One of my family’s favorite pols has colon cancer. Congressman Donald Payne is also the first – and remains the only – African-American to serve New Jersey in our nation’s House of Representatives. We hope friends everywhere will join Ari, Ivan and I in wishing you a complete and speedy recovery, Congressman. We look forward to a future with you standing front and center in New Jersey and national politics. Here are some success stories that will give you encouragement to stand strong!
Congressman Payne, we’re praying for you!
Posted in All, Gov't & Trade, Wei Family
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Columbia prof asks: “Where did the benefits of technology go?”
Sometimes people ask such good questions they blow me away. I know I’m going to be asking myself this one for quite few days and I’ll be reviewing in my mind snippets out of Columbia Professor Steve Unger’s Feb 10, 2012 article and other answers I think of myself. It’s a great question! Continue reading
Posted in All, Digital Life, Gov't & Trade
Tagged advancement, benefi, ethics, society, technology
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Film the police. Hold them accountable to society.
This YouTube video is so striking, it deserves a space all of its own. Some of its violence is brutal, shocking and from the filmers’ perspective, apparently pointless as well. The film’s title says it all: If You See Something, Film Something (Recording The Police is a Dangerous but Necessary Thing To Do). Make sure you watch carefully and observe what’s really happening, instead of what the police are suggesting that you see: in the very first scene, the police surrounding a man say something to him about putting his gun down, but he’s actually holding a snow scraper. And then they shoot him 8 times.
Posted in All, Change the World, Gov't & Trade
Tagged film, government accountability, police brutality
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Erma Bombeck’s words on living well
I spotted this in the rest room of a domestic violence shelter for women and families during the 2011 end of year holidays. It struck me as so beautiful, and tonight I had a little time to find it on the web and post it. I hope you love it too. This is the wisdom shared by Erma Bombeck after she discovered that she was dangerously ill. Just a little heads up: some of these items are tear-jerkers . . . Continue reading
Posted in All, Find the Truth, The Best Stuff
Tagged live life to the fullest, treasure
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Do elitist terms get in the way of political progress?
OK, progressives know that Bernie Sanders is unmistakably a good guy. He pointed out recently that in a country with such a huge gap between economic classes, and with so many low and moderate income people drowning financially, any talk about cutting Medicaid and Medicare is inhuman and should be unthinkable; he’s certainly right about that, and it’s great to have a national political representative speaking plain truths on the public’s behalf like this. But then, Sanders goes on to talk about health care reforms that are still needed and throws out that ridiculous term, “single payer healthcare.”
Posted in All, Find the Truth, Gov't & Trade
Tagged challenge, inclusion, progressive, terminology
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Postpone Colombian trade agreement until workers are treated right
It’s hard to understand why the Free Trade agreement the US has made with Colombia is a bad thing, but this article lays the issues out pretty well. Basically, workers aren’t treated too well down in Colombia and when labor activists try to step in and organize unions for the workers’ protection, the activists are, “assassinated, threatened, and intimidated, and the perpetrators enjoy almost complete impunity.”
Posted in All, Culture, Gov't & Trade
Tagged Colombia, free trade, human rights, labor
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Wealthy steal children – that’s not news in the US
After Encarnación Bail Romero was arrested for being an undocumented United States resident, Judge David Dali ruled that because she was in jail, Encarnación had abandoned her son and was an unfit mother. The judge allowed Seth and Melinda Moser of Carthage, Missouri, to adopt Carlos, who is called Jamison by his new parents. Although Seth Moser has a criminal past, the judge ignored it. In 18 federal detention centers around the country this story is played out time and again. Now, ABC news reporters are showing the pain caused to families on both sides of the involuntary adoption issue whose lives are torn apart by difficult immigration issues. Continue reading
Posted in All, Change the World, Culture, Find the Truth
Tagged black code, black laws, reconstruction, slavery, steal children
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Banks must give back to the people
You just know the Washington suits and Wall Street sharks are going to try to rip Obama into shreds for his effrontery. They’ll demand to know how the president could suggest that banks pay a fee to finance the restructuring of mortgages to lower interest rates, when just the restructuring alone is going to cost them money. Well, I understand that this interferes with these people’s notion that nothing should get in the way of their (apparently) G-d given right to endlessly make money on the backs of the 99%, but I’m awfully glad voices are emerging in America who stand up to these guys and tell them, “enough is enough.”
Block Facebook invites (without unfriending people)
When I create an event on FB it’s easiest for me to just invite everyone, but two friends messaged me today asking to be removed from my announcement list. They live far from me and aren’t going to attend any of my events. I found a really easy solution from CIO.com that requires my friends to take action, but it should work great. How to block annoying Facebook invitations without blocking your friends. Continue reading
Intention to Deprive (Blacks, Latinos and Seniors)
There’s so much more intentional deprivation of what the vulnerable among us need to be well, than decent people imagine: of the poor, the uneducated and also, the elderly. Intentional deprivation of some leads to the humongous prison population in the United States and, as a cousin recently pointed out on Facebook, seniors suffer from a type of forced incarceration too. Tucked out of public sight in nursing homes where they, according to Laura, “have cold meals, lights off at 7pm, two showers a week, live in (rooms smaller than some prison cells) and pay rent at $4,000 a month!”. The cost for both prison and nursing home housing is unconscionably high and in some cases the service delivery is dismal too, because these facilities are increasingly, privately owned. That means investors are concerned more about profiting from owning these places, than they are about the welfare of the residents inhabiting them. In the case of seniors, oversight is also an issue.
Posted in All, Find the Truth, Help . .
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