From child abuse and domestic violence to human sex trafficking and atrocities against civilians in war-torn countries, our world creates new victims daily.

Broken bones and bruises heal, but for many victims, the emotional damage is lifelong and life altering, says Amrita Maat, a nurse, child abuse survivor, and author of the inspirational new book, "Wearing a Mask Called Normal," www.maskcallednormal.com.

"Experiencing abuse can affect how you feel about yourself and how you respond to other people," Maat says. "These effects might be easy to see if you're observing them in someone else, but they can be nearly impossible to recognize in yourself without help."

The emotional and physical abuse that Maat grew up with set the stage for her to become a perpetual victim as an adult, she says. The choices she made and her interactions with others were often unwittingly self-destructive.

"Lifestyle changes that involve healthy choices include eliminating dysfunctional patterns, such as manipulation and abusive behavior - the things children of abusive parents learn from their role models," she says. "A healthy lifestyle comes first through recognizing unhealthy behaviors and then laying the groundwork for positive change."

For Maat, that groundwork begins with forgiveness.

"You have to forgive," she says. "You have to forgive yourself and you have to forgive those who've hurt you. When you're a victim, you're often angry - because you have every right to be angry, right? But anger, focusing on blame and thinking of yourself as a victim only perpetuates the dysfunction and the pain it brings."

So, how does one begin to forgive oneself and others? Maat shares the steps she put together, which helped her learn how to identify what would move her forward on her healing path. She started by creating a list of the people and circumstances she needed to forgive and systematically working through the process:

1. Identify the people who have caused you pain and why you feel that pain. This validates your pain; it was real and deserves to be acknowledged.

2. Identify the pain you feel from others and consciously release it to the universe in a personal ritual that has meaning for you. You might write it down on a piece of paper and burn it. Or speak the words out loud and blow them away.

3. Allow yourself to forgive those who have caused you pain as a means to your physical, emotional and spiritual healing.

4. Identify the people you have caused pain and recognize why you caused them pain. It's important to acknowledge that you, too, are capable of causing pain in order to forgive yourself and those you've hurt.

5. Identify the pain you have caused others with your actions.

6. Allow yourself forgiveness for the pain you have caused others as a means to your physical, emotional and spiritual healing.

While forgiving others for hurt caused intentionally is difficult, Maat says the hardest is forgiving yourself for pain you caused. But this is vital; in order to forgive others and to open yourself to positive energy, you must forgive yourself.

"From every hurtful moment, I learned something, and part of my process is to acknowledge each lesson and to be grateful for it," Maat says. "Forgiveness was possible when I released the hurt because it no longer served a purpose."

About Amrita Maat

Amrita Maat is a nurse who reached a turning point in her life when she was injured while trying to avoid the advances of a physician who had sexually harassed her for years. For the first time, she stood up to an abuser by taking the man to court. But she had waited too long under the statutes, so she did not get her day of justice. Because of the nature of her memoir, Amrita Maat is a pseudonym.

DAVENPORT - Scott County Auditor Roxanna Moritz is reminding those interested in voting in the upcoming school elections that the deadline to pre-register to vote is Friday, August 30, 2013. Those interested can register at the Scott County Auditor's Office or at a driver's license station. The Auditor's Office will be open until 5:00 p.m. on August 30th to accommodate voter registration. Mail-in registrations post marked on or before August 26, 2031 will also be accepted for pre-registration. The school election will be held on Tuesday, September 10, 2013. Polls will be open from 7:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m.

After Friday, those interested in voting, but who are not pre-registered, may register to vote at the polls on Election Day or at the Auditor's Office and vote an absentee ballot prior to Election Day. Those registering in this manner are required to provide proof of their identity through a picture identity card, such as a valid driver's license, and proof of their residency if the identity card does not list a current address. Details for Election Day registration are available on the Auditor's webpage, http://www.scottcountyiowa.com/auditor/.

There will be three positions up for election for the Bettendorf School Board, the Davenport School Board and the North Scott School Board. The Pleasant Valley School Board will have positions for director districts one, two, three, six and seven on the ballot.

The Eastern Iowa Community College District will have positions for director districts one, two, six and eight on the ballots in Scott County.

The Bettendorf School District ballot will include a public measure to approve the physical plant and equipment property tax levy. The Davenport School District ballot will include a public measure to update the District's revenue purpose statement for use of the District's portion of the state sales tax dedicated to schools.

For more information contact the Scott County Auditor's Office at 563-326-8631.

Report Shows County-by-County Analysis of Impacts in the Ten States with Highest Crop Insurance Losses due to Extreme Weather:  IL, IA, IN, KY, MO, WI, SD, NE, KS, TX

CHICAGO (August 27, 2013) - Extreme weather forced the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) to pay out a record-breaking $17.3 billion in crop losses last year, much of which could have been prevented using water-smart strategies, according to the Natural Resources Defense Council. Payments made to farmers during the 2012 growing season to cover losses from drought, heat and hot wind alone accounted for 80 percent of all farm losses, with many Upper Midwest and Great Plains states hit hardest.

With extreme weather conditions such as drought expected to become more common, record-breaking insurance payouts will likely continue to increase. However, widespread adoption of crop-loss prevention methods that build soil health and improve water management on farms can limit these losses. From 2001 to 2010, crop losses averaged just $4.1 billion a year, making the 2012 record-breaking FCIP payouts even more staggering.

"The Federal Crop Insurance Program has failed farmers and taxpayers by ignoring water challenges," said Claire O'Connor, NRDC Agricultural Water Policy Analyst. "The program was designed to be a safety net, not a subsidy for increasingly risky practices and less sustainable food production. We need to empower farmers to invest in low risk, water-smart practices that are proven to reduce crop losses."

