Jimmy Carter and Life in the Big Apple's Brother

Long time since the Kanestergram hit your inbox, so here's to spreading yuletide cheer and shameless self promotion.

I've e-mailed some of you recently about my exclusive interview with former President Jimmy Carter. For those of you into such things and friends from the news world, here is the complete interview with former President Jimmy Carter available on the web now:

http://www.voanews.com/english/2006-12-01-voa30.cfm

I've got some more stories forthcoming from this interview... one on North Korea, one on Palestine, and another on the Carter Center. All will be up in a few days. He's an awesome guy to talk to... and it was a monumental opportunity to talk with him about the issues.

As for other things... Joanne and I are settling into our house in Glen Ridge New Jersey. Well, I say settling but we've only just begun the real work... getting the walls ready for painting. We hope to move in the week before Christmas just in time for our family visiting for the holidays! Some of our friends who live nearby have been great about giving us guidance and help in the major quest of getting things ready, and Joanne's been a super busy person using the paint roller getting the kitchen repainted. Things look like they're on track as we had the flooring company come in this week and finish up our renovated hardwood floors.

Work for the both of us continues to go well... Joanne is working at the Bank of New York (which today just announced a major merger with Mellon Bank from Pittsburgh so she's still waiting to hear what it means for her business) and I am working with the Voice of America at the New York bureau with trips across the country here and there (like Chicago for the Carter interview).

Both of us are taking some much needed time off for the holidays to recharge the batteries that have been work down by both work and the house purchase.

Merry Christmas! Happy New Year! Write me back! I'll try to respond!

Kane

He Comes in Peace (and Controversy)

Jimmy Carter Interview

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CHICAGO – He has just spent the last four hours on the telephone, talking with twenty different news outlets about everything from North Korean nuclear missiles to his homemade furniture. At exactly 11:00AM, the eighty-two year old is whisked away to another appointment that, for him, has become quite a busy morning.

But he shows no signs of slowing down, as a camera crew in the middle of his Secret Service detail traces his every move through a whirlwind, cross-country book tour. My interview, should it not end up on the cutting room floor, will join hours of other footage from this hectic week. It's part of an effort by film Director Jonathon Demme (Silence of the Lambs, Philadelphia) to document the life of America's most traveled ex-president in the upcoming film "He Comes in Peace."

Enter former President and Nobel laureate Jimmy Carter, here in Chicago to talk about his controversial new book "Palestine: Peace not Apartheid" with the Voice of America.

The book has ignited controversy for the use of the word "apartheid" in the title. U.S. Middle East envoy Dennis Ross has also accused President Carter of using maps in his book that Ross developed for his own book. Amid those accusations, Emory University Professor Kenneth Stein resigned his position as a fellow at the Carter Center, saying that the book contains "factual omissions."

The Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish human rights organization, has also weighed in on the book, and says President Carter "abandons all objectivity and unabashedly acts as a virtual spokesman for the Palestinian cause."

Despite all the negative news and controversy that surrounds the book, Carter sympathizes with the Palestinians.

"They are horribly persecuted by the Israelis to deprive them of their basic human rights and this is a fact that is not known and is not debated in this country. In Israel it is debated intensely every day. In Europe and in other parts of the world the whole issue is known and understood and at least discussed. In the United States, this discussion is almost completely absent, and that is why I wrote this book."

It is the 21st published work by the former President, who has also long advocated the state of Israel's right to exist in the Middle East. Peace in the region was a hallmark of his presidency in the late 1970's, and since that time he has watched those prospects evaporate into a continuing cycle of violence. He partly faults the Bush administration for not taking an active role in promoting peace between Israel and the Palestinians.

"In the last 6 years, since Bill Clinton left office, there hasn't been one single day of negotiations or peace effort made between the Israelis and the Palestinians. And the whole world, particularly the Muslim world, feels that the United States has taken a completely biased attitude towards circumstances and do not and does not care as a government about what happens to the Palestinians."

