Society
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
This. How do we handle this? By ‘this’ I mean, when our friends post something in social media that really disturbs us. How do we have conversations with people and maintain a friendship? And should we? Some say, “We should agree to disagree.” Others say we should not "live in an echo chamber". But isn’t that what our elected officials are doing and it certainly isn’t getting results. Whether you are the person asking the questions in this meme or you are the person responding, it’s a problem for us all. There does not seem to be a compromise in this dialogue. Social media has the potential to be a place where we could really have our voice heard, yet, some seem to try to shut us down with rude insults and demeaning language, some even threaten us.
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
It may seem strange to some that while I consider myself an atheist I attempt to follow the teachings of the Buddha. It isn't odd because I don't think of the Buddha as a god or all powerful being, he was a man, he lived and he died. I don't consider his ideas to be the 'only true words' they are simply true to me. I don't need a special building to consider his ideas- I can read about his ideas and think about them anywhere I happen to be. And he had some really good ideas! His ideas are simple and easy to understand. In fact, I can put them all on one piece of paper. How beautiful is that?! I carry them on a little piece of paper in my wallet.
- Written by: Deborah Baron
- Category: Society
CONNECTING WITH COMPASSION
This weekend in a tiny little shop, in a large city, I experienced reality face to face. Most of the time we move along in life minding our own business, preoccupied with our family life and our jobs, we just move through the motions and get from waking up to falling asleep and onto the next day when we repeat and do it all over again. Life is filled with special moments and events that stand out in our memories both positively and negatively, our wedding day or graduating from university are two examples of happy occasions we cherish and we take photos and have a party to celebrate the milestone. Sometimes we have an unwelcome event, like a car accident, instead of our routine commute to work where we sometimes don't even remember the drive, we can find our car embedded in another car. We remember that very distinctly because it upsets our world. This weekend I experienced a personal moment that brought the reality of the nightly news into my personal space. Impetuously I joined a couple of friends on a mundane trip to a grocery store, except in this case one of my friends is Turkish and her grocery store is a Mediterranean grocery store run by people of Middle Eastern descent. In that jumbled, cramped, over-stuffed store on a random street in a typical American city I met a stranger that brought current affairs hurtling into my consciousness.
- Written by: Tom Hedges
- Category: Society
Lone Ranger: Tonto, it's time we leave. OK Kemosabe.
Hi Ho Silver...Away!
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: Society
The quintet of human, physical perceptual experience is well established: seeing; hearing; smelling; tasting; and touching. All sentient life – to varying degrees of efficiency – possesses some or all of these five capabilities.
· The eagle, from dizzying heights, can detect camouflaged prey scurrying along the ground.
- Written by: Laura Helvey
- Category: Society
Imagine if you will a woman who was abused as a child. A woman whose sense of purpose and identity is nonexistent as an 18-year-old adolescent. A woman who is unwed, pregnant, and 70 miles away from home, living in an economy apartment with the man who promised her everything when she was 17. Imagine if you will a situation where she works three jobs to support his drinking because he said she was special. He was not the only one who told her that; her father used to tell her that when she was five, right before bed each night when he molested her. A woman whose mother was so insanely narcissistic that holding a conversation with her was impossible, unless it revolved around how she looked, what she bought for herself, or how her day was going. A woman whose friends encompassed both men and women who always wanted nothing but sex from her. Imagine a woman being beaten, raped, verbally abused, and emotionally battered every night for 5 years. A woman who tried to tell other people, but no one would listen to her. There is no support network, no friends who will help her unless she has sex with them, no parents to love her and tell her it is not her fault. She is alone, scared, pregnant, penniless, beaten, hurt, confused, and the world around her is making her indifferent to pain. She lives on eggshells every day of her life because the man who was supposed to love her is hurting her. After years, she finally and barely gets out with her life and the life of her child. Now imagine someone asking her, "Why did you stay?"
- Written by: Laura Helvey
- Category: Society
This cartoon picture is representative of the error in thinking amongst radical right wing extremists. It is understood that a soldier knows the risks he or she takes when signing up for the military – it is in their job description! Should students in America have to sign the same contract a soldier does? Of course not. There is no reasonable expectation of soldiers to be in a "safe place" when they march off to war for our country. Students, on the other hand, are supposed to be in a safe place when they step foot on a college campus. How can a logical person even attempt to make this kind of comparison between a student and a soldier? Note the mockery of the student, as though students in America are all hipsters or hippies.
- Written by: Curtis W. Long
- Category: Society
Mike Slater, San Diego KFSD Radio host of a talk-show of the same name, announced that he was going to interview Walter Lamb, President and CEO of Alliance for African Assistance, one of 4 refugee organizations in San Diego. Because of previous, personal contact with both Slater and Lamb, this writer took note, as explained below:
