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For some Americans, fears surrounding random gun violence are all too common.
In fact, a poll of people aged 13-24 years released earlier this year showed that, for young Americans, fear of gun violence ranks higher than the fear of climate change, terrorism, and rising college costs.
After nearly every mass shooting, the specter of mental illness comes up as a possible explanation. America’s rate of gun-related deaths is eight times that found in the European Union, according to Fareed Zakaria of CNN. “Does America have eight times the rate of mental illness?” he asked in a recent special episode of his public affairs show, “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” “Where is the disconnect?”
Mr. Zakaria went on to examine the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which a 28-year-old gunman with no history of mental illness killed 35 people and injured 18. After that incident, Australia sponsored a buyback program and eliminated more than 600,000 weapons. Afterward, the rate of gun-related homicides and suicides in Australia reportedly fell.
He also explored possible ties between video games and gun violence by examining the video game phenomenon in Japan. He reported that in Japan, a country of about 127 million people, about 13 people died in gun-related murders in 2016. Meanwhile, that year in the United States, the per-capita gun homicide rate was 300 times higher.
Finally, he examined the gun culture in Switzerland, where there are about 28 guns per 100 people. The country has citizen militias, and soldiers take home their weapons – but not their ammunition.
“We in America have been remarkably passive when it comes to gun violence,” Mr. Zakaria said. “One of the most important tasks for a government is to keep its citizens – especially its children – safe. Every other developed country in the world is able to fulfill this mandate. America is not. And the greatest tragedy is we know how to do it.”
Veterans’ friendship “like family”
John Nordeen and Kay Lee are on the far side of 70. During their youth, some of which was spent serving together in the Vietnam War, the two men forged a friendship. But back stateside, they lost touch.
In 2015, after years of searching by Mr. Nordeen, they reconnected. In a recent interview with NPR, they described their experiences in Vietnam and its aftermath.
“Our platoon went from like 29 guys to 10 guys in 2 days. So, the guys that were left, we had even stronger bonds because we had survived this together,” Mr. Nordeen said. The intense feeling of togetherness was tempered by equally intense feeling of the loss of their platoon mates.
The loss lingered for Mr. Nordeen once he returned home. “When you lose friends, you develop a hard exterior, and you don’t want to make friends with anyone else. So I don’t have a big circle of friends. I think that’s just one of many hang-ups I brought home with me.”
Mr. Lee concurred. “When I got home, most of the time I tried to forget the whole experience and not think about it too much. And I didn’t try to contact anyone because I’m not sure if you guys wanted to be contacted.”
It took years, but the two reunited. The reconnection has been welcomed by both men.
“It’s hard to describe, but the friendship and the bond that you form during battle is different than most friendship,” Mr. Lee said. “It’s like family now, so I’m very grateful for your effort to find me.”
Mr. Nordeen agreed. “Well, I feel like I’m a treasure hunter, and I found the treasure when I found you.”
Changing “embedded attitudes”
Kyle Fraser, a former student at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, said he left because of its “toxic environment.”
The elite private Catholic school for boys in grades 7-12 is in the midst of a controversy involving allegations of several incidents involving brutal hazing perpetrated by returning members of the school’s junior football team on rookie players. In an official statement, the school administrators profess they are “heartbroken,” and the school’s president and principal have both resigned. Yet, Mr. Fraser said, he is not surprised by what has occurred.
“That’s the culture at that school,” he said in an interview with CBC News. During his years at St. Michael’s, Mr. Fraser said, he was verbally harassed every day.
Margery Holman, PhD, said she is not surprised about the environment at St. Michael’s. “It’s those male-dominated environments,” said Dr. Holman, an associate professor emeritus at the University of Windsor (Ont.) and coeditor of the book “Making the Team: Inside the World of Sport Hazing and Initiations”. “This is part of a history and tradition that is tolerated and accepted, and people turn a blind eye to it. It’s happening everywhere, not just at St. Mike’s. These are embedded attitudes that are going to take a long time to change. It took a long time to build on them, and it escalates every year.”
Susan Lipkins, PhD, a New York–based psychologist, agreed that the turmoil at St. Michael’s is not unique. “It’s being accepted as a norm, as a rite of passage. It’s becoming normalized for the kids, and they are not really attending to how awful and usually how illegal these events are.”
