文協國樂團"風雲際會“慶三十週年

潘台春（右），歐陽東美（左）夫婦是文協國樂團的創辦人
與團長。（周菊子攝）

            (Boston Orange 周菊子波士頓報導)大波士頓中華文化協會國樂團，七日晚在新英格蘭音樂學院喬丹廳，以“風雲際會”音樂會，慶祝成立三十週年。高水準演出，博得滿堂采聲。

            大波士頓中華文化協會（GBCCA，簡稱文協）國樂團原本是麻省理工學院國樂社，1984年才加入文協，2000年再成立由歐陽東美擔任團長的青少年國樂團。

    左起，楊信宜，冼鳳明，阮鴻燦，陳銘俊，陳志新，葛帝生
（Gary Christenson)，潘台春，郭雅志，張越麒，何濤等人
在演出後合影。（周菊子攝））

團長潘台春當晚感慨表示，該團初成立時，只是幾名國樂愛好者，定期排練。沒想到三十個寒暑堅持下來，排練場地跟著文協，從衛斯頓（Weston）搬到牛頓（Newton），團員增加至三十多人，彈奏樂器也擴大到包括二胡，高胡，笛子，揚琴，琵琶，古箏，板胡，笙，嗩吶，中胡，以及西樂的大提琴，低音琴，甚至還有打擊樂器的排鼓，雲鑼，鋼片等，讓該團可以挑戰聲部編制比較複雜的曲目。

文協國樂團“風雲際會”慶三十週年音樂會落幕後合影。（周菊子攝）

七日晚，文協國樂團以上下半場各七首曲目的演奏，展現該團過去這三十年來的成績，從青少年國樂團合奏“燈節”，“微山湖”，國樂團合奏“蘇堤漫步”，“美麗的鳳尾竹”，到兩團合奏“望春風”，“豐收鑼鼓”，全場觀眾都聽得十分投入，曲音一歇，掌聲立響。有觀眾悄悄說，難怪該團能應邀到紐約卡內基廳表演，波士頓第一夜，波士頓龍舟節也少不了要請他們演出，好讓美國人見識，原來中樂那麼豐富，多元。

潘台春（左起）介紹他哥哥潘台生，以及甄雲龍都是三十多年前
就已經彼此合作的音樂圈中人。（周菊子攝）

應文協會長冼鳳明邀請，和好友紐英崙中華公所主席阮鴻燦聯袂到會的摩頓市市長葛帝生（Gary Christenson）也說，原來中國樂器演奏這麼好聽，文協國樂團的確有水準。

當晚的節目，在國樂團的大陣仗演奏外，還安排展示琵琶，打擊樂器，楊琴，古箏，嗩吶，二胡等各種中國樂器的演奏，包括五人琵琶合奏“歡沁”，陳宏林等人七人以鼓，鑼，鈸，板等樂器演奏“老鼠娶親”，梅靜蘭等三人合奏楊琴“春到清江“，2012年獲得香港最佳藝術家頭銜的嗩吶大師郭雅志，和潘台春吹笛子，陳志新打鼓的合奏“淘金令”，楊信宜和沈星辰以古箏合奏“拔根蘆柴花”，何濤等人以二胡演奏“喜看麥田千層浪”等。

由陳志新所創辦水底魚打擊樂團擔綱的“老鼠娶親”，演奏者還配合曲目的頭戴老鼠耳朵道具，出場，過場時擺出老鼠動作，引得全場呵呵笑。

文協國樂團創辦人潘台春（右）介紹該團要感恩的各個人。周菊子攝

文協國樂團團長潘台春當晚在台上感謝過去這些年來曾與該團合作過的老師，音樂家，包括教他笛子的哥哥潘夢柏 ，創辦演藝沙龍的甄雲龍，楊琴老師張鎮田，李平，二胡老師高宏偉，林湛濤，馬燕，琵琶老師甄若茅，祿豔榮，笛子老師張正山，打擊樂老師陳志新，古箏老師楊信宜等人。他邀請當晚出席的前述各人上台，分享該團成立三十週年的喜悅，還特地感謝加入該團至少十五年以上的張越麒，劉健，以及一名遠從俄亥俄州趕回來的當年團員。

