OUR FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS
By Andrew Malekoff©
I have known Jay since he was a school age child. After graduating from high school he enlisted in the armed forces where he rose to the rank of Army Specialist. Jay (not his real name) served during Operation Iraqi Freedom and operated a Bradley Fighting Vehicle, a tank that is used in open desert warfare and urban combat environments. Jay and I spent some time together when he was on leave.
Jay plopped himself down on a couch next to me. He opened his laptop, tilted it towards me, and began clicking on to the photos that he took in Iraq. I looked at photos of the local landscape; snapshots of Iraqis of all ages posing with and without American soldiers; pictures of caches of weapons and improvised explosive devices (IEDs); and group shots of soldiers in their teens and early twenties striking various poses, some showing off fresh tattoos.
Sometime after his return to Iraq, Jay was discharged. He received a Purple Heart after an explosion threw him from his tank, leading to severe head trauma. Because he has yet to receive medical clearance to drive a car, his dream of becoming a police officer is fast fading.
Upon his final return home, Jay described to me the circumstances leading to his injury and some of the other situations he encountered during his time at war. Although his stories were haunting reminders of the damaging effects of war, I felt privileged to be one of the trusted few to bear witness to his experience. I knew that my friendship alone would not be enough to help him with the demons that he was trying to shake loose.
Today there is a legion of Jays that are home and on their way home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Many will require a broad array of services to help them and their families with the transition to civilian life.
An April 2008 study by Rand Corporation found that nearly 20% of service men and women returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, or about 300,000, have symptoms of depression or post-traumatic stress disorder with characteristic symptoms of anxiety, depression, irritability, feelings of isolation, intrusive memories of traumatic moments in war, and difficulty sleeping. Yet only 50% have sought treatment, and they have encountered severe delays and deficits in getting care.
Many returning service members come back to families where their spouses have kept the family going during the deployment and have managed many crises and concerns. Some soldiers may not find it easy to accept that their family has changed and roles have shifted, if ever so slightly, in their absence.
Children often will need an adjustment period to warm up to the returning parent. For example, younger children may act shy around them or may not appreciate the returning parent’s need to take care of themselves and to spend time with their partner. Teenage children may seem detached or distant as they spend many hours away from home with their friends, engaged in social activities. Without support, the returning service member may misinterpret this expected behavior and experience it as a personal affront.
As we approach the seventh anniversary of 9/11, let us not forget our military service members who were deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, and their families. I recently had a conversation with John Grillo, a Viet Nam era veteran and board member at North Shore Child and Family Guidance Center. He reminded me that, "The majority of these young men and women are the sons and daughters of our friends and neighbors. For some of us it may even be our son or daughter. For the most part they look okay and act just like us, even though they may be silently struggling with events of their most recent war time experiences. These young men and women deserve our sensitivity and our absolute support."
I don't think that I could have said it any better, and I couldn't agree more.
Originally published in the Anton chain of newspapers, Long Island, New York.
Monday, October 13, 2008
THE ADVERTSING OF EVERYDAY LIFE
The Advertising of Everyday Life
Andrew Malekoff©
In the afterglow of the New York Giants heart-stopping victory in Super Bowl Forty-Two, here is a sobering thought: according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of all traffic fatalities during last year’s Super Bowl weekend were caused by impaired drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.08% and above. Super Bowl Sunday has become one of the deadliest days for drunk driving crashes. It has also become a banner day for alcohol advertisers.
On the eve of the Super Bowl, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) traditionally calls on alcohol beverage marketers to avoid advertisements that appeal to young people. Who can forget Budweiser’s animated lizards Walter and Louie? The use of cartoon characters to promote brand loyalty at an early age is one of the more blatant marketing approaches. There are of course, more subtle and sophisticated approaches that play on the emotional lives of viewers of all ages.
I distinctly recall a televised beer commercial that posed the question, “Why ask why?” The ad portrayed a young man in a bar frustrated by his search for romance finally discovering a “true friend.” As the young man set out on his journey, viewers observed in him a sense of futility and resignation. The voiceover mused rhetorically, “Why ask why...while love isn’t easy…refreshment is.” The ad ended with the young man hoisting a bottle of his favorite brew to his lips.
