Society
- Written by: Mike Bowler
- Category: Society
When I turned fifty, my warranty ran out. I felt like a car that slowly, inextricably, begins to wear out from driving too hard, driving to many miles, and driving for too long. 50,000 miles and 50 years.
First, the hubcaps fall off, then the mysteries of the engine – which have eluded me for years – begin to do whatever engines do when they slowly fall apart. Then brakes go bad, timing goes off (I assume cars still have rotors which haven’t been replaced by electronic devises), thermostats get stuck, lights go dim, and my car becomes fitted with aftermarket parts.
- Written by: Bent Lorentzen
- Category: Society
On October 7, 2018, "the United Nations released a damning report. The short version: We have about 12 years to actually do something to prevent the worst aspects of climate change. That is, not to prevent climate change—we're well past that point—but to prevent the worst, most catastrophic elements of it from wreaking havoc on the world's population. To do that, the governments of Earth need to look seriously at the forces driving it. And an honest assessment of how we got here lays the blame squarely at the feet of the 1 percent.
I don’t agree with the use of the term “Latinx" for a multitude of reasons. I’ve taken the time to analyze the arguments people have made to justify the use of the term, but I find it easy to debunk every one of them and then some. And that’s what I’ll do in this article.
- Written by: Rosa Jiménez
- Category: Society
I thought this year would be another one like the previous years, with a decreasing strength to fight for freedom here. But we got surprising news from inside when the new president of the congress or national assembly was chosen for that role. What’s different this time? Well, this man, Juan Guaidó, 36-year-old, belongs to one of the new political parties, the one founded by Leopoldo Lopez, the political leader who got imprisoned 5 years ago. And the right of this party was respected by the other and older parties. The interesting thing with Guaidó is that he does not have yet that despicable record of other Venezuelan politicians who deceived countless times the population.
- Written by: Mike Bowler
- Category: Society
One morning my son dismissively looked at me — as many of the adult children of old guys do — and said, “You have your Old Guy summer uniform on.”
“Old Guy summer uniform?”
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
Before you proceed: I believe the first amendment is critical to a healthy democracy. I do not advocate or wish to eliminate free speech.
For the past 3 years I have asked a person, Beth Light, in my community to stop sending me emails due to their content; typically ranting about how awful the president and Republicans are, calling out people in politics and even people in our community, their actions and words that Beth does not like. She insults individuals and groups alike, calls them names and even threatens them with legal action. After a while I noticed her email and social media rants were causing me stress so I asked her to please remove me from her email list. She ignored my first requests. I repeated my requests, initially being polite and friendly, after she ignored polite requests I began demanding that she remove me. Initially she refused and told me that because I was on the same committee as she was, I was compelled to receive them. So I quit the group due to her words (and to be fair the words of a few of the other members). I just did not want to hear or read them, I did not want to spend any part of my day listening to/reading about a person ranting and being mean to other people. I did not like how she treated people in my community and did not want to be around her ugly rancor. Now she is telling people that I need therapy because I am mentally unstable. That’s right, I am the one who needs anger management therapy because I am demanding she stop contacting me.
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
About women swearing..... for what it's worth I think we should not put a lot of importance on if a woman says the “F” word. I know that some find swear words offensive and they think it shows a lack of intellect. It seems they find it particularly offensive if a woman swears. I wonder, why? I swear quite freely because I'm an adult and I can do what I want. They are words just like any other word. They have meaning and they have a message and just like any other word, context matters.
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
https://www.kartoen.be/wp/contact/
It’s a bit complicated…..
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: Society
Texas-born Peter Ruiz is a friend who lives in Oakland, California. He is six feet four and – with a thumb in the eye to his receding hairline – he is purposely and fashionably billiard-ball bald. Peter’s birth name is, “Pedro,” redounding to his Mexican mother. His Spanish with her is as comfortable as the English of his African American father. Peter Ruiz is a self-contracting events coordinator, under the slogan, “Leave it to Peter” (my contribution). His clients are Silicon Valley-scale and similar. They keep him continually hopping all over the country.
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
The Loss of Things
Many years ago I heard that Fannie Flagg was inspired to write a book because she found
a shoe box of memorabilia her aunt had left behind, just a shoe box, after a
life of living all that was left was a shoe box of miscellaneous things. That
thought has resonated with me for many years. I also think about what imprint
people make after their death when I saw a picture of the Chapel of Bones in Evora in Milan, Italy. All of those people had lived
and died and no would ever know who they were, what they did, who they loved,
how they lived- nothing, it was if they never existed. We know the biographies
of many famous and infamous people and of our own loved ones because of what
they left behind, their writings, their art, or their monuments. We can piece
together their life and they can live again in our mind or stories or movies.