潘台春指出，指揮是樂團靈魂，過去這三十年來，該團曾有蔡金冬，陳怡彬，許雅民，陳淑慧，楊玲等人任指揮。波士頓大學音樂演奏博士陳志新，是現任指揮，與該團已有十二年感情。

駐波士頓臺北經濟文化辦事處副處長陳銘俊當晚應邀為文協國樂團的三名畢業生頒發證書。
 音樂會最後在全體合奏“風雲際會”中落幕。

           

            

          

北牛頓高中生在北京留言批評中國民主遭校方處罰

北牛頓高中赴中國交換學習學生在北京中學生留言簿上批評中國民主狀況，遭學校處罰不准參加畢業舞會事件見報後，該交換項目創辦者表示，該名學生的行為，危害了他們努力三十多年才建立的關係。

            北牛頓高中學生狄格魯（Henry DeGroot ）是該校參加和北京金山學校為期四個月交換學習計劃的八名學生之一。

            這些學生在出發前，學校曾就中國的文化及社會現狀做深入說明，並要求學生簽名，同意遵守行為守則（code of conduct）。

            在該交換計劃還剩三星期就結束時，這些北牛頓高中學生們到了北京郊區的一所學校訪問。在該校老師要求北牛頓高中生在該校學生的筆記本上留下聯絡電郵，以便將來繼續聯絡，交流時，狄格魯在一名學生的筆記本上寫下，”民主是”酷“小孩的事“，“造反有理”，”別相信你的學校和政府告訴你的謊話“等字句。

            這所郊區學校的老師發現後，通知了北京金山學校校長。北牛頓高中帶隊老師要求狄格魯寫道歉信，並親自送交北京金山學校校長，卻被狄格魯拒絕後，罰他關禁閉五小時，但未把他遣送回美。

            日前北牛頓高中早前舉行畢業舞會，狄格魯被禁止參加。他和女友一身盛裝，轉往附近的一家快餐店慶祝，這一“批評中國民主”事件，才傳了出來。

            狄格魯那時表示，他對學校很失望，認為學校教會他“言論自由”，現在卻因為他身體力行從學校學得的思想，理論而被處罰。

北牛頓學校總監David Fleishman五日時表示，處罰和狄格魯的是否有權表達自己的想法無關，而是他違反了參加交換計劃時所簽署的規定。該校在這八名學生出發前，曾就中國的文化及社會現狀做過深入說明，並要求他們簽名，同意遵守行為守則。

七日時，狄格魯表示，他是為他所做的事感到有點後悔，就像他說的，那是很笨，而且不成熟的行為，但他現在不這麼認為了，因為他現在有機會說他對學校行政當局的看法，這是他沒想到自己會有的機會。

            波士頓環球報昨（八）日刊出報導，指該交換項目的創辦者也表示，牛頓市公校與中國的交換項目，是他們努力了三十多年的成果，現在被一名不了解自己行為後果的不成熟學生危害了。

HHS announces the availability of $300 Million in Affordable Care Act funds to expand services at the Nation’s community health centers

HHS announces the availability of $300 Million in Affordable Care Act funds to expand services at the Nation’s community health centers

Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius today announced the availability of up to $300 million under the Affordable Care Act to help the nation’s community health centers expand service hours, hire more medical providers, and add oral health, behavioral health, pharmacy, and vision services. “Health centers are key to the Affordable Care Act’s goal of expanding access to health care,” said Secretary Sebelius. “They are critical providers of care and have also been instrumental in linking people to coverage through the Health Insurance Marketplace. Health centers provided enrollment assistance to more than 4.7 million people since last fall.” Today, nearly 1,300 health centers operate more than 9,000 service delivery sites that provide care to over 21 million patients in every state, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and the Pacific Basin.  The health center program is administered by HHS’ Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA). “These funds will allow health centers to expand health services to better serve newly insured patients,” said HRSA Administrator Mary K. Wakefield, Ph.D., R.N. Health center grantees requesting expanded services funds must demonstrate how these funds will be used to expand primary care medical capacity and services to underserved populations in their communities. For more information on this funding opportunity announcement, please visit http://www.hrsa.gov/grants/apply/assistance/es/esinstructions.pdf. To learn more about the Affordable Care Act and Community Health Centers, visit http://bphc.hrsa.gov/about/healthcenterfactsheet.pdf. To learn more about HRSA’s Community Health Center Program, visit http://bphc.hrsa.gov/about/index.html. To find a health center in your area, visit http://findahealthcenter.hrsa.gov.

BIG U SELECTED TO RECEIVE $335 MILLION IN "REBUILD BY DESIGN" COMPETITION

The BIG Team is awarded $335 million to increase resiliency in Lower Manhattan, protecting the city against future storm surges while providing social and environmental benefits to the local community.   

The Secretary of U.S Department of Housing and Urban Development, Shaun Donovan, NYC Mayor Bill de Blasio, Governor Andrew Cuomo, Senator Charles Schumer, and Zia Khan of the Rockefeller Foundation yesterday announced Big U, co-developed by BIG and Dutch One Architecture, as one of six winning solutions to protect U.S. cities from increasingly intense weather events. Founded in 2013 as a response to Hurricane Sandy’s devastations, Rebuild by Design called for an innovative community- and policy-based solution to promote resilience in the Sandy-affected region. Big U is selected as one of the winners of the year-long competition among ten multidisciplinary design teams and a total of 148 international applicants.

“The winning proposals are truly transformative and serve as blueprints for how we can safeguard the region and make it more environmentally and economically resilient,” said Secretary Shaun Donovan. “It’s my hope that Rebuild by Design will inspire other public-private partnerships to spur innovation and resilience in other parts of the country and around the world. By investing in these proposals, we are going to ensure that when the next storm comes, the region will be safer and better prepared.”

Coined the ‘Big U’, the systematic approach encircles Manhattan responding directly to the needs and concerns of the area’s communities. Running from West 57th Street south to The Battery and up to East 42nd Street, the Big U protects 10 continuous miles of low-lying geography that comprise an incredibly dense, vibrant, and vulnerable urban area. The team’s approach is rooted in the two concepts of social infrastructure and hedonistic sustainability. The Big U not only shields the city against floods and storm water; it provides social and environmental benefits to the community, and fosters an improved public realm. The team envisions three compartments that function independently to provide flood protection. Each compartment comprises a physically discrete flood-protection zone that can be isolated from flooding in adjacent zones. At the same time, each presents opportunities for integrated social and community planning. The compartments work in unison to protect and enhance the city, yet each compartment’s proposal is designed to stand on its own. 

“The Big U is an example of what we call Social Infrastructure. The High Line shows how a decommissioned piece of infrastructure – the abandoned elevated railway – can be transformed into a public space and green landscape. We asked ourselves: What if we could envision the resilience infrastructure for Lower Manhattan in a way that wouldn’t be like a wall between the city and the water, but rather a string of pearls of social and environmental amenities tailored to their specific neighborhoods, which also happens to shield their hinterlands from flooding. The Big U will not only make the waterfront more resilient but also more accessible and inviting to the citizens around it.” Bjarke Ingels, Founding Partner, BIG.

Proposed solutions for the components were designed in close consultation with the associated communities and a number of local, municipal, State and Federal stakeholders; each proposal has a benefit-cost ratio greater than one; and each is flexible, easily phased, and able to integrate with existing projects in progress.