What this commercial and many like it tell young people is: don't think, don’t feel, numb your senses, and recognize that relationships are hard work and hardly worth the effort. The ad says that although you cannot really depend on others, alcohol is dependable and delivers every time.
Advertisers are clever. Since their goal it is to sell products, it is only logical that they are going to present positive messages about drinking. According to a report issued by The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, from 2001 to 2005, underage youth were almost 250 times more likely to see an advertisement selling alcohol than one of the alcohol industry’s “responsibility” ads, designed to educate young people about the dangers of underage drinking. “The primary messages kids get about alcohol on television are from alcohol product ads that not surprisingly promote their use and enjoyment,” according to David Jernigan, executive director of CAMY.
One of the goals of advertisers is to try and establish brand name loyalty at a tender age. According to addictions experts, by the time our children are 21 years old they will have seen an average of 100,000 alcohol commercials. Since about ten percent of all drinkers consume about fifty percent of alcohol it’s clear that they’re targeting the most vulnerable of our young.
How do you suppose ordinary folks that don’t have the deep pockets of the alcohol industry can contend with this multi-billion-dollar bully pulpit? Have you ever heard the Texas Ranger creed? “No man in the wrong can stand up to a fellow in the right who keep on a –comin’.” Perhaps a corny saying from days done by, but this is just one example of what I refer to as “the advertising of everyday life.” We all know about this.
The advertising of everyday life is comprised of those homespun messages that parents and grandparents and other caregivers pass along to their children. Almost everyone can think of one or two from our growing up years. I believe that parents, and other caring adults, can be just as clever as Madison Avenue.
My mom was an antiques dealer known in the business as Antique Evelyn. She was a businesswoman first, but she loved collecting old signs and tins with interesting advertisements. When I was about 12-years-old Antique Evelyn brought home an old sign that read: None of us in our business or social life can coast along on a reputation of past performances. It’s the good job we do today that counts.
She framed the sign and placed it in a strategic place in the bathroom – just behind the toilet. This way my brother and I (and our dad) would come eye-to-eye with the sign several times a day, every day, year in and year out. According to my own calculations I zoomed in on that sign at least 5,000 times during my youth.
Coaches have slogans, preachers have sermons, teachers have lessons and my mom had signs. These are the advertisements of every day life. Some people might refer to this as imparting values. It is the collective commercials of everyday life that represent the “fellow in the right who keeps on “a-comin’,” a counterforce to the multi-billion-dollar bully and the rest of his gang.
Oh, and about mom’s sign; it is hangs in my office today.
Originally published in the Anton chain of newspapers, Long Island, New York.
Andrew Malekoff©
In the afterglow of the New York Giants heart-stopping victory in Super Bowl Forty-Two, here is a sobering thought: according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, nearly half of all traffic fatalities during last year’s Super Bowl weekend were caused by impaired drivers with blood alcohol levels of 0.08% and above. Super Bowl Sunday has become one of the deadliest days for drunk driving crashes. It has also become a banner day for alcohol advertisers.
On the eve of the Super Bowl, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) traditionally calls on alcohol beverage marketers to avoid advertisements that appeal to young people. Who can forget Budweiser’s animated lizards Walter and Louie? The use of cartoon characters to promote brand loyalty at an early age is one of the more blatant marketing approaches. There are of course, more subtle and sophisticated approaches that play on the emotional lives of viewers of all ages.
I distinctly recall a televised beer commercial that posed the question, “Why ask why?” The ad portrayed a young man in a bar frustrated by his search for romance finally discovering a “true friend.” As the young man set out on his journey, viewers observed in him a sense of futility and resignation. The voiceover mused rhetorically, “Why ask why...while love isn’t easy…refreshment is.” The ad ended with the young man hoisting a bottle of his favorite brew to his lips.
What this commercial and many like it tell young people is: don't think, don’t feel, numb your senses, and recognize that relationships are hard work and hardly worth the effort. The ad says that although you cannot really depend on others, alcohol is dependable and delivers every time.