Carter also has the distinction of being the only U.S. President to visit North Korea. In 1994, with permission from the White House, he successfully negotiated a nuclear deal with North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung that ultimately avoided U.S. military action. He believes that his efforts are an example of one successful way to deal with the reclusive communist nation.

"My going there with the approval of President Clinton shows that even when you have the most horrible, terrible, threatening disagreements with another power, you ought to talk to them."

He has volunteered his services once again, should he receive permission from the White House, to travel to North Korea to reach a settlement on the current impasse over North Korea's nuclear weapons program.

But when he isn't traveling the world monitoring elections on behalf of the Carter Center, or weighing in on the war in Iraq (he supports most of the findings of the Iraq Study Group and hopes that the findings will be implemented), he's at home behind his keyboard, typing away at yet another two books that should hit stores next year.

One is on the 25th anniversary of the Carter Center. The other? A coffee table book about the furniture he has created with his own hands throughout his life.

Aftermath: Unseen 9/11 Photos from a New York City Cop HD

The Iron Uniform

It's been an interesting Flag Day.

Today, I covered a story as interesting as it is significant to American History. And in covering this story, which started several weeks ago, it led to a nostalgic look back at my own family history.

Four Revolutionary Battle Flags under the ownership of a British family for more than 225 years were sold at auction at Sothebys here in New York. The british officer who captured the flags at the Battle of Pound Ridge in New York in 1779 and at the Battle of Waxhaws in South Carolina in 1780 passed them down through six generations of his family until the current man, his great great great great nephew, realized that they are the only examples of the "Stars and Stripes" that exist in the world today, and decided they were too valubale to hang on his wall, not to mention not easy to insure.

So when I started covering this story, it made me look back on the items of my family. My own family history.

Urban Fredrick Farabaugh, U.S. Army 1918

For years, I remembered that my grandparents had my Great-Grandfathers (Urban Farabaugh) World War I uniform in the attic of their house in Pittsburgh. It was in a cedar chest, and I distinctly remember that cedar smell when I would take a peek at the uniform. It was a perfectly preserved wool tunic and pants along with the famous Doughboy leggings and his heavy metal helmet. There were red Keystone patches on the arm and a red Keystone on the helmet (he was from Pennsylvania, and so he served in the Pennsylvania regiment) and it became something I took great interest in. But it was more than just a uniform.

Urban Farabaugh, post war 1919

My Great Grandfather is a man I never met. He died decades before I was born. But I am connected to him in a way few people can be. You see, he did what few people did after the "war to end all wars." He wrote about his experiences. Actually, he did what even fewer did. On February 11, 1920, he sat down at a desk with the Pittsburgh Water Heater Company, his employer, and typed out a narrative almost 15 pages long about his experiences in the trenches of the First World War in France. As a result, I know a man I never met.

Urban (left) somewhere in France, 1918-1919

An interesting point here is the man only saw active combat for exactly 24 hours. As a combat medic with the 109th Ambulance company of the 103rd Sanitary Train (all part of the 28th "Keystone", or "Iron" Division) he was called to the front on November 10, 1918. The truce was called on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month of the 18th year... November 11, 1918. This is why we celebrate veterans day as a national holiday on this date.

He did however, see enough of the war. Trench warfare, aerial dogfights, wounded, dead, and dying men. For the next year he would meet the Germans they had fought in that war as part of the occupation force. And it's all in his type written account.
But the uniform itself was a tangible piece of that written family history. I had heard a few years ago that my Grandmother had donated the uniform to the Pennsylvania Military Museum in Boalsburg Pennsylvania. In covering the story about these Revolutionary War Battle Flags, I was curious to see where my Grandfathers war trophy had wound up. I called the museum. By the end of the week I had called several museums, and all of them had news I had never hoped to hear. There is no record of a uniform ever donated to any of the musuems related to military history in the state of Pennsylvania in my great grandfathers name.