“Drive-by activism” turns sour
Even in an era in which photos can be altered digitally and disagreeable news can be dubbed fictitious, many people are moved to act when they become aware of others’ misfortune. But altruism turns into something else entirely when con artists become involved.
An example reported by NBC News involved a scheme that played out on a crowdfunding site.
On the site, Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure described an encounter Ms. McClure had with Johnny Bobbit, in which she ran out of gas by a roadside in New Jersey. The homeless veteran trudged to a gas station and used his last $20 to pay for gas. Later, the couple launched a GoFundMe campaign to solicit money to allow Mr. Bobbit a place to live and some transportation.
The response was overwhelming; more than 14,000 people contributed more than $400,000 in a single month. But the fairy tale turned sour after Mr. Bobbit complained about receiving only a small portion of the money. The remainder, contended lawyers prosecuting the couple, was spent on a new car and trips.
The case is “a perfect example of the inherent risks and weaknesses of giving over a crowdfunding site,” said Stephanie Kalivas, an analyst for Charity Watch in Chicago. Donating anonymously is a way for many people to feel they are doing something good and then moving on with their day – “drive-by activism,” according to Adrienne Gonzalez, founder of the watchdog website GoFraudMe. “We give five dollars, move on, and forget about it.”
GoFundMe agreed to reimburse everyone who contributed, the report said.
Layoff leads to $500 million
Change can be scary, especially when it hits the wallet. But being able to recognize opportunities that have opened up and seizing the moment can turn out far better than the old job ever was.
As described in a recent article in the Atlantic, Tim Chen is the poster person for adversity as opportunity. Mr. Chen is founder and CEO of the NerdWallet personal finance website, which compares products available from banks and insurance companies. Each month, 10 million people use the site to help make financial decisions. Begun in 2009, the site is valued at more than $500 million.
And it started when Mr. Chen was laid off as a financial analyst in the bust times of 2008. “[I was] totally blindsided. Never in a million years would I have thought that the institutions that I worked for, or the banks themselves, would be worried about going out of business. In hindsight, I feel very fortunate that there was a recession, from a personal perspective, because I never would have gotten into entrepreneurship, even though it was an ambition of mine. It’s just too hard to take that risk when you have a stable job and you’re living in a really expensive city like New York,” Mr. Chen explained in the article.
The bust-to-boom journey has taught Mr. Chen “that you can’t just put your head down and work hard and do things. You have to communicate well what it is you’re trying to do – the vision behind what you’re trying to do – to get other people inspired to understand what you’re doing and help you out.”
In contrast to the “job-for-life” world of the mid-20th century, the present reality for millennials is a series of jobs, and Mr. Chen said he relishes this shift. “I really want to learn from the person I’m working for, and 3 or 4 years from now, I’m going to come out with a different set of skills. I think the best opportunities in 30 years, while we can’t anticipate them now, are going to go to the people who have picked up a lot of skills along the way.”
For some Americans, fears surrounding random gun violence are all too common.
In fact, a poll of people aged 13-24 years released earlier this year showed that, for young Americans, fear of gun violence ranks higher than the fear of climate change, terrorism, and rising college costs.
After nearly every mass shooting, the specter of mental illness comes up as a possible explanation. America’s rate of gun-related deaths is eight times that found in the European Union, according to Fareed Zakaria of CNN. “Does America have eight times the rate of mental illness?” he asked in a recent special episode of his public affairs show, “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” “Where is the disconnect?”
Mr. Zakaria went on to examine the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which a 28-year-old gunman with no history of mental illness killed 35 people and injured 18. After that incident, Australia sponsored a buyback program and eliminated more than 600,000 weapons. Afterward, the rate of gun-related homicides and suicides in Australia reportedly fell.
He also explored possible ties between video games and gun violence by examining the video game phenomenon in Japan. He reported that in Japan, a country of about 127 million people, about 13 people died in gun-related murders in 2016. Meanwhile, that year in the United States, the per-capita gun homicide rate was 300 times higher.
Finally, he examined the gun culture in Switzerland, where there are about 28 guns per 100 people. The country has citizen militias, and soldiers take home their weapons – but not their ammunition.
“We in America have been remarkably passive when it comes to gun violence,” Mr. Zakaria said. “One of the most important tasks for a government is to keep its citizens – especially its children – safe. Every other developed country in the world is able to fulfill this mandate. America is not. And the greatest tragedy is we know how to do it.”
Veterans’ friendship “like family”
John Nordeen and Kay Lee are on the far side of 70. During their youth, some of which was spent serving together in the Vietnam War, the two men forged a friendship. But back stateside, they lost touch.
In 2015, after years of searching by Mr. Nordeen, they reconnected. In a recent interview with NPR, they described their experiences in Vietnam and its aftermath.
“Our platoon went from like 29 guys to 10 guys in 2 days. So, the guys that were left, we had even stronger bonds because we had survived this together,” Mr. Nordeen said. The intense feeling of togetherness was tempered by equally intense feeling of the loss of their platoon mates.
The loss lingered for Mr. Nordeen once he returned home. “When you lose friends, you develop a hard exterior, and you don’t want to make friends with anyone else. So I don’t have a big circle of friends. I think that’s just one of many hang-ups I brought home with me.”
Mr. Lee concurred. “When I got home, most of the time I tried to forget the whole experience and not think about it too much. And I didn’t try to contact anyone because I’m not sure if you guys wanted to be contacted.”
It took years, but the two reunited. The reconnection has been welcomed by both men.
“It’s hard to describe, but the friendship and the bond that you form during battle is different than most friendship,” Mr. Lee said. “It’s like family now, so I’m very grateful for your effort to find me.”
Mr. Nordeen agreed. “Well, I feel like I’m a treasure hunter, and I found the treasure when I found you.”
Changing “embedded attitudes”
Kyle Fraser, a former student at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, said he left because of its “toxic environment.”
The elite private Catholic school for boys in grades 7-12 is in the midst of a controversy involving allegations of several incidents involving brutal hazing perpetrated by returning members of the school’s junior football team on rookie players. In an official statement, the school administrators profess they are “heartbroken,” and the school’s president and principal have both resigned. Yet, Mr. Fraser said, he is not surprised by what has occurred.
“That’s the culture at that school,” he said in an interview with CBC News. During his years at St. Michael’s, Mr. Fraser said, he was verbally harassed every day.
Margery Holman, PhD, said she is not surprised about the environment at St. Michael’s. “It’s those male-dominated environments,” said Dr. Holman, an associate professor emeritus at the University of Windsor (Ont.) and coeditor of the book “Making the Team: Inside the World of Sport Hazing and Initiations”. “This is part of a history and tradition that is tolerated and accepted, and people turn a blind eye to it. It’s happening everywhere, not just at St. Mike’s. These are embedded attitudes that are going to take a long time to change. It took a long time to build on them, and it escalates every year.”
Susan Lipkins, PhD, a New York–based psychologist, agreed that the turmoil at St. Michael’s is not unique. “It’s being accepted as a norm, as a rite of passage. It’s becoming normalized for the kids, and they are not really attending to how awful and usually how illegal these events are.”
“Drive-by activism” turns sour
Even in an era in which photos can be altered digitally and disagreeable news can be dubbed fictitious, many people are moved to act when they become aware of others’ misfortune. But altruism turns into something else entirely when con artists become involved.
An example reported by NBC News involved a scheme that played out on a crowdfunding site.
On the site, Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure described an encounter Ms. McClure had with Johnny Bobbit, in which she ran out of gas by a roadside in New Jersey. The homeless veteran trudged to a gas station and used his last $20 to pay for gas. Later, the couple launched a GoFundMe campaign to solicit money to allow Mr. Bobbit a place to live and some transportation.
The response was overwhelming; more than 14,000 people contributed more than $400,000 in a single month. But the fairy tale turned sour after Mr. Bobbit complained about receiving only a small portion of the money. The remainder, contended lawyers prosecuting the couple, was spent on a new car and trips.
The case is “a perfect example of the inherent risks and weaknesses of giving over a crowdfunding site,” said Stephanie Kalivas, an analyst for Charity Watch in Chicago. Donating anonymously is a way for many people to feel they are doing something good and then moving on with their day – “drive-by activism,” according to Adrienne Gonzalez, founder of the watchdog website GoFraudMe. “We give five dollars, move on, and forget about it.”
GoFundMe agreed to reimburse everyone who contributed, the report said.
Layoff leads to $500 million
Change can be scary, especially when it hits the wallet. But being able to recognize opportunities that have opened up and seizing the moment can turn out far better than the old job ever was.
As described in a recent article in the Atlantic, Tim Chen is the poster person for adversity as opportunity. Mr. Chen is founder and CEO of the NerdWallet personal finance website, which compares products available from banks and insurance companies. Each month, 10 million people use the site to help make financial decisions. Begun in 2009, the site is valued at more than $500 million.
And it started when Mr. Chen was laid off as a financial analyst in the bust times of 2008. “[I was] totally blindsided. Never in a million years would I have thought that the institutions that I worked for, or the banks themselves, would be worried about going out of business. In hindsight, I feel very fortunate that there was a recession, from a personal perspective, because I never would have gotten into entrepreneurship, even though it was an ambition of mine. It’s just too hard to take that risk when you have a stable job and you’re living in a really expensive city like New York,” Mr. Chen explained in the article.
The bust-to-boom journey has taught Mr. Chen “that you can’t just put your head down and work hard and do things. You have to communicate well what it is you’re trying to do – the vision behind what you’re trying to do – to get other people inspired to understand what you’re doing and help you out.”
In contrast to the “job-for-life” world of the mid-20th century, the present reality for millennials is a series of jobs, and Mr. Chen said he relishes this shift. “I really want to learn from the person I’m working for, and 3 or 4 years from now, I’m going to come out with a different set of skills. I think the best opportunities in 30 years, while we can’t anticipate them now, are going to go to the people who have picked up a lot of skills along the way.”
For some Americans, fears surrounding random gun violence are all too common.
In fact, a poll of people aged 13-24 years released earlier this year showed that, for young Americans, fear of gun violence ranks higher than the fear of climate change, terrorism, and rising college costs.
After nearly every mass shooting, the specter of mental illness comes up as a possible explanation. America’s rate of gun-related deaths is eight times that found in the European Union, according to Fareed Zakaria of CNN. “Does America have eight times the rate of mental illness?” he asked in a recent special episode of his public affairs show, “Fareed Zakaria GPS.” “Where is the disconnect?”
Mr. Zakaria went on to examine the 1996 Port Arthur massacre, in which a 28-year-old gunman with no history of mental illness killed 35 people and injured 18. After that incident, Australia sponsored a buyback program and eliminated more than 600,000 weapons. Afterward, the rate of gun-related homicides and suicides in Australia reportedly fell.
He also explored possible ties between video games and gun violence by examining the video game phenomenon in Japan. He reported that in Japan, a country of about 127 million people, about 13 people died in gun-related murders in 2016. Meanwhile, that year in the United States, the per-capita gun homicide rate was 300 times higher.
Finally, he examined the gun culture in Switzerland, where there are about 28 guns per 100 people. The country has citizen militias, and soldiers take home their weapons – but not their ammunition.
“We in America have been remarkably passive when it comes to gun violence,” Mr. Zakaria said. “One of the most important tasks for a government is to keep its citizens – especially its children – safe. Every other developed country in the world is able to fulfill this mandate. America is not. And the greatest tragedy is we know how to do it.”
Veterans’ friendship “like family”
John Nordeen and Kay Lee are on the far side of 70. During their youth, some of which was spent serving together in the Vietnam War, the two men forged a friendship. But back stateside, they lost touch.
In 2015, after years of searching by Mr. Nordeen, they reconnected. In a recent interview with NPR, they described their experiences in Vietnam and its aftermath.
“Our platoon went from like 29 guys to 10 guys in 2 days. So, the guys that were left, we had even stronger bonds because we had survived this together,” Mr. Nordeen said. The intense feeling of togetherness was tempered by equally intense feeling of the loss of their platoon mates.
The loss lingered for Mr. Nordeen once he returned home. “When you lose friends, you develop a hard exterior, and you don’t want to make friends with anyone else. So I don’t have a big circle of friends. I think that’s just one of many hang-ups I brought home with me.”
Mr. Lee concurred. “When I got home, most of the time I tried to forget the whole experience and not think about it too much. And I didn’t try to contact anyone because I’m not sure if you guys wanted to be contacted.”
It took years, but the two reunited. The reconnection has been welcomed by both men.
“It’s hard to describe, but the friendship and the bond that you form during battle is different than most friendship,” Mr. Lee said. “It’s like family now, so I’m very grateful for your effort to find me.”
Mr. Nordeen agreed. “Well, I feel like I’m a treasure hunter, and I found the treasure when I found you.”
