"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead."
- Louisa May Alcott
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"Far away in the sunshine are my highest aspirations. I may not reach them, but I can look up and see the beauty, believe in them and try to follow where they lead." - Louisa May Alcott
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Get Involved
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December 1, 2008 | |||||||
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 GoodThings on Public Radio June 13, 2002 We want to hear from you. What's the best public radio story or show you heard this past week? Share. If you want to listen, you'll need RealPlayer on your computer. (If you don't already have it, it's a FREE download.) Visit Real Networks. FRIDAY, June 7 | Guilty Only in Fairy Tales? Third graders at New York City's PS 132 elementary school are getting a chance, firsthand, to see how the US legal system works. But it's no dry lecture or field trip for these eager kids. They've descended upon Washington DC's Federal Courthouse for their own personal Trial of the Century. Thanks to the creativity of their teacher and a few key officials at the courthouse, these nine-year-olds get a chance to serve on the jury for the mock trial of the Big Bad Wolf, charged with (of all things!) blowing down the homes of two of three little pigs. It's all part of an interactive effort to teach children about law and justice. [All Things Considered] Listen (3:30). SATURDAY, June 8 | Giving the Center of Life Kenya's Maasai people have a cherished ritual tradition of giving the gift of living cattle to people in times of both happiness and profound sadness. It was only recently that many Maasai in western Kenya, without access to modern technology, learned by word of mouth of the September 11 tragedy. Kimeli Maiyomah, a 25-year-old Maasai who is now a pre-med student at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, delivered the news to his tribe, which decided it wanted to give 14 of its best cows to the US to offer solace. Maiyomah communicated the transportation difficulty to his tribe and got the embassy involved. The embassy worked out an agreement with the tribe to accept the gift but then sell the cows to pay for custom Maasai beadwork that will be presented as a gift to New York City. This is a powerful story of human connection, generosity, and sincerity. [Weekend Edition Saturday] Listen (6:30). SUNDAY, June 9 | A Beep to Beat the Heat Three seventh graders from Las Vegas, Nevada, have created and patented an invention that is sure to be a lifesaver. Motivated by the fact that the Las Vegas fire department had to rescue 590 babies in 2000, who had been accidentally left in cars in the desert sun, the three girls invented the Car Seat Beeper. Using a weight-sensitive device linked remotely to a beeper that can be attached to a guardian's key ring, the girls built a simple device that alerts the busy parent or babysitter that the child is still in the car. The girls' extensive research and informal focus groups showed that many parents would buy the device were it manufactured. Their invention was named a finalist in the Bayer/National Science Foundation award competition, which honors the efforts of middle schoolers who have come up with ways to use technology to make a difference in the world. [Weekend All Things Considered] Listen (4:38). :: Learn more about the Bayer NSF Award. MONDAY, June 10 | Unearthing Beauty 39-year-old Afghan-American Gina Hamrah was born in Kabul but grew up in London and then Virginia, after her parents fled Afghanistan in 1979. Her mother had operated a salon in the old Kabul; Gina herself now works in a salon in Virginia. And recently, after having been away from Kabul for 23 years, she returned to see what had happened to the homeland she left behind. As people around the world know, what she discovered was devastating. But at the same time, there were life-affirming remnants of her rich Afghan past. She is doing what she can to help small business people start over again in Kabul and is helping Afghan widows and children regain a sense of purpose and dignity. [Morning Edition] Listen (5:08). :: Learn more about Gina Hamrah on the Afghan Women and Orphans Fund Web site. TUESDAY, June 11 | A Symbiotic Spectacle The second largest North American stopover for migrating birds, making their way each year to Arctic breeding grounds, is Delaware's Little Creek Wildlife Area. What keeps birds like the ruddy turnstone coming back year after year? The promise of a final dose of high-energy nutrition from Little Creek's spawning horseshoe crabs. It's enough to carry the birds the final 2,000 miles to their northern destinations. The yearly event is also enough to bring thousands of people to the area to witness the dramatic stopover, boosting the local economy and increasing awareness of the birds. But without the crabs, the birds are lost, and currently, the crabs are facing extreme pressures from a variety of human activities. The crabs are used for fishing bait, their shells are processed as fertilizer, and, worst of all, increasing real estate development along the fragile shoreline is reducing their critical habitat to nothing. A growing movement is determined to save them. [Morning Edition] Listen (6:30). :: Learn more about Delaware's Little Creek Wildlife Area. WEDNESDAY, June 12 | Peace in Mindanao? In the southern Philippines, nowhere is the conflict between the nation's separatist Islamic minority and its Catholic majority more intense than on the island of Mindanao. But the model for a lasting peace may lie in the eradication of poverty and in a banana plantation in the town of Datu Paglas called La Frutera. The plantation opened in 1997 and is now selling bananas throughout the world with distribution through the Chiquita brand. La Frutera has created jobs for some 2,000 people, many of them former Muslim rebels who had taken up arms against the Filipino goverment. Says one of the former rebels now employed on the plantation, when you can feed yourself and your children can go to school, the motivation to wage violent insurgency diminishes. Perhaps ironically, the man who started La Frutera learned about drip-irrigation farming from his time on a kibbutz in Israel. [The World] Listen (7:23). :: Learn more about La Frutera banana plantation in the Philippines and The Other Mindanao. [more] THURSDAY, June 13 | Golf Swings Public For the first time in the history of the US Open golf tournament, the event will truly be "open." In its 102-year history, the Open has never been held on a public municipal golf course -- until now. With the meteoric rise of stars like Tiger Woods who themselves learned to play on muni courses, golf is swinging away from its exclusive, whites-only, country-club past and is appealing to an increasingly diverse fan base. But the site of the 2002 US Open -- Long Island, New York's Bethpage Black golf course -- is not only a place where anyone with $31 can play a round; it's also one of the hardest and longest courses that have ever been used for the event. [Morning Edition] Listen (3:43). :: Learn more about the history of the Bethpage Black golf course. [ : previous week : ] WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU. Did we miss a good public radio story this week? Want to recommend one for next week? Share it with us! 
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