NRDC's study, Soil Matters: How the Federal Crop Insurance Program should be reformed, includes a new interactive crop loss and weather map at www.nrdc.org/water/your-soil-matters detailing crop losses county-by-county in all 50 states in 2012, when more than 80 percent of agricultural lands nationwide suffered drought.

The report finds that American farms, particularly in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains, were primarily impacted by three major forms of extreme weather in 2012: drought, heat and hot wind, all of which are expected to increase in the future. The top ten states with the largest overall crop insurance payouts due to drought, heat and hot wind were:

·         Illinois: 98% of all crop losses were caused by drought, heat and hot wind, costing $3,011,443,799

·         Iowa: 97% of losses, costing $1,924,444,160

·         Indiana: 97% of losses, costing $1,130,302,660

·         Kentucky: 96% of losses, costing $454,380,256

·         Missouri: 95% of losses, costing $1,098,310,111

·         Wisconsin: 94% of losses, costing $372,479,370

·         South Dakota: 93% of losses, costing $1,029,780,352

·         Kansas: 93% of losses, costing $1,273,662,944

·         Nebraska: 92% of losses, costing $1,427,738,976

·         Texas: 75% of losses, costing $974,548,606

Soil Matters' analysis reveals the key causes of the staggering crop insurance payouts by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Risk Management Agency (RMA), and examines the systemic flaws in RMA's program, which fails to account for risky farming practices that create extreme weather vulnerabilities and ignores the risk-reducing value of healthy soil. The report outlines solutions for a crop insurance reform pilot plan that would build soil health to help climate-proof American farms, and would reduce government and taxpayer costs by encouraging farmers to become more resistant to weather-related risks. The pilot, which would not require legislation, would offer reduced premium rates to farmers who adopt proven soil-building management practices that sustain productive crop yields and result in greater water infiltration, less farm runoff and reduced flooding.

"Farmers can apply their own skills to build healthy soil, reduce the worst effects of climate change, and rein in the skyrocketing costs of this program," said Gabe Brown, Great Plains farmer and soil champion. "Healthy soil is one of the most effective and time-tested insurance policies we have."

These best management practices include cover cropping, conservation tillage and improved irrigation scheduling:

·         Cover crops: crops grown with the specific purpose of building soil health and increasing biodiversity on farms focused on growing major commodity crops. Farmers who used cover crops in 2012 averaged higher yields than farmers who did not, according to one recent USDA survey.  The yield benefit from cover crops was most pronounced in the areas hardest hit by the drought, demonstrating the importance of cover crops to drought-proofing fields.

·         No-till farming: a soil moisture management method when farmers plant directly into the stubble from the previous year's crops, rather than plowing up this residue. The protective stubble serves as mulch that retains soil moisture, suppresses weeds and increases a field's capacity to grow high-yield crops.  In 2010, corn farmers who used no-till were 30% less likely to file a crop insurance claim than conventional tilling corn farmers.

·         Improved irrigation scheduling: a simple altering of often fixed irrigation times, whereby farmers apply adaptive irrigating schedules based on frequent examinations of soil health. This improved efficiency could help farmers avoid some supply constraints that cause losses during dry years; in 2012, irrigation supply failures accounted for more than $14.7 million in indemnity payments.

Over 282 million acres of cropland - making up at least 70 percent of the nation's total cropland - are insured under the Federal Crop Insurance Program, a public-private partnership between the RMA and 18 private insurance companies. The FCIP is the most expensive farm subsidy program, and serves as the primary risk management tool for farmers to prepare for potential crop loss, including from weather-related risks.

For more information about 2012's record-breaking crop insurance payouts and how the Federal Crop Insurance Program should be reformed to encourage sensible, low-risk farming, see:

·         NRDC's Crop Loss Mapping Tool: www.nrdc.org/water/your-soil-matters/

·         NRDC's Soil Matters Issue Paper: www.nrdc.org/water/soil-matters/

·         NRDC Agricultural Water Policy Analyst Claire O'Connor's blog: http://switchboard.nrdc.org/blogs/coconnor/

·         Farmer Gabe Brown on Soil Matters: Read his OnEarth.org guest column and see videos

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Downton Abbey fans will enjoy Brucemore's Hired Help Tour -September 12, October 3, and November 14 at 6:00 p.m. Join a costumed interpreter for a tour revealing the lives of Brucemore's domestic servants in the early twentieth century. Consider what it was like to live and work on one of Iowa's grandest estates while exploring the servants' living quarters and the Servants' Village, an area open to the public only during this tour. Documents, photographs, and other materials from Brucemore's collections enrich visitors' understanding of the relationships between the employers and "the hired help." Admission is $15 per person and $12 per Brucemore member. Space is limited; purchase tickets online at www.brucemore.org or by calling (319) 362-7375.

The Hired Help Tour is part of Brucemore's Thursday Night Lineup. Every Thursday night Brucemore will feature a different specialty tour focusing on topics for all interests, including arts and culture, Midwestern industry, gardening, landscape design, architecture, preservation, behind-the-scenes at Brucemore, and growing up in the early twentieth century. For more information on the Thursday Night Lineup, visit www.brucemore.org or call (319) 362-7375.

About Brucemore

Experience Brucemore, an unparalleled blend of tradition and culture, located at 2160 Linden Drive SE, Cedar Rapids, Iowa. At the heart of the historic 26-acre estate stands a nineteenth-century mansion filled with the stories of three Cedar Rapids families.  Concerts, theater, programs, and tours enliven the site and celebrate the heritage of a community.  For more information, call (319) 362-7375 or visit www.brucemore.org.

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