits a serious violent crime before positively intervening in his or her life is both cruel and misguided. Instead of immersion in evidence-based prevention and early intervention programming to offset their risk factors, for too many individuals, their first formal "intervention" is a life-without-parole sentence. The seriousness of the crimes committed by these individuals cannot be dismissed. All juvenile lifers were convicted of serious crimes and usually a life has been lost. Family members of victims have had a terrible injustice done to them and their lives are forever changed. There is little support for victims in the criminal justice system in terms of healing from the loss and compensating for the harms done; surviving family members are frequently left out of the justice process despite how intimately they are involved in the offense that occurred. Eliminate Juvenile Life Without Parole (JLWOP) Enactment of laws that allowed for lifelong prison sentences occurred in the absence of comprehensive review, expertise, and careful weighing of the consequences of a juvenile life-without-parole sentence. We are not aware of a single hearing at the state or federal level on the appropriateness of JLWOP until recent years; some juvenile lifers had already been imprisoned for decades before the appropriateness of this sentence for youth offenders was brought into question. Only a handful of studies on the matter have been produced. Responses to some of the questions that have now emerged suggest that these questions ought to have been considered long before thousands of lives were forever changed by a sentence that would fate them to die in prison. It is far too simple to pass harmful criminal justice policies and far too difficult to undo them once the damage is realized. Eliminating juvenile life without parole would not result in serious, violent offenders escaping punishment. Instead, this would involve adoption of punishments proportionate to the crime while considering an offender's age, maturity, and capacity for personal transformation through rehabilitation. The imposition of sentences that deny any hope for release contradicts what we know about young people's potential for change. There is a wide gap between the view that some youthful offenders deserve stiff punishment and the perspective that no juvenile, under any circumstance, should ever be afforded the opportunity to seek release from imprisonment. Allow and Encourage Life-Sentenced Inmates to Engage in Rehabilitation Programming Rehabilitation programming in prison is often reduced in corrections budgets in times of fiscal constraints, despite the reality that 93% of prisoners return home. For life-sentenced inmates, the opportunities for rehabilitation are even slimmer; the limited number of available slots are generally EFTA01159895 reserved for those who will be released the soonest, so lifers are consistently pushed to the back of the line, if they are permitted to engage in programming at all. This is especially problematic for juveniles with life sentences, as their sentences are, by definition, longer than most. Many youth whose life sentences were determined to be unconstitutional in 2010 under the Graham v. Florida ruling now face challenges in demonstrating reform in order to be considered for release, as some have been denied the opportunity for programming because of their life sentences. This poses a challenge to the Supreme Court's requirement that, "What the State must do, however, is give defendants...some meaningful opportunity to obtain release based on demonstrated maturity and rehabilitation." House Youth in Age-Appropriate Settings Pre-Trial and Post-Conviction To the extent that some youth will continue to be transferred to adult court and processed as if they were adults, this does not mean that they need to be housed with older, adult offenders and have their lives put in danger on a daily basis because of their physical and psychological vulnerabilities. Instead, youth placed in the adult system should be housed separately from adults and commingling should be prohibited. Ideally, youth serving long sentences should be placed in juvenile detention centers until their early 20s before being transferred to an adult facility. Address Racial Disparities Racial and ethnic disparities observed at this stage of the system are greater than elsewhere in the spectrum of sanctions for juveniles who commit crime. While some disparity might be explained by differential treatment in the justice system, we also know that since a high proportion of juvenile lifers are from poor, high-violence neighborhoods, this can contribute to higher rates of involvement in serious crime. Greater investment in prevention and early intervention strategies in high-need communities would result in lower incidences of life sentences for juveniles. In addition, closer inspection of the racial dynamics between offenders and their victim(s) in lengthy sentences including JLWOP sentences may reveal unwarranted racial disparity in sentence imposition. Though most of the attention on this topic is devoted to death sentences, there is good reason to expand such analysis to other death-in-prison sentences. Building on evidence from death penalty research, analysis of racial dynamics between offender and victim in the allocation of JLWOP sentences, both retrospective and prospective, will allow better understanding about how sentences are applied. Invest in Prevention, Not Warehousing Instead of spending scarce resources on warehousing lives that could be transformed, we could be spending money more wisely, helping victims, and improving public safety. The nonpartisan American Law Institute recommends a "second look" after to years of imprisonment for life-sentenced youth. 