Matthijs Bouw, founder of co-lead One Architecture comments: “The Big U really shows the power of design in building coalitions. In an intensive process with the community, the city and the housing authority we discovered how a well-designed flood protection system can have multiple benefits: housing preservation, improved urban spaces, and jobs. Sometimes people say about climate change that it is really a problem that is shared by everyone. In The Big U, we think that the benefits of investment in protection against it should also be shared.”


CDBG-DR funds will be used to implement the first phase of the proposal along the Lower East Side, creating a ‘bridging berm’ at the East River Park. The bridging berm provides robust vertical protection for the Lower East Side from future storm surge and rising sea levels. The berm also offers pleasant, accessible routes into the park, with many unprogrammed spots for resting, socializing, and enjoying views of the park and river. Both the berms and bridges will be wide and planted with a diverse selection of salt tolerant trees, shrubs, and perennials to create a resilient urban habitat.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren to discuss People's Pledge on June 10th

Tuesday's conference call for Common Cause supporters with Sen. Elizabeth Warren. 
She'll be discussing the "People's Pledge," used to limit the role of big money in her 2012 Senate campaign and how it can be applied to refocus elections across the country on voters, not big dollar donors.

Check the details using the note we sent out earlier this week (below) and RSVP today.

We have exciting news. Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), whose bold agreement to an innovative plan for breaking the power of big money in politics helped make her a national figure, will share lessons learned from her 2012 campaign's "People's Pledge" in a call next week with Common Cause supporters.

We hope you can dial in to learn more about the "People’s Pledge."

WHO: Sen Elizabeth Warren and activists around the country who are fed up about the power of big money in politics.

WHAT: Conference call on the "People's Pledge," and how to get congressional and gubernatorial candidates to join in taking it.

WHEN: Tuesday, June 10, 7:30 p.m. EDT

In 2012, then-candidates Elizabeth Warren and Sen. Scott Brown devised the "People’s Pledge" for their Senate race in Massachusetts. The agreement largely kept out-of-state Super PACs and political non-profit groups out of the contest, made the campaigns more accountable, increased the role of small dollar donors, and reduced negative advertising.

Common Cause is working to replicate the People's Pledge in key races around the country. We're excited to have Sen. Warren joining us to share with you how this creative agreement worked in her campaign.

Please join Sen. Warren for a lively discussion on this alternative to big money in politics.

Thanks for all you do,

The team at Common Cause

2014年首季 32.5%時薪工人工資不到十元

From:

MAP & DATA RESOURCES

Who makes what?

Map & Data Resources | ByMike Alberti | Income inequality, Labor

June 4, 2014 — As the Obama administration’s proposal to raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 from $7.25 an hour remains stalled in Congress and many low-paid workers call for the minimum wage to be raised to $15 an hour, this new visualization from Remapping Debate provides a picture of how much most hourly workers make an hour, and how that has changed over time.

The data used here are for workers paid at hourly rates, not for workers who work on a salaried basis. (In the first four months of 2014, those paid at hourly rates represented about 58 percent of all wage and salary workers.)

All data reflected in the visualization are adjusted for inflation to 2014 dollars. These data — from the Current Population Survey of the U.S. Census Bureau — show that the percentages of workers at various pay levels have not changed significantly between 1994 and 2014 (although the absolute number of workers at most levels has increased due to increasing population).

In the first four months of 2014, for example, 32.44 percent of all hourly workers made $10 or less an hour, representing 24,352,773 workers. In 1994, 32.72 percent of workers made the equivalent amount in 2014 dollars when adjusting for inflation ($6.25), representing 21,866,963 workers.

To put that amount in context, a full-time worker earning $10 an hour makes approximately $20,000 a year. That’s well below the poverty threshold for a family of four with two children, which was $23,624 in 2013. A full-time worker making minimum wage only makes about $14,500, less than two-thirds of the poverty line for a family of four.