Pennsylvania Military Museum, Boalsburg Pennsylvania

I talked to curator after curator only to be disappointed at every turn.
While I haven't given up yet, I hold little hope of ever finding them. My grandmother insists she mailed them to the museum at Boalsburg, but the folks there never recieved it if she did, or never recorded it.

103rd Medical Battallion & Regiment Monument

Even so, my family still has the original manuscript written by my Great Grandfather, and I hope to give a copy of it to the musuem in Boalsburg, who indicated they would love to have it as a record of the history of the unit. And I hope to give a copy to the Legacy Project, or http://www.warletters.com/ to allow the history my Great Grandfather shared with me to be shared with other people just as interested in the past as I am.


And there is a lesson I learned here. It's to save my stuff as well. I still have the uniforms I wore on active duty in the Air Force. Several times I've though about donating them or throwing them away. And I've also kept my kevlar vest and chemical weapon suit with gas mask that I wore during the Iraqi Scud missile attack near our encampment in Kuwait during the 2003 Iraq war. Yeah, they take up space, and might even be able to grab a few bucks on EBay. But they do mean something to me, and as nostalgic as I am sometimes, they are only as valuable to me. And what would someone say to the great grandchild of mine who reads this blog some eighty years from now and wonders... where did that uniform and gas mask go?

VOANEWS: Oldest American Flag up for auction at Sothebys

June 14 is Flag Day in the United States. Sotheby's auction house in New York marked the date this year with a unique offering. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports on how the holiday and history intersect with one family's private collection of flags now heading to the auction block. The flags could fetch as much as $10 million.

The flags were the symbols of an American nation in its infancy -- symbols currently under the care of Sotheby's vice chairman, David Redden. "It's ironic to think that the most important item on the battlefield wasn't a sword, wasn't a musket, wasn't a cannon, it was the colors."

To the country they represented, they were more than just simple colors. It was in a battle fought more than two centuries ago during America's War of Independence that the story of four flags began. Revolutionary War re-enactor and retired U.S. Army Colonel James Johnson describes the significance a flag carried during the early days of the American military. "The flag was very heavily protected. It was not something you wanted captured. It brought dishonor to your regiment,” he said. “People rallied around that flag in battle."

One such unit was the regally uniformed Second Continental Light Dragoons.
They marched into battle on July 2, 1779 north of New York City to fight British and Loyalist forces at Pound Ridge. While there was no clear victor in the battle, the Dragoons did lose their regimental colors to Lieutenant Colonel Banastre Tarleton, an infamous British officer. Johnson said, "Banastre Tarleton was probably one of the best British cavalrymen. He gained a reputation probably for propaganda purposes, probably by us [revolutionaries], but a reputation he gained as being a ruthless commander."

Tarleton would capture three more flags, defeating the Americans in 1780 at the Battle of Waxhaws in South Carolina. A painting by Sir Joshua Reynolds on display at the National Gallery in London shows Tarleton with those three flags at his feet.

After Tarleton died in 1833, the flags made their way from the walls of one Tarleton family home to another and have finally appeared at Sotheby's in New York some 226 years later.

While the family knew the flags were special, Sotheby's considers this collection a discovery.

The flag Tarleton captured at Pound Ridge is one of the first to display the 13 red and white stripes of the American colonies. Another he captured in South Carolina is one of the first to display 13 five-pointed stars on a field of blue. Together, they are variations of the American flag that came to be known as the ‘Stars and Stripes.’

Redden underscores the significance. “We know the flags, three of them, were in Philadelphia in 1778, and described in this description as new. If they were new in 1778, then they almost were certainly made in Philadelphia, because Philadelphia had a thriving flag making industry. One of the principal flag makers in Philadelphia in 1778 was none other than Betsy Ross. So one can speculate that one of the makers of the three flags in South Carolina was Betsy Ross.”

