Keith: What is up, everyone? I amKeith Kocinski,here in India, and todaywe honor this man,Mahatma Gandhi. We will have more in just a little bit. Channel One News starts right now.
Emily: We have got more from Keith on a great history lesson coming up. Hey guys, I am Emily Reppert. Let's get to it.
First up, it has been three weeks, and the flu season is still going strong.Right now, it is on track to be the worst flu season in 15 years.And one place getting hit hard?Schools.
As if reading, writing and math are not hard enough, students face another challenge this year: avoiding the flu. Plenty of schools are upping their game.Lafayette School Corporation in Indianais seeing double the amount of students out sick this year, and the staff is doing all they can to prevent sickness from spreading.
Taylor Broadus: ILysol the desk almost every day. We have hand sanitizer; we put it on the kids before lunch, after lunch.
Emily: The school is sanitizing everything, even tablets. Why? Because it is kids who are primarily spreading the flu.Dr. Daniel Jernigan is the director of the CDC's Influenza Division.
Dr. Daniel Jernigan: Kids are really making up the predominant amount of influenza-like illness. And they're taking that back to school, it's getting transmitted there, and I think that's really what's driving a lot of the visits to the outpatient clinic right now.
Emily: That is why schools across the country are racing to contain the virus — some even closing. In Oklahoma at least six school districts closed because too many staff and students called out sick.
So far this season, at least 37 children have been killed by the flu. The CDC says everyone should get the flu shotand stay home if they have the flu.
Today marks the 70th anniversary of the death of a man who became a symbol of peaceful resistance — that is,fighting for equality and freedom without using violence.That man is the Indian activist Mahatma Gandhi.And Keith Kocinski is in India to see how his legacy lives on, not only in Indiabut around the world.
Keith: The words of a man known for peace, determination and deep spirituality —Mahatma Gandhi.
Adarsh Sivadas: He was that one dude who just came out and said, "You know, this doesn't work. Look at me. I did it this way. So why not adopt this principle?"
Keith: Often called the father of the nation, he forever changed the course of history for India and the rest of the world.
There are memorials to Gandhi like this one all over India.That is because he was the face of the independence movement helpingIndia break free from British control.
Girl: He gave us independence. We are here, we are free,only because of him.
Man: He keeps reminding us that you can achieve anything with the truth and nonviolence.
Keith: Born in 1869, at a time when India had been controlled by Great Britain for more than a century, Gandhi grew up in a very religious home, which impacted him for his entire life. He went to college in England and then moved to South Africa for almost two decades.It was there he faced humiliation and discrimination as an Indian. That gave him a sense of purpose, becoming passionate about equality for all people.
As a young lawyer in South Africa,Gandhi fought against many of the social and racial injustices taking place there.He later took those philosophies with him to India.
After moving back to India, he began fighting for the underclass, often called untouchables. But his work didn't end there.By 1920 he became the leader of the India Independence movement, fighting for justice for the Indian people under British rule.
But Gandhi didn't believe in a violent revolution to overthrow the British. He was all about peaceful civil disobedience.That includedboycotts, fastingand protests, and the movement was called“satyagraha.” His message motivated the country, and thousands joined him, many ending up in prison.
While you may not associateGandhi with being a criminal, he was thrown intoa jail cell like this many times during his life, not because he did anything immoral, but because he was fighting against the social and economic injustices many people had to face in India at that time.
Gandhi spent years in prison as he kept pushing for independence from Britain. Many of those campaigns were unsuccessful. In 1942Gandhi demanded the British leave India.But it took five years, and on August 15, 1947,India won its independence, although it wasn't exactly how Gandhi wanted it.
See, Gandhi pushed for a united India where Muslims and Hindus lived together. But the two religious groups clashed, andthe region was divided: Hindus in India and Muslims in Pakistan.
Malika; He never believed that there should be a division. It was a difficult line for him to straddle because, on the one hand,the Muslims felt that he wasn't supporting their cause of a new nation-state enough, whereas the hardline Hindus felt that he was being too kind or too generous to them.
