Focus on the moment you are in and the enjoyment of life you can experience in that moment. Watch while a string of enjoying moments transform hours, days, weeks, months into a pillow magically whisking you away from loss, pain and frustration. Enjoyment, small happinesses, gratitude for life and time … are all great healers.
~ A Kimiism
When is generosity bad?
When you don’t practice it ….
~ a Kimiism
The New Jersey primary to elect party candidates for the Wed Oct 16 2013 special Senatorial election will be held on Tues Aug 13 and voting is set to begin as early as next week, with counties getting ready to sending out vote by mail ballots early to the 15,000+ voters registered to receive them for the year. People who vote early may not have enough time to learn about the Real Cory Booker.
The buzz is just starting to build about Cory Booker’s sellout of the people of Newark he is pledged to serve in favor of the big money financiers he’s so in love with. They want to run the voters who elected Cory out of Newark and destroy Newark public education for children so departing residents will have nothing to come back to. We’re talking financiers like Mitt Romney, whom Cory lavishly praised on public television during the last presidential election. sneich reacts with comments and a hard-hitting question on the Daily Kos:
Today, the highest court in our nation stooped to a new low, thanks to Republican ideology loyal Supreme Court justices who voted to strike down a part of the Voting Rights Act designed to protect the voting rights of this country’s most vulnerable citizens. Adam Liptak of the New York Times writes,
Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg summarized her dissent from the bench, an unusual move and a sign of deep disagreement. She cited the words of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and said his legacy and the nation’s commitment to justice had been “disserved by today’s decision.”
My friend David Meza sent me this anti-Nazi propaganda cartoon created by Disney during WWII to stimulate United States citizen’s hatred for Germans. I’m a Jew who lost family in Hitler’s holocaust, so I’m far from being a Nazi sympathizer. But, I like to remember that not everything that reinforces my experiential and cultural judgments is factual or true. And I am a lover of truth. So, please, when watching this disturbing 10 minute cartoon portraying how Nazis killed love and hope in their young men to make them into the optimal fighting machines they wanted them to be, keep in mind that this is the American propaganda version of Germany. What really went on there may have been quite different from what this film portrays.
The cartoon disturbed me for another reason. In the militaristic, unfeeling youth mindlessly pledging obedience to the heartless Nazi philosophy, I see too many parallels with American society today. Which makes sense, right …. as this film is an American brainchild. Today in America, there are too many parents and children taking an approach to education and career preparation that embraces arrogance, elitism and a willingness to hurt anyone who blocks a student’s path to academic success, job security and the acquisition of material goods. In today’s education system, financially stable parents want their children to be separate from those who are not; standardized tests which are culturally skewed to favor middle class children over others and are used as leverage for separating students by economic class or ethnicity. And Blacks, Latinos and other students who struggle with the challenges poverty exerts on their school performance – and their lives overall – are ruthlessly deemed by financially secure student families to be worthy only of condemnation, and neither of inclusion nor assistance.
What is this trend, that even women refer to women as bitches? Stop doing this. Demand respect.
is generating quite a bit of discussion. Lady friend Marilyn admits that she uses this word, but in a popular language context (meaning, not with derogatory intent) and @Han Broekman points out that language mutates with time and across cultural lines. But a bunch of my Facebook friends say they’re glad I took a stand.
(BTW, if you’re interested in the Wonderwomn Poster, one of the twin sister artists talks about it here. And, they have an Etsy store where you can order a print.)
Today I came across this letter from former Newark mayor Sharpe James to the author of a front page December 2012 New York Times article about Cory Booker: Promise vs. Reality in Newark on Mayor’s Watch. Written by Pulitzer Prize winning reporter author Kate Zernike, the article presents an unflattering view of Booker, but it also refers offhandedly to Mr. James as corrupt. In this statement, Mr. James rebuts that characterization and shares some history about Newark and its governmental accomplishments.
When I was a girl, my father taught me why fire trucks are red. Of course, now that fire trucks come in yellow and white colors too, this story will eventually need an upgrade.
Fire trucks are red because:
They have 4 wheels.
4 x 3 is 12.
12 inches is a ruler.
Queen Mary was a ruler.
Queen Mary was a ship.
Ships sail the seas.
There are fish in the seas.
Fish have fins.
The Finns fought the Russians.
Russians are Red.
And fire trucks are always rushin’;
That’s why fire trucks are red.
The Chicago Tribune has a fabulous article on PBS’ TED Talks Education hour long show on May 8 2013, which brought
… together a diverse group of teachers and education advocates delivering short, high-impact talks on the theme of teaching and learning. You’ll also see Chicago’s Malcolm Xavier London performing a spoken word poem about the racial and class tensions he experienced … London, who just turned 20, is a terrific fit for TED — which stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. The nonprofit organization bills itself as being devoted to ideas worth spreading and often features people who have taken unorthodox paths giving talks about what they’ve learned
I love Principal Kafele‘s positive approach to solving today’s educational issues. He also shares great advice on personal achievement. This 11 minute video is an excellent sample of his practical approach for achievement and success.
Principal Kafele counsels:
If you see in your mind’s eye what you’re striving to achieve, the chances increase exponentially that your vision will become your reality … Everything starts with an idea. From the idea we create a goal – we devise a plan – we become firm in our purpose – we embark on a mission – a mission that is vision oriented. What we are going to achieve … (is) already locked into our mind’s eye …
Philosophy professors at a public California University have spurned an offer to be replaced by online courses which are part of the edX initiative to offer lectures from Harvard, MIT and other top-level colleges to students at other universities in the form of video clips delivered on line. The San Jose State University professors point out in a public letter that the drive to cut education costs by replacing hands-on teaching with film clips constitutes a gross degradation of the educational experience their students will receive; that video teaching isn’t half as good mind fodder as reading a textbook is; and that it would be crazy for them to passively agree that a video lecture can teach students better than themselves, as real life professors, can.
Whale Rider is a lovely story of a native New Zealand girl coming of age in a dichotomized society in which the role of native women is being redefined. It’s a beautiful and exciting story, and the girl both rides a whale and is transformed by the experience … This is a movie you will find enchanting, mystical and thought-provoking.
In this video, two friends sit down to dinner, and one offers to show the other how animals eat their food. Totally destroys his friend’s dinner, but they have a good laugh.
You Have Lost Your Minds and Your Way
You Republican preachers with your bible in one hand
And your gun in the other
You can’t tell me nothing
Telling me to accept the will of God in my body
Then go out and kill somebody
You can’t tell me nothing
By Mark Graham, 2013
Titled by Cynthia Oneday Flood.
Joey Furlong is a Bethlehem, NY 4th grader interned in hospital for a life-threatening condition and awaiting brain surgery. This week, he was approached by one of the teachers employed by the hospital, who wanted the boy to take a standardized test. CBS News reports (Tami is Joey’s mom),
Tami’s husband was in the room when one of the teachers came in talking about the test but she wonders what would have happened had he not been, “I would like to hope she would not have taken his arm that has an IV and oximeter on it and put a number 2 pencil in it, I would like to hope that she would wait to talk to the family.”