59 Notwithstanding the probability that most prisoners would not be granted release after only to years, if even one eligible inmate was determined to be ready for release upon this "second look," this could save a typical state $1.8 million in needless incarceration. The money saved could instead be directed at prevention and intervention programs that have a strong evidence-base in lowering crime: EFTA01159896 preschool programs, parenting skills development, multi-systemic therapy, vocational training, substance abuse treatment, and a host of other effective interventions that would reduce crime and repair families and communities from damage associated with violence. As kids we know rightfrom wrong but we do not know thefull consequences. Please ask people to give us a second chance. Juvenile Lifer (severing a life sentence without the possibility of parole) in Michigan A Bit of Nostalgia - No words needed If you are under 55, you simply won't understand. 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Peace Now, an Israeli group which opposes Israeli settlement activities in the West Bank, said the appropriation was meant to turn a site where ro families now live adjacent to a Jewish seminary into a permanent settlement. Construction of a major settlement at the location, known as Gevaot, has been mooted by Israel since 2000. Last year the government invited bids for the building of 1,000 housing units at the site. A local Palestinian mayor said Palestinians owned the tracts and harvested olive trees on them. Nabil Abu Rdainah, a spokesman for Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas, called on Israel to cancel the appropriation. "This decision will lead to more instability. This will only inflame the situation after the war in Gaza,"Abu Rdainah said. Israel has come under intense international criticism over its settlement activities, which most countries regard as illegal under international law and a major obstacle to the creation of a viable Palestinian state in any future peace deal. "We have long made clear our opposition to continued settlement activity," a State Department official said. "This announcement, like every other settlement announcement Israel makes, planning step they approve and construction tender they issue is counterproductive to Israel's stated goal of a negotiated two-state solution with the Palestinians." "We urge the government of Israel to reverse this decision,"the official said in Washington. The Obama administration has been at odds with over settlements since taking office in 2009. After the collapse of the last round of US-brokered peace talks, US officials cited settlement construction as one of the main reasons for the breakdown, while also faulting the Palestinians for signing a series of international treaties and conventions. Israel has said construction at Gevaot would not constitute the establishment of a new settlement because the site is officially designated a neighborhood of an existing one, Mon Shvut, several kilometres down the road. This is a blatant land grab. It is definitely counterproductive to any peace initiatives. It only reinforces what many Palestinians believe, that Israel and especially the Netanyahu government are not interested in a two-state solution and would if they could push every Palestinian out of Palestine. Currently some 500,000 Israelis live among 2.4 million Palestinians in the West Bank and East Jerusalem, territory the Jewish state captured in the 1967 war. And if Israel is really serious about a EFTA01159931 two-state solution and lasting peace it has to stop this and other settlements. I am sorry Israel this is a No.... No As I was doing research last week I ran across an article in The New Republic by Rebecca Leber — All of the U.S.'s New Electricity in July Camefrom Renewables - and 0 percent from coal. If this is true, it is a potential game-changer as it is evidence that renewable energy is both competitive and scalable, as well as the future energy source for the country. And just so you don't think that this is just an abnormality, from all of the new electricity generated between January and July, solar and wind contributed 51%. But getting back to the initial story, last month, a full loo percent of the new electricity generating capacity added at the utility level came from wind, solar, and water in the U.S. This counts renewables that power utilities in the energy grid—but doesn't include solar installed on the rooftops of homes and businesses. Wind and solar added 379 megawatts and 31 megawatts respectively for July, bringing the two sources' total installed capacity to 6 percent of the utility sector. But natural gas is still the main new source of electricity this year, even if the oil