Your chance to let that inner bag person out

Let's face it, there's a bag person in each of us just waiting to come out. Well this is your chance to be that bag person at the...

Almost New Thrift Shop -- $1 Bag Sale

Select from HUNDREDS of clothes, shoes, belts, etc. Anything else you wear (except for jewelry) that can fit into one of our bags, can be yours for just one dollar. This sale will take place the first Monday of every month. This month’s sale will be Monday, April 4, from 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

We have lots of inventory to choose from so come and help us support our health scholarship fund and the many other programs put on by the Mogollon Health Alliance Auxiliary.

For more information, call the Almost New Thrift Shop at (928) 468-5515.

Fat stigma goes global, anthropologists say

A team of Arizona State University researchers led by biological anthropologist Alexandra Brewis found that negative attitudes towards overweight bodies are spreading globally, even in previously fat-tolerant regions like American Samoa and Puerto Rico.

By Rebecca Howe

ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change

Tempe, Ariz., March 31, 2011 - Slim bodies often are idealized by Americans, who seem to have a disparaging attitude towards fatness. But, does the rest of the world view overweight bodies the same way?

Recent findings by a team of Arizona State University researchers show that rapid globalization has brought the stigma associated with obesity to other parts of the world, including those regions that previously viewed large body size in a neutral or positive light.

Biological anthropologist Alexandra Brewis, cultural anthropologist Amber Wutich and graduate students Ashlan Falletta-Cowden and Isa Rodriguez-Soto of the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences collected and analyzed data on cultural ideas about big bodies, fat and obesity from 10 countries and territories. The results appear in the April issue of the journal Current Anthropology.

In each locale – American Samoa, Mexico, Paraguay, the United Kingdom, the United States, Tanzania, Iceland, Argentina, Puerto Rico and New Zealand – people were asked to respond to a series of cultural statements pulled from public health literature and ethnographic interviews. Negative and positive statements were used, such as “Fat people are lazy” and “A big woman is a beautiful woman.”

Using a special anthropological approach called consensus analysis, the group tested for evidence of shared ideas in the specific domain of fat and obesity, and they found it. People around the globe seem to be thinking similarly about the topic.

Among the key ideas that appear cross-culturally are the concepts of obesity as a disease and the result of social and personal weakness. Some level of fat stigma was found in each sample.

“We were essentially trying to take a snapshot of what everyday adults are thinking in a range of places,” said Brewis, who has done similar research as far back as the 1990s, when places like American Samoa and Puerto Rico were fat tolerant. “It was stunning to find how widespread stigmatizing attitudes to fat bodies now are.”

The study’s highest fat-stigma scores were recorded for Paraguay, followed by American Samoa. The least were found in Tanzania. Surprisingly, the United States registered among the lowest for fat stigma.
Wutich offered, “We found that fat stigma was the highest in some of the sites we expected to be most fat accepting. We believe that, in sites where people have held fat-stigmatizing views for a longer time, people may have developed social norms about the importance of masking beliefs that are viewed as impolite.”
The researchers selected places where some obesity was already evident. They suspect that a different pattern may have emerged if places where little obesity is present, such as Asia or sub-Saharan Africa, had been included.

The group’s next step is more comprehensive study, using more sophisticated ethnographic tools, at a couple of their previous sites. Rodriguez-Soto is already in Puerto Rico interviewing grandmothers, mothers and daughters in an attempt to understand the evolution of that nation’s trend towards fat stigma.

Brewis, who is the executive director of the ASU School of Human Evolution and Social Change and director of the Center for Global Health, recently published the book “Obesity: Cultural and Biocultural Perspectives” through Rutgers University Press.

She is particularly concerned with the possible fallout from the profusion of negative attitudes towards large bodies. “Stigma causes prejudice and discrimination and a lot of emotional suffering. The spread of stigmatizing ideas has the potential to do enormous social damage,” she said.

While there is no current data to directly address why fat stigma is spreading, Brewis suggested that a good area for further study is health education media, such as public health messaging. As obesity rates rise around the world, she noted that, “We need to make sure the way we educate or intervene to deal with health aspects of obesity doesn’t inadvertently promote greater stigma.”

Fiesta Bowl mess 'should outrage and disgust'

(Editor's note: Andrei Cherny, Arizona Democratic Party chairman, issued the following statement in response to news reports about Fiesta Bowl employees and illegal political contributions. If the Republicans issue a statement, we will provide equal space.)