Keith: Gandhi continued to speak out about the violence between the two groups, as well as the discrimination and poor treatment of the untouchables.But some were opposed to what Gandhi was doing.
Aditya Mukherjee: So the Muslim League saw him as the main enemy; the Hindu … also saw him as the main enemy.
Keith: And just months after India gained its independence, on January 30, 1948, one of the most well-known and respected leaders in modern history was assassinated on his way to a prayer service in Delhi, India.
Mukherjee: There’s no doubt about it that in one of our most challenging periods after independence, we lost the brightest and the most committed person, the top leader to be lost right at the birth of the nation.
Keith: At 78 Gandhi was shot and killed by a Hindu who was opposed to Gandhi's support for Muslims and the untouchables.
This is the memorial at the spot where Gandhi was killed. It is an important place for Indians and for those tourists who come to honor him, and it represents the lasting impact Gandhi had on India and on the rest of the world.
Gandhi became an inspiration for others who were fighting for freedom and equality.He helped bring change to centuries of prejudice against the untouchables in India, and in 1950 untouchability was outlawed in India.His peaceful resistance inspired other civil rights leaders, including Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela, who fought for civil rights in South Africa.
Teen: Constant aggression, constant wars, the feeling of revenge. Andthat is what is leading to the destruction of the world peace in a way.So his philosophy is very much relevant in the contemporary world as well, and that is why India still gives him the respect he deserved for all the amount of sacrifices he made for the nation.
Keith: A man who died in the pursuit of peace is now immortalized in the concept itself.In the words of Gandhi, you must be the change you wish to see in the world.
Keith Kocinski, Channel One News.
Emily: Great story, Keith.
And you just heard today's Word in the News: discrimination, which is the unfair treatment of a person or group of people, often because of race, religion, nationality, sex or age.
And to learn more about India and for a behind-the-scenes look at Keith's trip, just head to ChannelOne.com.
All right, when we get back, a 13-year-old basketball player breaking barriers on the court.
Emily: All right, the Winter Games are right around the corner, and, of course, following each Winter and Summer Olympics comes the Paralympics, where athletes with physical disabilities compete. And Arielle is here with a story of a teen chasing gold and a Paralympics dream.
Arielle: That is so right, Emily. Get this — she is only in the eighth grade and already on the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team.So I think gold is definitely in her future.
Thirteen-year-old Ixhelt Gonzalez shines on the court, shooting hoops from her wheelchair.
Ixhelt Gonzalez: I feel freedom. It's just like I can do whatever on the court.
Daniel Ferreira: She's got this fire that you see burns. She is a tenacious individual. Her ability to execute is really far above her peers.
Arielle: Her basketball journey began when she watched her big brother play. He has cerebral palsy.
Guillermo Gonzalez: I actually started playing before she did, and she kind of took over.
Arielle: So you can imagine just how excited he is for his little sister to be invited to play on the U.S. women's wheelchair basketball team.
Ixhelt: I'm happy that I got invitedand, like, nervous because it's, like, a big deal.
Arielle: It really is — and an unlikely invitation for a 13-year-old. Ixhelt becomes the youngest girl to be invited this year.
Ferreira: She's just ahead, you know, ahead of the game.
Arielle: All thanks to hours of doing drills in a Chicago Park District’s adaptive sports program.
Ferreira: We want our athletes to fight that norm of what disability is in our culture.
Arielle: So through her disability…
Ixhelt: Femoral interversion — basically, my hip is turned inward.
Arielle: …Ixhelt is breaking barriers.
Ixhelt: I do feel independent and, like, because I can take care of myself.
Arielle: Arielle Hixson, Channel One News.
And 12 players will be selected to compete in August at the world championships in Germany, which is one step toward the 2020 Paralympic Games in Tokyo.
Emily: Very cool, and I have a feeling Ixhelt will definitely be one of them.
Arielle: Oh, for sure!
Emily: All right,guys, it is time for us to bounce out of here.Have a good one. We will see you right back here tomorrow.
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