In order to earn at least 150 percent of the poverty line (that is, to not be in a “near poverty” state), a sole full-time worker in a family of four with two children would need to make at least $17.70 an hour. More than 70 percent of hourly workers made below that amount in 2014.

To explore these data in the visualization, first enter an hourly wage (up to $100, in $0.25 intervals). Then select whether to view the percentage of workers making above the selected wage or making the selected wage and below. The visualization automatically adjusts the hourly wage entered to 2014 dollars in all previous years.

華美福利會宣揚移民故事 籌款逾25萬元

華美福利會（AACA）四日晚以“他們作為新移民的勇氣（Their Courage to be New）”為主題，吸引五百嘉賓到波士頓公園廣場酒店出席晚宴，為該會籌得廿五萬餘元。

當晚活動的重點之一是在接待酒會會場中展出十張照片，藉著華裔，非華裔各有五人的十個移民家庭故事，強調美國是個移民國家，幾乎每個人，無論是新來乍到，或已在美生活了四，五代，都有類似的克服生活困難，邁向成功的經驗。

華美福利會董事長陳美霞表示，該會是個為移民服務的機構，這項“他們作為新移民的勇氣（Their Courage to be New）”展覽，是要讓社會中畏懼，討厭移民的人重新思考，移民對美國的貢獻。

當天在會場展示的十張照片中，有開發出24小時完成基因測序的Eugene Chan與其來自香港的父母，第一個在波士頓華埠為耆英造房子的陳宣享，中華頤養院董事陳秀英的母親Mary Gee Chin與其家人，當晚獲頒社區服務獎的Ronald M. Druker的祖父，十七歲移民來美的東海集團董事長梁國忠一家人等等。

四日晚的華美福利會籌款晚會，由今年退休的WCVB第五號頻道電視台調查記者暨午間新聞主播Susan Wornik擔任司儀，會中頒發了多個獎項，包括鄺佩霞（譯音，Pei Xia Kuang）獲大學成就獎（College Achievement Award），Robert Brown獲事業進步獎（Career Advancement Award），古德溫律師樓（Goodwin Procter LLP）合夥人李保華以及德魯克公司創辦人Ronald M. Druker獲社區服務獎，花旗銀行獲年度僱主夥伴獎。

華美福利會當晚以現場拍賣，無聲拍賣兩種形式籌款。現場拍賣的物品有五項，分別為尼門馬可斯（Meiman Marcus）的秋季時裝經驗，四件不鏽鋼家電用品套裝，波士頓海港下午遊，新英格蘭愛國者隊足球明星Rob Gronkowski的簽名球衣，紅襪隊和水手隊（Mariners）比賽的門票四張等。無聲拍賣部分，分成聚焦點，出遊，冒險，健身時尚，藝術娛樂，派對，輝煌禮物，精緻晚餐等主題，共有不下93項拍賣品。

當晚到會嘉賓包括刻正競選麻州副州長的張禮能（Leland Cheung），波士頓市議員林乃肯（Bill Linehan），麻州難民移民署主任Josiane Martinez等人，華埠社區的頭面人物，也幾乎全都在場。

圖片說明：

            華美福利會董事長陳美霞（右二）向肖像畫家Warren（左一） 及 Lucia Prosper（右一）介紹當晚司儀，Susan Wornik（左二）。（菊子攝）

            當晚的表演，還有衣飾美麗的泰國舞。（菊子攝）

            當晚的社區服務獎得獎人李保華（左）與妻子，塔芙茨大學副校長陳貽美聯袂到會。（菊子攝）

            華埠社區的開拓先鋒阮陳金鳳（左）和最近獲得終身成就獎的麻州大學教授江念祖，惺惺相惜。（菊子攝）

            司徒福柱（右二）父子，和帝苑大酒樓東主黃官羨（左二），亞裔房地產協會副會長張湯姆（Tom Truong）都是奮鬥有成的移民。（菊子攝）

            “他們作為新移民的勇氣（Their Courage to be New）”照片展。（菊子攝）