"The news that Republican lobbyists turned the Fiesta Bowl into a front for funneling illegal campaign contributions to Republican politicians should outrage and disgust every Arizonan. This is not about a football game. What the reports reveal is that there is a deep, pervasive culture of corruption in our state government.

"This culture of corruption -- driven by greed and political ambition -- breeds cynicism and distrust. It results in a government where these highly-paid lobbyists and the politicians in their pockets focus on handing out special favors without lifting a finger to create jobs. This scandal is what happens when a small group of people from one political party hold too much power for too long. But Arizonans are learning the truth about these politicians, and their days are numbered.

"These politicians may not have known about the illegal money coming from the Fiesta Bowl and its employees, but now the truth is out. I call upon every elected official of either party to immediately return every cent in campaign contributions they received from the corrupt Fiesta Bowl organization."

RCMS honored by ASU for academic achievements

 SCHOOL STORY THAT DESERVES

TO BE FRONT PAGE NEWS

(Editor's note: The following letter speaks for itself.  Congratulations to the students, teachers and staff at our own Rim Country Middle School for reinforcing what we have always said about the kids and teachers in this district.  They do great things together with very limited resources.)
 
March 25, 2011

Gary Witherspoon, Principal
Rim Country Middle School
P. O. Box 919
Payson, AZ 85547

Mr. Witherspoon:

The Options for Excellence Program, part of ASU’s Office for Education Partnerships, strives to help students, parents and educators find resources to improve educational achievement within our state.

We thank you for your application for our Lead and Inspire Award. Your application highlighted the improvement Rim Country has demonstrated on AIMS testing. This is very impressive considering the location and resources of Rim Country. It was very heartening for our review panel to read the student comments and learn how proud the students are of the programs they have been involved with and demonstrates to its students that they are important and that being successful is a community effort. The programs you have developed: the GEAR UP grant, the STEM and Language Art/Social Studies focus, and the Gifted Education Program are examples of how your staff demonstrates to its students that they are important and that being successful is a community effort.

Rim Country Middle School has been awarded the Lead and Inspire Award, Middle School Rural Division. We would like to present to you this award, honoring your staff and students for their achievements. We would like to present this to you 10:00 a.m., April 12, 2011 at your site. Janet Grant, chair of the Lead and Inspire advisory panel and Patricia Nash, director of the Options for Excellence Program will be on hand for the presentation. We would like to use this photo opportunity to publicize your school and its achievements on the http://leadandinspireaward.asu.edu website.

Congratulations on being recognized as a school that has worked hard to achieve much. It is evident by your application that you and your faculty care for your students and that they respect you and are thankful for your efforts.

Cordially,

Janet Grant
Options for Excellence
Education Partnerships
Arizona State University
(602) 496-2181 office
(602) 509 1182 cell

Weekend Valley freeway closures, restrictions

Now that First Friday is over, the party moves to the Valley. If you're headed down for a little shopping and R&R, here's what ADOT wants you to know about...

Weekend Valley Closures and Restrictions

April 1-4

Drivers should be aware of the following restrictions:

* North/eastbound Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) closed between Bell Road and 51st Avenue
* Westbound Loop 101 (Agua Fria Freeway) closed between 59th and 67th avenues
* Southbound Loop 101 (Price Freeway) closed between Broadway and Guadalupe roads

Choral Society presents 'Singing Coast to Coast'

Mark your calendars now! The Payson Choral Society’s Spring concert “Singing Coast to Coast” directed by Daria Mason with accompaniment by Victoria Harris comes to the Payson High School auditorium on Saturday, April 30.

Performances are scheduled for 1030 PM and 7:00 PM. Pre-sale concert tickets are $8 for adults. All students under 18, and children are - FREE. Tickets may be purchased in advance from Choral Society members, the Rim Country Regional Chamber of Commerce and at the library. Tickets will also be available at the door before each concert for $10.00 each.

Proceeds from the concerts provide musical scholarships to middle school and high school students. These are awarded and the students will sing their winning tryout selection each year at the Spring concert.

'All men created equal' means exactly what it says

“Whatever goes around, comes around,” it is said.

