New signs of a growing environmental awareness in Peabody include an arts festival, a new school, and net metering.

Several advocacy groups will join under the umbrella of the Stop Bullying Coalition. Our plan is to craft a commonly agreed set of goals, and then to write a bill to replace S604, for consideration by the legislature.

The Attleboro (MA) Human Rights Council is to be congratulated for their efforts to remedy the injustice affecting targets of bullying. The Attleboro City Council, if it passes an ordinance on bullying, would make history in the fight against bullying.

In a significant victory against bullying in Massachusetts, Attleboro is moving to prohibit bullying. When approved by the Council, the city ordinances would prohibit bullying or cyber-bullying.

The Canaan dog is like the original dog that entered the life of mankind at the dawn of domestication. A few are still roaming the Israeli desert or living with Bedouin, helping to herd sheep and to guard. For the last 42 years, Myrna Shiboleth has been raising Canaan dogs at her farm, Shaar Hagai, in Israel. She has been instrumental in preserving and strengthening the stock of Canaans, which are now recognized, shown, and loved worldwide. She is now fighting to retain her home so that she can continue her unique work of preserving the Canaan dog.

Bullying and mobbing in schools, business, community organizations and subsidized housing are plagues that affect everyone. How can we stop, prevent, and eliminate bullying and mobbing? We need first to understand and analyze what causes bullying. One useful approach is to view the social system within which bullying takes place. Another approach might be to adopt a public health perspective. These approaches are complementary and together can be the basis to develop interventions.

Bullying and mobbing are a plague affecting many institutions and community organizations. Certainly many elderly persons are affected, and not only in subsidized housing. Common explanations are that the bullies and or their targets have psychological problems; that people who live in subsidized housing are "losers" or they wouldn't be living there. We must seek further for explanations. There is increasing evidence that bullying of and by elders in many contexts is common; there is evidence that even people of means can engage in bullying and mobbing; and that the institutional environment is a significant factor in mobbing.

If we falter in our struggle—for dignity, for respect, for education, for freedom from abuse—or we weaken in our resolve because we are so few—we can gain humility, energy, and new dedication by the example of a young woman, Malala Yousafzai. Despite being shot by the Taliban in an attempt to stop her efforts for educating girls in Pakistan, she spoke at the UN on her 16th birthday. She spoke of peace, love, non-violence, and education. The terrorists thought they would change my aims and stop my ambitions. But nothing changed in my life except this: weakness, fear and hopelessness died. Strength, power and courage was born.