Advertisers are clever. Since their goal it is to sell products, it is only logical that they are going to present positive messages about drinking. According to a report issued by The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, from 2001 to 2005, underage youth were almost 250 times more likely to see an advertisement selling alcohol than one of the alcohol industry’s “responsibility” ads, designed to educate young people about the dangers of underage drinking. “The primary messages kids get about alcohol on television are from alcohol product ads that not surprisingly promote their use and enjoyment,” according to David Jernigan, executive director of CAMY.
One of the goals of advertisers is to try and establish brand name loyalty at a tender age. According to addictions experts, by the time our children are 21 years old they will have seen an average of 100,000 alcohol commercials. Since about ten percent of all drinkers consume about fifty percent of alcohol it’s clear that they’re targeting the most vulnerable of our young.
How do you suppose ordinary folks that don’t have the deep pockets of the alcohol industry can contend with this multi-billion-dollar bully pulpit? Have you ever heard the Texas Ranger creed? “No man in the wrong can stand up to a fellow in the right who keep on a –comin’.” Perhaps a corny saying from days done by, but this is just one example of what I refer to as “the advertising of everyday life.” We all know about this.
The advertising of everyday life is comprised of those homespun messages that parents and grandparents and other caregivers pass along to their children. Almost everyone can think of one or two from our growing up years. I believe that parents, and other caring adults, can be just as clever as Madison Avenue.
My mom was an antiques dealer known in the business as Antique Evelyn. She was a businesswoman first, but she loved collecting old signs and tins with interesting advertisements. When I was about 12-years-old Antique Evelyn brought home an old sign that read: None of us in our business or social life can coast along on a reputation of past performances. It’s the good job we do today that counts.
She framed the sign and placed it in a strategic place in the bathroom – just behind the toilet. This way my brother and I (and our dad) would come eye-to-eye with the sign several times a day, every day, year in and year out. According to my own calculations I zoomed in on that sign at least 5,000 times during my youth.
Coaches have slogans, preachers have sermons, teachers have lessons and my mom had signs. These are the advertisements of every day life. Some people might refer to this as imparting values. It is the collective commercials of everyday life that represent the “fellow in the right who keeps on “a-comin’,” a counterforce to the multi-billion-dollar bully and the rest of his gang.
Oh, and about mom’s sign; it is hangs in my office today.
Originally published in the Anton chain of newspapers, Long Island, New York.
Sunday, October 12, 2008
FIRST TIME VOTERS - VOTE!
FIRST TIME VOTERS – VOTE!
By Andrew Malekoff©
As Election Day 2008 approaches I wonder how first-time voters, particularly teenagers, are faring with the challenge of sorting out the two candidates. Even when I have had my best sleep and my powers of concentration are sharpest, I cannot fully trust what I am thinking and hearing and whether or not I can accurately differentiate substance from style and media image from genuine person. As I watch and listen to the debates and see political ads flashing by, I am reminded of psychologist Howard Gardner’s view that we tend to place great emphasis on intellect, especially language skills and ability to reason and perhaps less emphasis on more personal intelligences.
The Candidates, Character and Multiple Intelligences
Dr. Gardner, author of “Multiple Intelligences,” identifies key areas that we should look for in leaders that go beyond scholastic ability. They include abilities to understand oneself and others; and an ability to address profound human concerns, and especially during times of crisis. These are abilities that we cannot possible know about for sure through scripted sound bytes and clever marketing.
We know that John McCain is a war hero, a brave soldier who refused to abandon his comrades and made an unimaginable personal sacrifice. We know that Barack Obama is the product of a racially mixed union. He resolutely navigated a labyrinth of social minefields that growing up biracial necessitates.
In my view, both are imperfect men of character that have proven themselves in times of crisis. If there is agreement that the character issue is a wash, does it make it any easier for young people placing their ballot for the time? I think not. After all, it doesn’t make it any easier for me.
Fear Factor
And, we cannot forget about the fear factor, the fire that is ignited and stoked in the laboratories of sleazy political operatives who trade in paranoia. They tell us that the actuarial tables are stacked against 72-year old John McCain, and that Barack Obama is a variation of the fictional Manchurian Candidate on a mission to bring down the country. The fear factor is aimed at fence sitters, independents who can be swayed one way or the other and whose collective votes can make all the difference.