In the physical world, predicting cycles is not particularly difficult if one has reliable information. Astronomers can predict to the second the orbits of all the planets circling the sun. Predicting celestial events like the return of certain comets into our galaxy is taken for granted. Less precisely but no less accepted, predictions of short term weather and long term seasons are more and more understood and utilized. Cycles, it seems, reflect natural laws.

To a large extent, this is also true in the world of human behavior. Certain underlying cycles appear to occur in the long-term study of history. Human nature, apparently, resists change quite rigidly. Revolution from a motivated few seems more likely to cause change than evolution from the masses. The fact that society does appear to change over time only shows that during certain periods, underlying tendencies gain or lose traction and are manifested in the surroundings of the day.

In the history of the world, only one attempt at government has been made with a comprehensive understanding of this axiom, and a proposal for dealing with it perpetually. The basis for this attempt is found in a unique document, which lies like bedrock in the foundation of this form of government. It begins with a statement universally defining certain principles. Establishing these principles as their foundation, the founders of this unique new form of government then went on to precisely define how it was to be administered. A generally accepted understanding was that, over time, change would occur, so a system of amending previous proclamations was adopted. The underlying principles were to be preserved, however, in spite of inevitable change.

Over time, as predicted, the pendulum of political change has swung widely in The United States of America. Strong debates have moved public consensus back and forth with greater or lesser degrees of resistance. Slavery was allowed, then it wasn’t. Women were not allowed to vote, then they were. Young children were forced to work in factories before it was outlawed. Alcohol was declared illegal, then overwhelmingly restored to legality, etc. etc.

Fierce debates rage today over polar disagreements like: whether individuals should be allowed to arm themselves with stockpiles of deadly weapons with no conditions imposed; or whether an individual or a group has a legitimate right to express their opinion using any manner of speech they wish; or whether the nation has a moral mandate to step militarily into the affairs of foreign nations where perceived threats or strongly diverse ideals exist; or whether a particular religion should be formally acknowledged as our national religion - and many more. Proponents of different sides of these debates are currently known as Conservatives or Liberals, although over the decades, other names have been applied - many with more pejorative intent.

For one of the few times in our long history however, bedrock principles are currently falling into serious dispute. That pendulum shift went recklessly on an arc almost too far long ago, and now threatens to come round again. The term “all men are created equal” is interpreted, by an increasing segment, to narrowly mean white, Protestant Christian men with bloodlines directly descended from the original settlers. It’s an old position come round again.

Americans, of course, never elevated the American Indian to the status of “man.” Slaves, mostly Negroes, were likewise mostly excluded from the same recognition. For generations, Chinese, Irish, Italian, German individuals were relegated to a denigrated second class – castigated by sons and daughters of immigrants from those very countries. Although legal distinctions have been removed, those classifications have only slowly and grudgingly been allowed to fall under the “all men” distinction.

Recognizing all men to be equal has always been a difficult task for many and impossible for some. Today, Muslims are the pariahs-du-jour. All Muslims are considered evil and prone to terrorism. It matters not that half the world’s population is Muslim in one form or another. It matters not that the vast majority of Muslims desire a peaceful and equitable world. Like the Japanese and Germans, etc. before them, the Irish, Italians and all people of color - all Muslims are to be shunned and feared. What once went around is once again making its rounds.

Blacks and Latinos, of course, have never fully escaped their assignment to an underclass. Catholics, Mormons and Lutherans are marginally accepted, but not by the hard core proponents of a modern caste system which only allows white, Protestant Christian men as the elite class. Those at the top, naturally, get to make the rules, or, in some cases, ignore them.

The Declaration of Independence did not equivocate. The claim concerning “all men” is a complete declarative sentence, unmodified. This has proven to be a bitter pill for a great many people to swallow

In the preamble to its Constitution, the United States promises to promote the “general welfare.” It makes no distinction concerning various individuals or groups.

These principles are increasingly coming under narrow and self-serving interpretations.

Likewise are several of the constitutional amendments - the first amendment in particular. Thomas Jefferson must have anticipated just such a thing when he wrote:
“On every question of construction, (let us) carry ourselves back to the time when the Constitution was adopted, recollect the spirit manifested in the debates, and instead of trying what meaning may be squeezed out of the text, or invented against it, conform to the probable one in which it was passed.”

That spirit is much needed today. May it come round once more.