and gas sector saw no growth last month. Natural gas accounted for 46 percent of new installations for the first seven months of the year, compared to over a quarter each for wind and solar. While natural gas emits less carbon emissions than coal, it's not necessarily "cleaner." Its methane emissions—a greenhouse gas— are 34 times as potent as carbon over the long-run. Which is why that we have to move away from fossil fuels as quickly as possible whatever the monetary cost. Still, July was a mind-blowing month for renewables and our country. EFTA01159932  Share of Total Annual Income by Income Bracket Groups Includes capital gain 100% 22.6% Top 1% FarrPies with incomes above $394.000In 2012 75 16.1. Next 4% $161000. $394.000 no Next 5% $114.000. $161.000 50 49.6 Bottom 90% Below $114.000 0 1917 1990 1950 1970 1990 2012 Source: *Sinkrig a Richer The Evolution of Top Incomes in the United States: by Emmanuel See:. UCEierkeley (Sept 2013) PEW RESEARCH CENTER Reaganomics/supply-side economics hasn't worked if you are part of the Middle Class, because as the graphs in this section shows 20 Percent of the Middle Class Wealth has Evaporated in the past twenty years. So if you're one of the millions of those in the middle class who can't shake the feeling that you're somehow getting left behind, you're not alone. We've been hearing ad nauseum from both sides of the political spectrum that the economy is seeing a tremendous recovery thanks to the policies of the current democratic White House or that things are crumbling beneath our feet, never to be rebuilt. Of course, that depends on what media sources you choose to digest, but it certainly is a mixed bag. Another common narrative is that the middle class is dying, rapidly growing levels of inequality are polarizing America to the point where the country will be unrecognizable from an economic standpoint in a number of years. That one actually has some merit to it, although it might be a bit hyperbolic. But the fact that rampant inequality has taken America hostage is not an idea that is lost on the majority of U.S. citizens. As the economy has seen recovery over the past six years following the devastating financial crisis and subsequent recession, most people have had to sit back and watch almost all of the spoils go to the top few percent. For the rich, stock prices have gone up and executive compensation continues to skyrocket, all giving a nice feeling of confidence in the future of the American economy. But for everybody else, a still-suffering housing market, stagnating wages, and rising debts are still heavy burdens on the middle and lower classes. In fact, according to The Washington Post, the middle class is no better off than it was twenty years ago. Somehow, actually, it's 2O percent poorer. EFTA01159933  Figure 1. Change in wealth since 1984 for carious percentiles (in 2013 dollars) 150% 100% 50°o 00 0 -50% -100°0 14 '89 '94 '99 '01 '03 '05 '07 '09 'II '13 That's right, somehow and somewhere in the past thirty years, after all the Reaganomics, trickle-down theories, and two Bush-family presidencies, the core of the American economy has lost economic power. While this will naturally lead to pundits on either side of the political spectrum to scream at each other whilst digging into the numbers to find someone to blame, it doesn't actually help. Now, The Washington Post does note perhaps the most important caveat of these findings: that these things tend to be cyclical, and that levels of wealth go up and down over time. What we may be looking at is a snapshot in time, where many people may have taken out loans for school or to buy a home, which will then be payed back over time. The chart above, taken from The Russell Sage Foundation, which put together the study indicating the middle class is poorer than it was three decades ago, shows the drops in wealth over time being discussed. It's easy to point out when the recession hit in the late 2000s and to a much lesser degree during 2001 when growth slowed. But one only needs to look at the median to get a glimpse of the strife of the average American. Fabian Pfeffer, Sheldon Danziger, and Robert Schoeni, the study's authors, all take note that everyone took a big hit during the recession, and as a result, inequality has grown by leaps and bounds. "Wealth losses," the study says, "were not distributed equally. While large absolute amounts of wealth were destroyed at the top of the wealth distribution, households at the bottom of the wealth distribution lost the largest share of their total wealth. As a result, wealth inequality increased significantly from 2003 to 2013; by some metrics inequality roughly doubled." The authors don't leave on a very optimistic note either, writing, "the American economy has experienced rising income and wealth inequalityfor several decades, and there is little evidence these trends are likely to reverse in the near term." The ever-increasing levels of inequality largely flew under the radar up until the most recent recession and didn't really enter the mainstream as a narrative until protesters during Occupy Wall Street started discussing the '1 percent.' While that movement has since fizzled out, it was successful in alerting many middle and low class Americans about the