So when one checks off character, pushes through media deceit, and overcomes the fear factor – all formidable obstacles to overcome – first-time voters are left with faith, faith about what they glean that each candidate really stands for in the areas that are most important to them.
Hometown Security
For me, what is really important in this era of homeland security, physical security that protects us from the outside-in, is that we don’t ignore hometown security, security that protects us from the inside-out. Inside-out security is about what needs to happen in the guts of our states, cities and towns to improve the standard of living, quality of education and physical and mental health care for all Americans.
Since 2001, according to first ever American Human Development Report (2008-2009) for a wealthy, developed nation, published by the Columbia University Press, “the income of the typical American family has stagnated…health outcomes for children are bad and not improving…and globalization and technological change have made it extraordinarily difficult for poorly educated Americans to achieve economic self sufficiency, peace of mind and self-respect enabled by a secure livelihood.”
Sorting More than Campaign Buttons
When I vote in a few days I will be reminded for the first time in decades of the excitement in the air that I felt as a child when the Kennedy-Nixon campaign was in full swing in 1959. I was too young to vote but I was able to choose a button from a bridge table that someone set up around the corner from our apartment on Wainwright Street in Newark, New Jersey. I was happy with the button I chose to pin to my t-shirt.
This year, almost a half-a-century later, there is a lot more to do than to sorting out buttons. First-time voters and I need to sort truth from slick campaigning fiction. As Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame University said, “Voting is a civic sacrament.”
I offer all good wishes to first-time voters who have sacrificed their time and energy to make some sense of who to support on November 4th. It is the soul searching and the struggling through that make you the true winners on Election Day.
Congratulations and welcome to the machine.
To be published in the Anton chain of Newspapers, Long Island, New York in October 2008
By Andrew Malekoff©
As Election Day 2008 approaches I wonder how first-time voters, particularly teenagers, are faring with the challenge of sorting out the two candidates. Even when I have had my best sleep and my powers of concentration are sharpest, I cannot fully trust what I am thinking and hearing and whether or not I can accurately differentiate substance from style and media image from genuine person. As I watch and listen to the debates and see political ads flashing by, I am reminded of psychologist Howard Gardner’s view that we tend to place great emphasis on intellect, especially language skills and ability to reason and perhaps less emphasis on more personal intelligences.
The Candidates, Character and Multiple Intelligences
Dr. Gardner, author of “Multiple Intelligences,” identifies key areas that we should look for in leaders that go beyond scholastic ability. They include abilities to understand oneself and others; and an ability to address profound human concerns, and especially during times of crisis. These are abilities that we cannot possible know about for sure through scripted sound bytes and clever marketing.
We know that John McCain is a war hero, a brave soldier who refused to abandon his comrades and made an unimaginable personal sacrifice. We know that Barack Obama is the product of a racially mixed union. He resolutely navigated a labyrinth of social minefields that growing up biracial necessitates.
In my view, both are imperfect men of character that have proven themselves in times of crisis. If there is agreement that the character issue is a wash, does it make it any easier for young people placing their ballot for the time? I think not. After all, it doesn’t make it any easier for me.
Fear Factor
And, we cannot forget about the fear factor, the fire that is ignited and stoked in the laboratories of sleazy political operatives who trade in paranoia. They tell us that the actuarial tables are stacked against 72-year old John McCain, and that Barack Obama is a variation of the fictional Manchurian Candidate on a mission to bring down the country. The fear factor is aimed at fence sitters, independents who can be swayed one way or the other and whose collective votes can make all the difference.
So when one checks off character, pushes through media deceit, and overcomes the fear factor – all formidable obstacles to overcome – first-time voters are left with faith, faith about what they glean that each candidate really stands for in the areas that are most important to them.
Hometown Security
For me, what is really important in this era of homeland security, physical security that protects us from the outside-in, is that we don’t ignore hometown security, security that protects us from the inside-out. Inside-out security is about what needs to happen in the guts of our states, cities and towns to improve the standard of living, quality of education and physical and mental health care for all Americans.
