Saturday, January 14, 2017

Classroom Exercise


Take a look at the graphic all the way to the end, then 
read the comments that were posted in response.











































(Name removed) ·
New Caney, Texas

Nobody in the back row worked to get there. Not one.
LikeReplyMar 19, 2016 12:38am

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(Name removed) ·
Works at Pikey

He should have added that the students at the back of the class could have always aske to be moved to the front, but they chose not to. Someone taking advantage of things you don't is not "privilage", it is laziness on your part. THe students in the front row are not responsible for anyone but themselves, just like the students at the back. The only thing being taught here is blame shifting and laziness.
LikeReplyMar 16, 2016 7:44pm


(Name removed) ·

I love my White Male privilege.   The Privilege to be assumed a racist because of the color of my skin. The Privilge to be assumed to be sexist because I'm a male. The Privilege to accumulate tens of thousands in student loan debt because they gave the scholarships to lesser performing minorities based on the color of their skin or "heritage". The Privilege of being passed over on jobs because they need to fill quotas of women and minorities. The Privilege of funding all the welfare programs for poor people who aren't willing to work to better their situation, but would kill me if I walked down their street.

AND my Privilege to be blamed for everything that has ever gone wrong in the history of humankind because I'm a white male who broke out of my own poverty ridden childhood to become a successful member of society.
LikeReplyMar 16, 2016 12:32pm


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My own thoughts on the subject:



It's perhaps worth noting that conservatives often blame the behavior of the poor for their poverty citing drugs and alcohol, gangs and crime, and the 'sinful choices' folks make. Liberals often blame the rich for exploitation of the workforce, of resources, and their influence on government policies. Who's right and who's wrong? Both.
Poverty is complex with interrelated and unrelated causes. Society's responsibility is just to do their part. There's much that can be done to make a lasting difference. The first step is perhaps noticing that there's a problem, that inequality is systemic and deadly.






___________________________

And of course this one caught my attention:

👽👽
(Name removed) ·
University of Houston–Clear Lake


The students chose their seating. Much like people choose their plight in life. You want a handout and do not work to better yourself, then you have chosen to sit in the back.
LikeReplyMar 16, 2016 9:19am




How many ways can we duck the obvious message and its' association with today's reality?  While one might choose a seat in the classroom for a variety of reasons, I doubt any would choose poverty or deprivation for their families. I doubt that any would choose to live in a dangerous neighborhood where their children are exposed daily to violence and the drug culture. 
Having worked in several countries and circumstances, it appears that in general, the poor work harder than most, try harder than most, and are continually struggling for a way up and out for themselves and their children. Some made bad choices, of course, as is true of each of us and all economic groups without exception. The difference is the number and degree of impediments an individual faces as they attempt to improve.
As a general rule, poverty is not a choice; it's done to you.
____________________________________________
And perhaps the most insightful comment ...
❤   (Name removed)
           ·Clifton, New Jersey
     You know, as someone that grew up in the suburbs to white parents (white step dad, but essentially my dad). I played sports and instruments and went to an amazing school where they knew my parent's first names w/o having to check my file.                                                                  I rebelled at 14 and decided to live with my black bio dad in, let's face it, the hood. I was suddenly surrounded by drugs and gangs and thieves, and girls that wanted to fight me for no reason.  My English teacher, most notably, was so amazed that I could read without help, as every other kid stuttered and stumbled over the simplest words when we were reading out loud. This is in HIGH SCHOOL.  These kids in the ghetto aren't taught that they can compete against white kids, they're taught that school isn't important and all they need to learn is survival in the jungle.       I know most people don't get a taste of both worlds, so maybe they don't understand, but going from a white school where they told me I could be president, or a rocket scientist, or whatever I wanted, to a school where they're like "omg you can READ", I truly understand how so few people can actually make it out of the hood. Their only role models are drug dealers and basketball players. I watched all my white friends prepare for college worrying about AP classes and SATs while my black friends were smoking weed and skipping class. You couldn't understand if you haven't seen it firsthand.                                                          I know this is long-winded but so many people truly don't understand how much harder it really is for people to make it out of an underprivileged situation.  I went from a straight A over achiever to a drop-out within a year of being in the hood because I couldn't take the violence, the feelings of hopelessness, and the harassment for "sounding too white" and having long hair.  It's not as easy as some might believe.       Like · Reply · 449 · Nov 22, 2014 2:37pm  

Thursday, January 12, 2017

Lend a hand

About one-fifth of adults globally have no formal schooling







Education makes the critical difference for young folks hoping to make their way forward, but it's difficult for many to achieve.  Developing countries struggle with a lack of skilled workers; they need their children to get education and specific skill training.  What's the hold up?

It's slowly getting better worldwide, but those on the fringe still struggle.
In one western Africa country, they've recently gone from four years up to six years of government funded education.  It's what they can afford to provide.  About 70% of children fail to complete the six years, however, and for those who do, high school costs are not covered and remain a significant hurdle.  Their economy means that from the start, the costs for fees and supplies and uniforms can be more than a household can manage.  School can be a long way from home, and transportation costs more.