growing issue, many of whom were either not aware or not privy to the serious issues inequality arises. Most Americans wouldn't think anything was wrong until they could no longer have a pizza delivered or until they couldn't watch the NFL on Sundays. As long as there's enough to keep people placated, they usually won't make much of a fuss. But finding out that a huge percentage of the population has lost one-fifth of their wealth over the past EFTA01159934 three decades, while many suspected that it had probably grown, may be enough to shake some people out of their cocoons, and force them to pay attention to some of the major economic issues of the day. Essentially, the American economy — or any economy, for that matter — depends heavily on a balancing act between the rich and the poor, and by providing opportunities for the less-fortunate to climb out of poverty using the tools provided to improve their standing, namely education and training. But as the cards become more heavily stacked against the poor, their prospects become more and more grim, at which point unrest can take hold. Many people may be fairly shocked to learn that while they suspected their assets and wealth had appreciated over the past few decades, they instead find themselves lagging further behind than before. This can have long-standing effects as those caught on the bottom will grow to resent the individuals prospering. The chart at the top from Pew Research shows the overall creep of the wealthiest classes into overall wealth distribution, meaning that the problem is still growing, and as the authors of The Russell Sage Foundation study note, it doesn't look like it will stop any time soon. Now members of the middle class can pin a percentage on how deeply the past three decades of economic cycles have eroded their wealth. So for those of you who still believe that the markets will fix things, the answer is that you are wrong. Markets can be manipulated to the benefit of those at the top especially when government policies over oversight have been relaxed. Couple this with unbridled greed and the past three decades have shown the makings of greater and greater inequality. And the only thing that will reverse this trend are stringent economic policies that ensure that the maximum number of people benefit and not just those at the top. ****** Britain Raises Terror Threat Level EFTA01159935 Last week when I was in London, Prime Minister David Cameron pledged Friday to plug gaps in Britain's armory to combat terror, describing the extremist threat posed by the Islamic State group as being more dangerous than even that of al-Qaida. Cameron's remarks came just moments after authorities raised Britain's terror threat level to severe, the second-highest level. The decision was related to developments in Iraq and Syria, but there was no information to suggest an attack was imminent. "What we arefacing in Iraq now with ISIL is a greater threat to our security than we have seen before," Cameron said, using an abbreviation for a longer name the Islamic State previously used: the Islamic State of Iraq and Levant. He told reporters that while the Taliban facilitated al-Qaida terrorism, the Islamic State group is "effectively a state run by terrorists." He said the ambition to create an Islamist caliphate isn't something that could be ignored. "We could befacing a terrorist state on the shores of the Mediterranean and bordering a NATO member," he said, referring to Turkey. Intelligence and security services now believe around 500 Britons have gone to fight in Syria and potentially Iraq. Some of the plots are likely to involve fighters who have traveled from Britain and Europe to take part in fighting in the Middle East. British police have appealed to the public to help identify aspiring terrorists after the killing of an American journalist focused attention on extremism in the U.K. The involvement of a person of British nationality in James Foley's beheading underscored the need to identify those who might travel abroad to fight or are at risk of being radicalized. The attack on a Jewish museum in Brussels also underscored the willingness of the members of the group to attack Europeans. British authorities say around 70 arrests have been made in the first half of the year for a variety of offenses, including fundraising, preparing for terrorism acts and traveling abroad for terrorist training. The police say such arrests are being made at a rate five times greater than 2013. One action Cameron outlined was the possibility that passports could be taken away. He said further measures would be described in the House of Commons on Monday. Britain also wants to revive a directive to enable police and security services to share passenger records in the European Union. Concerns about civil liberties have stalled the measure in the European Parliament. "The root cause of this threat to our security is quite clear," Cameron said. "It is a poisonous ideology of Islamist extremism that is condemned by allfaiths andfaith leaders." Britain raised the country's terror threat level from substantial to severe just before Cameron held his news conference. The threat level means a terrorist attack is considered highly likely. Home Secretary Theresa May said the