Since 2001, according to first ever American Human Development Report (2008-2009) for a wealthy, developed nation, published by the Columbia University Press, “the income of the typical American family has stagnated…health outcomes for children are bad and not improving…and globalization and technological change have made it extraordinarily difficult for poorly educated Americans to achieve economic self sufficiency, peace of mind and self-respect enabled by a secure livelihood.”
Sorting More than Campaign Buttons
When I vote in a few days I will be reminded for the first time in decades of the excitement in the air that I felt as a child when the Kennedy-Nixon campaign was in full swing in 1959. I was too young to vote but I was able to choose a button from a bridge table that someone set up around the corner from our apartment on Wainwright Street in Newark, New Jersey. I was happy with the button I chose to pin to my t-shirt.
This year, almost a half-a-century later, there is a lot more to do than to sorting out buttons. First-time voters and I need to sort truth from slick campaigning fiction. As Reverend Theodore Hesburgh, former president of Notre Dame University said, “Voting is a civic sacrament.”
I offer all good wishes to first-time voters who have sacrificed their time and energy to make some sense of who to support on November 4th. It is the soul searching and the struggling through that make you the true winners on Election Day.
Congratulations and welcome to the machine.
To be published in the Anton chain of Newspapers, Long Island, New York in October 2008
GORDIE AND 100 COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
GORDIE AND 100 COLLEGE PRESIDENTS
By Andrew Malekoff©
On September 17, 2004, Gordie Bailey, then an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado, died of alcohol poisoning as a result of a fraternity initiation for pledges.
Now is the time of year that fraternities begin “rushing” or recruiting pledges. This begins with a phase of goodwill and backslapping. As each desirable prospect that is offered, accepts a formal invitation to become a part of a pledge class, a new group is formed that then enters a stage of initiation. I went through this as an undergraduate student at Rutgers College.
Fraternity Initiation and Hazing
Initiation activities and ceremonies in fraternities differ from fraternity house to fraternity house. They include a combination of learning about fraternity tradition, performing community service and, in some cases, being subjected to ritualistic harassment, abuse, or persecution, also known as hazing. Sometimes the latter involves excessive and binge drinking.
I was subjected to fairly benign and sophomoric hazing and mild humiliation such as standing on my head while pancake syrup was poured down my pant leg. I was ordered to do pushups when couldn’t recall a fraternity brother’s hometown or if I flubbed a fraternity song.
No one ever demanded that I consume any amount of alcohol as a part of the initiation ceremony. I am not sure what I would have done, had this been demanded of me. At the time the drinking age in New Jersey was 18, so legal implications were not a consideration.
One Hundred College Presidents
Just weeks before the fourth anniversary of Gordie’s death, a news report stated that over 100 presidents and chancellors from some of the nation’s leading universities are advocating for a reduction in the drinking age from 21 to 18, believing that this will reduce binge drinking. Not all agree.
University of Miami (Ohio) president David Hodge refused to sign on with this group, known as the Amethyst Initiative (www.amethystinitiative.org). In a September 5, 2008 interview with his school’s newspaper, President Hodge repudiated his colleagues asserting that more than half of the students entering college have already begun drinking illegally and he fears that lowering the drinking age to 18 would increase alcohol abuse in high schools.
Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, states that “Every year on college campuses 700,000 students are injured due to alcohol abuse, 1700 die as a result of alcohol abuse, and 22% meet the medical diagnostic criteria for alcohol or drug abuse or addiction.” What this means is that we have a major public health crisis on college campuses across the nation.
Is the answer to reduce the drinking age? I think not.
Missing the Boat
The one hundred-plus leaders of higher education who subscribe to the Amethyst Initiative are missing the boat. It is simply not enough for them to recite the hackneyed logic found on their website that says that if “adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military [they should be entitled] to have a beer.” This level of analysis will only contribute to increased profits for the alcohol industry at the expense of young people’s well being.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has analyzed numerous studies in states where the drinking age was boosted from 18 to 21 and found that increasing the drinking age significantly lessened harm and death among young people.
The Gordie Foundation
Since Gordie Bailey’s death, his family created the Gordie Foundation to provide young people with the skills to navigate the dangers of alcohol, binge drinking, peer pressure and hazing. The foundation’s website (http://www.gordie.org/) contains a video trailer for a motion picture entitled HAZE that is intended to confront this national health crisis that affects just about every campus in America.