This once private collection of family heirlooms soon heads to public auction at Sothebys. Reddon says the auction house and the family are committed to selling the flags to a responsible buyer. Ultimately, they hope the American public will have a chance to view these rare, unique, and well-preserved symbols of the founding of a nation.

VOANEWS: Historians Seek to Preserve Stairs That Helped Survivors of NYC 9/11 Attacks

As the fifth anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks draws near, one of the only remaining pieces of the World Trade Center in New York City is in danger of extinction. VOA's Kane Farabaugh reports on the efforts to save a structure that preservationists claim saved lives on 9/11.

It might be said that the path of progress at the World Trade Center site runs right through a concrete staircase.

But for those who were witness to so much death, so much trauma here almost five years ago they are more than just stairs.

Historic Preservationist Ken Lustbader says they mean so much more. "The staircases embody an emotional will of people who survived using it, and also the rescue efforts and recovery efforts of those people who were there on site for a full year recovering and cleaning up."

They've been called the Stairs to Survival, and are one of the few remnants that are intact and above ground on the site of the original World Trade Center complex.

The Sphere"The Sphere", artist Fritz' Koening's monument to peace that once stood at the center of the plaza, was damaged but also survived the 9/11 attacks. It is now off site, on display since March of 2002 at the tip of Lower Manhattan in Battery Park.

The Sphere, and the Stairs… a monument and a means of escape. The Sphere is already a protected remnant of the World Trade Center. Preservationists hope the same will happen for these stairs along Vesey.

Lustbader credits the sturdy construction of the staircase -- and the fact that it connected to the subway system below -- for its survival.

Port Authority spokesman Steve Coleman says the answer is far more elusive. "As to why these stairs survived, I don't think we'll ever know the answer to that. There were certain things that happened on September 11th that defy logic. I mean every other above ground part of the trade center crumbled that day. But somehow these stairs are still here."

Speaking from an historical perspective, Lustbader adds, "Really, there are a lot of historical elements there. There are the box beam columns of the original two towers that if you look down to actually find the shape of the towers there's the actual bedrock of those twin towers that are there, the slurry wall, and again, the staircase, but the staircase is the only above ground element but the staircase hasn't been dealt with yet because construction has been put off for a number of years."

What was "put off" is now back on track, for the most part. In March, developer Larry Silverstein, who holds the lease to the property, reached an agreement with the owner of the site, the Port Authority, to move forward with construction.

As a grand opening ceremony welcomes the first rebuilt World Trade Center structure, building 7, into the Lower Manhattan skyline, there's an urgent push by preservationists to save this visible reminder of what once stood on these six point four hectares of land.

In early May, the National Trust for Historic Preservation placed the stairs on its annual list of America's 11 most endangered places. It brought the issue to the public's attention, and further into the debate about how to remember the victims of 9/11.

"It could be a real touchstone to people and to generations of kids who are going to come to the site to really get a sense that this is a real authentic piece of the Trade Center right before their eyes. It is not a recreation; it is not going to be underground like other elements that are going to be a museum. This is going to be really in the place where people had the attacks affect them and people were there." Lustbader said.

Of the placement possibilities, Coleman says "There might be a possibility of preserving it here in place, there might be a possibility of moving it or a portion of the staircase to another location on the site when it is fully built. But I think we're going to look through every option and try to find every way that we can to preserve either part or all of the particular staircase here."

Keeping the stairs in place would not affect plans to build the cornerstone of the redevelopment effort and its largest structure, the Freedom Tower.

It would impact construction of tower number two - which Silverstein has an exclusive agreement to develop. Ultimately, the fate of the stairs rests with the Port Authority.
Preservationists hope the stairs might share the same fate as another landmark at Ground Zero.

Two steel beams, in the shape of a cross, also were left standing after the twin towers collapsed.

The World Trade Center Memorial Foundation has committed itself to making that cross a permanent exhibit at the site. As for "The Sphere", its resting place in Battery Park is also temporary. There are no final plans yet for its permanent home.