decision by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Center was made on the basis of intelligence and independent of the Cameron and his Cabinet. "Severe" is the second- highest of five levels. The last time the rate was raised to severe was in September 2010 - in response to the attempt to detonate a bomb on a U.S. passenger plane over Detroit. It was last raised to the highest level, or critical, in June 2007, after a car on fire was driven into the Glasgow Airport terminal building and — separately — two devices were found in cars in central London. On July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers attacked the London transit system at rush hour and killed 52 commuters and injured hundreds. Christian Leuprecht, a security expert at the Royal Military College of Canada and Queen's University, said that though officials said there was no specific threat made, it is likely that data flowing to the Britain's intelligence agencies caused them concern. I have a concern with this because I remember the UK in the early 1970s when there was a wave of IRA bombings. When the IRA bombed The Hardrock Café and Harrods, as well as killing a prominent member of the EFTA01159936 British Royal Family, Lord Mountbatten and somehow the country survived. So why is there so much hysteria over ISIS who are currently fighting wars in two counties and now being besieged by Syrians, Iraqis, Kurds, Turks and Iranians as well as being bombed by America war planes and drones? Yes, ISIS is dangerous. But they are being overblown into Bogymen who are no larger threats to the United Kingdom and the United States than inner city gangs, economic inequality, crumbling infrastructure, inadequate healthcare and the lack of education for many of our young people. And maybe we should try to address the underlying reasons why disillusioned young men and women feel the need to give their lives to a radical terrorist organization. Because as dangerous as ISIS is, the disillusionment of these young people is the most dangerous of all. So if David Cameron wants address home grown terrorism, he and others should address the underlying causes. In 1963 James Baldwin released a series of essays in a book titled The Fire Next Time as the bookseller Amazon describes — A national bestseller when it first appeared in 1963, The Fire Next Time galvanized the nation and gave passionate voice to the emerging civil rights movement. At once a powerful evocation of James Baldwin's early life in Harlem and a disturbing examination of the consequences of racial injustice, the book is an intensely personal and provocative document. It consists of two "letters," written on the occasion of the centennial of the Emancipation Proclamation, that exhort Americans, both black and white, to attack the terrible legacy of racism. Described by The New York Times Book Review as "sermon, ultimatum, confession, deposition, testament, and chronicle...all presented in searing, brilliant prose," The Fire Next Time stands as a classic of our literature. So when I came across Bob Herbert op-ed last week in The Huffington Post - The Fire This Time - I was better equip to really understand and appreciate one of the passages in Baldwin's masterpiece, "I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain." With many Americans believing that the country has moved into a post-racial America because of the election of Barrack Obama, Herbert points out in the summer of 2005 when these same people were stunned when legions of poor black people in desperate circumstances seemed to have suddenly and inexplicably materialized in New Orleans during the flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina. Expressions of disbelief poured in from around the nation: "How can this be happening?" "I had no idea conditions were that bad." "My God, is this America?" EFTA01159937 Herbert: People found themselves staring at the kind of poverty they thought had been largely wiped out decades earlier. President George W. Bush seemed as astonished as anyone. He made an eerie, oddly-lit, outdoor appearance in the city's French Quarter on the evening of September 15 to announce that his administration would wage an all-out fight against the economic distress that continued to plague so many African Americans. If you had listened to his announcement on the radio, you might have thought you were hearing the ghost of Lyndon Johnson. Poverty in America, said Bush, "has roots in a history of racial discrimination which cut off generationsfrom the opportunity of America." He added, "We have a duty to confront this poverty with bold action." Anyone who took Bush's pledge seriously would have ended up disappointed because nothing of the sort happened. The poor black people of New Orleans faded back into the invisibility from which they had come. It was ever thus: Some tragic development occurs; the media spotlight homes in on black people who had previously been invisible; instant experts weigh in with their pompous, uninformed analyses; and commitments as empty as deflated balloons are made. This time it's Ferguson, Missouri, in the spotlight. And you can bet the mortgage that this time will be no different. The precipitating events that cause these periodic national spasms can vary wid