John Lennon's widow is calling for the anniversary of his death to become a day of worldwide healing.
In a full-page advertisement in yesterday's New York Times, Yoko Ono urges readers to mark the anniversary by apologizing to those who have suffered because of violence and war.
"Every year, let's make December 8th the day to ask for forgiveness from those who suffered the insufferable," writes the musician's widow, who signs the letter with the name Yoko Ono Lennon.
PHOTO: AP
In the open letter, Ono urges readers to take responsibility for failing to intervene on behalf of victims around the world.
"Know that the physical and mental abuse you have endured will have a lingering effect on our society," she writes in a portion of the letter directed to victims. "Know that the burden is ours." Ono was with the former Beatle when he was gunned down as he returned home from a recording studio on Dec. 8, 1980. The shooter, Mark David Chapman, remains in New York's Attica state prison. His fourth request for parole was denied last month.
Of her own loss, Ono says: "I don't know if I am ready yet to forgive the one who pulled the trigger . ... But healing is what is urgently needed now in the world." "Let's wish strongly that one day we will be able to say that we healed ourselves, and by healing ourselves, we healed the world."
Healing is certainly in order for daredevil David Blaine, after his latest stunt ended with a crash.
Shackled to a spinning gyroscope and hovering 12m above New York's Times Square, the magician managed to free himself around 2:15pm Thursday.
A dehydrated and weakened Blaine, who had been inside the gyroscope for 52 hours without food or water, landed on a wooden platform after jumping from the hanging gyroscope. He was strapped into the contraption Tuesday around 10am and his goal was to be out by 2pm Thursday. The 33-year-old magician was not injured in the fall.
The gyroscope, with three spinning steel rings, flipped Blaine in assorted directions as often as eight times per minute. He had no protection from chilly, rainy weather other than his clothing — including a black nylon ski jacket with matching pants. The stunt was part of a promotion for a department store.
In May, Blaine spent 177 hours underwater in an endurance stunts. Previously, he spent 35 hours balanced atop a 30m pole and was buried alive in a see-through coffin for a week. He also spent 61 hours inside a block of ice.
Also on Thursday, Heidi Klum and Seal announced that they are parents once again. The German supermodel has given birth to a baby boy, her husband, British pop singer Seal, said on his Web site. Johan Riley Fyodor Taiwo Samuel was born last week, weighing 3.9 kg, he said. The couple have a 1-year-old son. Klum also has a daughter from a previous relationship.
And French film star Philippe Noiret, whose trademark hangdog face delighted cinema audiences, has died, French authorities said last week. He was 76. Noiret was one of the most successful actors of his generation, starring in a string of cinema hits over the past five decades, including Cinema Paradiso.
In late October of 1873 the government of Japan decided against sending a military expedition to Korea to force that nation to open trade relations. Across the government supporters of the expedition resigned immediately. The spectacle of revolt by disaffected samurai began to loom over Japanese politics. In January of 1874 disaffected samurai attacked a senior minister in Tokyo. A month later, a group of pro-Korea expedition and anti-foreign elements from Saga prefecture in Kyushu revolted, driven in part by high food prices stemming from poor harvests. Their leader, according to Edward Drea’s classic Japan’s Imperial Army, was a samurai
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