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How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR – Video

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How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR
In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TED...

By: TEDx Talks

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How Freedom, Guidance and Support can change you: Benjamin Music at TEDxUWCCR - Video

Pussy Riot Talks Political Freedom With Matt Lauer

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Political freedom through music, lyrics and videos. That is the drive that keeps Pussy Riot going, even if it costs them their livelihood, even if they have to suffer through beatings.

Two members of the Russian punk rock band stopped by Today this morning for an interview with Matt Lauer. The Moscow-based feminist protest group is continuing to draw attention to their belief that Russian President Vladimir Putin is a dictator and that Russian people are not free.

Three band members were arrested back in March 2012 and charged with hooliganism for staging a protest performance in a cathedral during Vladimir Putins presidential campaign. The girls were denied bail and kept in custody for four months. Maria Alyokhina, Yekaterina Samutsevich, and Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, were ultimately convicted and sentenced.

Both Alyokhina and Tolokonnikova spent 22 months in jail. They were eventually released under general amnesty. Samutsevich received a suspended sentence.

The bands plight for freedom in Russia has drawn a lot of attention from the rest of the world. Nadezhda Tolokonnikova and Masha Alekhina spoke with Lauer about their struggles for freedom. Tolokonnikova said through a translator, I really sincerely wanted Russia that would be free, this idea we heard about free Russia it only became stronger in ourselves during [these] two years that we were in jail. If our government thought that they would just break us down by jailing us, I mean, it didnt work out at all.

Despite the bands run of success in the music world and their growing fame, they lead difficult lives. Lauer asked about how life has been since their release from prison. Tolokonnika responded, If we go to the people getting jailed and we want to get in, the people of the government, they attack us and they spray us so we have head concussions and burning of the eyes. Thats what we suffer.

Tolokonnikova and Alekhina are both set to appear at Tina Browns fifth annual Women in the World Summit. The group will take part in a panel discussion which will be moderated by Charlie Rose. Brown chose the band members because, They paid a heavy price for their resistance to Putin and I think that what theyve shown is exactly what is happening now: Putin is a thug, Putin is a bully. They were brave enough to stand up, they paid a price and they went in as students and they came out as world famous activists.

Image via Wikimedia Commons

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Pussy Riot Talks Political Freedom With Matt Lauer

Mississippi Governor Signs Controversial Religious Freedom Bill

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U.S. Mississippi

Mississippis Republican Gov. Phil Bryant signed a bill Thursday that would allow residents to sue over laws they believe impinge on their free exercise of religious beliefs.

Supporters say the Mississippi Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which will become law July 1, will guarantee freedom of religion without government interference, but opponents believe the law will permit discrimination against gays and lesbians. A similar bill that would have allowed Arizona residents to deny service to gays and lesbians on religious grounds was vetoed by Republican Gov. Jan Brewer last month.

This is a victory for the First Amendment and the right to live and work according to ones conscience, said Tony Perkins, the president of the conservative Family Research Council and an attendant at the signing ceremony, in a public statement. This commonsense measure was a no-brainer for freedom, and like the federal [Religious Freedom Restoration Act], it simply bars government discrimination against religious exercise. The legislature gave strong approval to a bill that declares that individuals do not have to trade their religious freedom for entrance into public commerce.

Similar bills are pending in Missouri and Oklahoma, according to the Washington Post, and eighteen other states have already enacted religious freedom laws. Civil rights advocates have opposed the bills, including in Mississippi, despite the state government removing some of the strongest original language.

We remain hopeful that courts throughout the state will reject any attempts to use religion to justify discrimination, Morgan Miller, communications director of Mississippis ACLU chapter, said in a public statement. Nobody should be refused service because of who they are.

The bill will also add In God We Trust to the state seal.

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Mississippi Governor Signs Controversial Religious Freedom Bill


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