IN THE REAL WORLD
By: Andrea Cohen


Walking around the LTC Village at B'nai B'rith Perlman Camp in Starlight, PA you may often hear campers and staff alike complaining that they feel completely out of touch with "the real world." Here are just a couple of things you missed while you were here:


ATLANTA SHOOTING
On July 31st in Atlanta, Georgia, Mark Barton, a day stock trader, walked into the brokerage firm where he traded and randomly shot at employees. Nine people died and thirteen were wounded. After shooting, Barton fled to the northern suburbs where he killed himself in his van. Barton had lost approxiamately $105,000 in stock trading and vowed to take revenge. His wife, son and daughter were found dead in their apartment. In a note found with the bodies, Barton said he wanted to spare them of a "lifetime of pain."


BOY SCOUTS
The New Jersey Supreme Court ruled on August 4th that the Boy Scouts violated a state anti- discrimination law by ousting an assistant scoutmaster, James Dale solely on the grounds that he is gay. He was expelled in 1990 when a local paper printed an article identifying him as a leader of the Rutgers University Lesbian/Gay Alliance.


IN ISRAEL ...
On August 10th, Akram Alkam, a 22 year old Palestinian from Bethlehem plowed his car into hitchhiking soldiers in a suicide mission. It took place at Nashshon Junction, 30 miles west of Jerusalem. The car hit soldiers near a hitchhiking post and then sped away. Ten minutes later the car appeared again and ran over the soldiers once again. Eleven soliders were reported hurt including the one who was seriously injured. Local police opened fire when Alkam appeared the second time and the driver was killed. Iron bars have been set up at some intersections to prevent such attacks.


JCC SHOOTING
Buford O Furrow Jr. was arrested for an attack on the North Valley Jewish Community Center in Los Angeles, Ca which occurred on August 10th. He was charged with the attempted murders of a 68 year old receptionist, a 16 year old counselor, two 8 year old boys and one 6 year old boy. After the shootings, Furrow fled to Las Vegas, but walked into an FBI office the next day to confess. He told investigators "he wanted this to be a wake upcall to America to kill Jews." The following days the children assempled in a next door church instead of the JCC which was closed. A father of a four year old said, "Nobody is going to scare us away. We're going to be here for good."