Changing “embedded attitudes”
Kyle Fraser, a former student at St. Michael’s College School in Toronto, said he left because of its “toxic environment.”
The elite private Catholic school for boys in grades 7-12 is in the midst of a controversy involving allegations of several incidents involving brutal hazing perpetrated by returning members of the school’s junior football team on rookie players. In an official statement, the school administrators profess they are “heartbroken,” and the school’s president and principal have both resigned. Yet, Mr. Fraser said, he is not surprised by what has occurred.
“That’s the culture at that school,” he said in an interview with CBC News. During his years at St. Michael’s, Mr. Fraser said, he was verbally harassed every day.
Margery Holman, PhD, said she is not surprised about the environment at St. Michael’s. “It’s those male-dominated environments,” said Dr. Holman, an associate professor emeritus at the University of Windsor (Ont.) and coeditor of the book “Making the Team: Inside the World of Sport Hazing and Initiations”. “This is part of a history and tradition that is tolerated and accepted, and people turn a blind eye to it. It’s happening everywhere, not just at St. Mike’s. These are embedded attitudes that are going to take a long time to change. It took a long time to build on them, and it escalates every year.”
Susan Lipkins, PhD, a New York–based psychologist, agreed that the turmoil at St. Michael’s is not unique. “It’s being accepted as a norm, as a rite of passage. It’s becoming normalized for the kids, and they are not really attending to how awful and usually how illegal these events are.”
“Drive-by activism” turns sour
Even in an era in which photos can be altered digitally and disagreeable news can be dubbed fictitious, many people are moved to act when they become aware of others’ misfortune. But altruism turns into something else entirely when con artists become involved.
An example reported by NBC News involved a scheme that played out on a crowdfunding site.
On the site, Mark D’Amico and Kate McClure described an encounter Ms. McClure had with Johnny Bobbit, in which she ran out of gas by a roadside in New Jersey. The homeless veteran trudged to a gas station and used his last $20 to pay for gas. Later, the couple launched a GoFundMe campaign to solicit money to allow Mr. Bobbit a place to live and some transportation.
The response was overwhelming; more than 14,000 people contributed more than $400,000 in a single month. But the fairy tale turned sour after Mr. Bobbit complained about receiving only a small portion of the money. The remainder, contended lawyers prosecuting the couple, was spent on a new car and trips.
The case is “a perfect example of the inherent risks and weaknesses of giving over a crowdfunding site,” said Stephanie Kalivas, an analyst for Charity Watch in Chicago. Donating anonymously is a way for many people to feel they are doing something good and then moving on with their day – “drive-by activism,” according to Adrienne Gonzalez, founder of the watchdog website GoFraudMe. “We give five dollars, move on, and forget about it.”
GoFundMe agreed to reimburse everyone who contributed, the report said.
Layoff leads to $500 million
Change can be scary, especially when it hits the wallet. But being able to recognize opportunities that have opened up and seizing the moment can turn out far better than the old job ever was.
As described in a recent article in the Atlantic, Tim Chen is the poster person for adversity as opportunity. Mr. Chen is founder and CEO of the NerdWallet personal finance website, which compares products available from banks and insurance companies. Each month, 10 million people use the site to help make financial decisions. Begun in 2009, the site is valued at more than $500 million.
And it started when Mr. Chen was laid off as a financial analyst in the bust times of 2008. “[I was] totally blindsided. Never in a million years would I have thought that the institutions that I worked for, or the banks themselves, would be worried about going out of business. In hindsight, I feel very fortunate that there was a recession, from a personal perspective, because I never would have gotten into entrepreneurship, even though it was an ambition of mine. It’s just too hard to take that risk when you have a stable job and you’re living in a really expensive city like New York,” Mr. Chen explained in the article.
The bust-to-boom journey has taught Mr. Chen “that you can’t just put your head down and work hard and do things. You have to communicate well what it is you’re trying to do – the vision behind what you’re trying to do – to get other people inspired to understand what you’re doing and help you out.”
In contrast to the “job-for-life” world of the mid-20th century, the present reality for millennials is a series of jobs, and Mr. Chen said he relishes this shift. “I really want to learn from the person I’m working for, and 3 or 4 years from now, I’m going to come out with a different set of skills. I think the best opportunities in 30 years, while we can’t anticipate them now, are going to go to the people who have picked up a lot of skills along the way.”