If you have a child in college and particularly one who is a fraternity member or prospective pledge, tell them to go to this website and to watch the trailer, after you have viewed it yourself. It will only take five minutes. If you are a guidance counselor, preparing students for college, take a look. Then talk it over.
And, while you’re at it, drop an email or letter to the president or chancellor of your child’s school and send them the link.
This column was originally published in the Anton chain of Long Island, New York newspapers in September 2008
By Andrew Malekoff©
On September 17, 2004, Gordie Bailey, then an 18-year-old freshman at the University of Colorado, died of alcohol poisoning as a result of a fraternity initiation for pledges.
Now is the time of year that fraternities begin “rushing” or recruiting pledges. This begins with a phase of goodwill and backslapping. As each desirable prospect that is offered, accepts a formal invitation to become a part of a pledge class, a new group is formed that then enters a stage of initiation. I went through this as an undergraduate student at Rutgers College.
Fraternity Initiation and Hazing
Initiation activities and ceremonies in fraternities differ from fraternity house to fraternity house. They include a combination of learning about fraternity tradition, performing community service and, in some cases, being subjected to ritualistic harassment, abuse, or persecution, also known as hazing. Sometimes the latter involves excessive and binge drinking.
I was subjected to fairly benign and sophomoric hazing and mild humiliation such as standing on my head while pancake syrup was poured down my pant leg. I was ordered to do pushups when couldn’t recall a fraternity brother’s hometown or if I flubbed a fraternity song.
No one ever demanded that I consume any amount of alcohol as a part of the initiation ceremony. I am not sure what I would have done, had this been demanded of me. At the time the drinking age in New Jersey was 18, so legal implications were not a consideration.
One Hundred College Presidents
Just weeks before the fourth anniversary of Gordie’s death, a news report stated that over 100 presidents and chancellors from some of the nation’s leading universities are advocating for a reduction in the drinking age from 21 to 18, believing that this will reduce binge drinking. Not all agree.
University of Miami (Ohio) president David Hodge refused to sign on with this group, known as the Amethyst Initiative (www.amethystinitiative.org). In a September 5, 2008 interview with his school’s newspaper, President Hodge repudiated his colleagues asserting that more than half of the students entering college have already begun drinking illegally and he fears that lowering the drinking age to 18 would increase alcohol abuse in high schools.
Joseph A. Califano Jr., chairman of the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University, states that “Every year on college campuses 700,000 students are injured due to alcohol abuse, 1700 die as a result of alcohol abuse, and 22% meet the medical diagnostic criteria for alcohol or drug abuse or addiction.” What this means is that we have a major public health crisis on college campuses across the nation.
Is the answer to reduce the drinking age? I think not.
Missing the Boat
The one hundred-plus leaders of higher education who subscribe to the Amethyst Initiative are missing the boat. It is simply not enough for them to recite the hackneyed logic found on their website that says that if “adults under 21 are deemed capable of voting, signing contracts, serving on juries and enlisting in the military [they should be entitled] to have a beer.” This level of analysis will only contribute to increased profits for the alcohol industry at the expense of young people’s well being.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has analyzed numerous studies in states where the drinking age was boosted from 18 to 21 and found that increasing the drinking age significantly lessened harm and death among young people.
The Gordie Foundation
Since Gordie Bailey’s death, his family created the Gordie Foundation to provide young people with the skills to navigate the dangers of alcohol, binge drinking, peer pressure and hazing. The foundation’s website (http://www.gordie.org/) contains a video trailer for a motion picture entitled HAZE that is intended to confront this national health crisis that affects just about every campus in America.
If you have a child in college and particularly one who is a fraternity member or prospective pledge, tell them to go to this website and to watch the trailer, after you have viewed it yourself. It will only take five minutes. If you are a guidance counselor, preparing students for college, take a look. Then talk it over.
And, while you’re at it, drop an email or letter to the president or chancellor of your child’s school and send them the link.
This column was originally published in the Anton chain of Long Island, New York newspapers in September 2008
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