The next to the last day of final exams in elementary schools,
the principal and teachers kick things off smiling.
The kids are polite, but not smiling as much;
these exams determine if they get to advance
to the next grade.  About 70% don't pass
beyond the 6th grade level.
So a bunch of us got together and chipped in, and kids get to stay in school.  Five in one family, four in another, three in another .... we started with nineteen.  Several have graduated from high school (the equivalent of college in their country).  Two have graduated trade school, one graduated from college.  One young lady is first in her class in the 10th grade now, and her mom is so proud!  Another and her sister are first and second in their classes in secondary school, which is a huge accomplishment.  These are kids we've met personally.  We're doing our best to support another 65 starting in a church school in Kenya.  A semester costs maybe $40 for elementary school.

If you'd like to help, you'd be welcome.  If you'd like to go see for yourself, they'll welcome you like they did us, and if you like, we can arrange introductions via local service organizations we know and approve.  :)

At the end of the road is the fishermen's beach where they launch their boats.
Too, there's the local church and school.  Home to some of the world's
nicest people, this small country in western Africa is one of
so many laboring to make their way forward from the
wreckage of colonialism, and now as
part of the globalized economy.

Tuesday, January 10, 2017

MLK -- "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam"

Martin Luther King, Jr. at the Ebenezer Baptist Church on April 30, 1967, fifty years ago.

"I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant! And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God.""
____________________________________

The sermon which I am preaching this morning in a sense is not the usual kind of sermon, but it is a sermon and an important subject, nevertheless, because the issue that I will be discussing today is one of the most controversial issues confronting our nation. I'm using as a subject from which to preach, "Why I Am Opposed to the War in Vietnam."

Now, let me make it clear in the beginning, that I see this war as an unjust, evil, and futile war. I preach to you today on the war in Vietnam because my conscience leaves me with no other choice. The time has come for America to hear the truth about this tragic war. In international conflicts, the truth is hard to come by because most nations are deceived about themselves. Rationalizations and the incessant search for scapegoats are the psychological cataracts that blind us to our sins. But the day has passed for superficial patriotism. He who lives with untruth lives in spiritual slavery. Freedom is still the bonus we receive for knowing the truth. "Ye shall know the truth," says Jesus, "and the truth shall set you free." Now, I've chosen to preach about the war in Vietnam because I agree with Dante, that the hottest places in hell are reserved for those who in a period of moral crisis maintain their neutrality. There comes a time when silence becomes betrayal.

The truth of these words is beyond doubt, but the mission to which they call us is a most difficult one. Even when pressed by the demands of inner truth, men do not easily assume the task of opposing their government's policy, especially in time of war. Nor does the human spirit move without great difficulty against all the apathy of conformist thought within one's own bosom and in the surrounding world. Moreover, when the issues at hand seem as perplexing, as they often do in the case of this dreadful conflict, we're always on the verge of being mesmerized by uncertainty. But we must move on. Some of us who have already begun to break the silence of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation of agony. But we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak. And we must rejoice as well, for in all our history there has never been such a monumental dissent during a war, by the American people.

Polls reveal that almost fifteen million Americans explicitly oppose the war in Vietnam. Additional millions cannot bring themselves around to support it. And even those millions who do support the war [are] half-hearted, confused, and doubt-ridden. This reveals that millions have chosen to move beyond the prophesying of smooth patriotism, to the high grounds of firm dissent, based upon the mandates of conscience and the reading of history. Now, of course, one of the difficulties in speaking out today grows the fact that there are those who are seeking to equate dissent with disloyalty. It's a dark day in our nation when high-level authorities will seek to use every method to silence dissent. But something is happening, and people are not going to be silenced. The truth must be told, and I say that those who are seeking to make it appear that anyone who opposes the war in Vietnam is a fool or a traitor or an enemy of our soldiers is a person that has taken a stand against the best in our tradition.

Yes, we must stand, and we must speak. [tape skip]...have moved to break the betrayal of my own silences and to speak from the burnings of my own heart, as I have called for radical departures from the destruction of Vietnam. Many persons have questioned me about the wisdom of my path. At the heart of their concerns, this query has often loomed large and loud: "Why are you speaking about the war, Dr. King? Why are you joining the voices of dissent?" Peace and civil rights don't mix, they say. And so this morning, I speak to you on this issue, because I am determined to take the Gospel seriously. And I come this morning to my pulpit to make a passionate plea to my beloved nation.

This sermon is not addressed to Hanoi, or to the National Liberation Front. It is not addressed to China or to Russia. Nor is it an attempt to overlook the ambiguity of the total situation and the need for a collective solution to the tragedy of Vietnam. Nor is it an attempt to make North Vietnam or the National Liberation Front paragons of virtue, nor to overlook the role they must play in a successful resolution of the problem. This morning, however, I wish not to speak with Hanoi and the National Liberation Front, but rather to my fellow Americans, who bear the greatest responsibility, and entered a conflict that has exacted a heavy price on both continents.



Now, since I am a preacher by calling, I suppose it is not surprising that I have seven major reasons for bringing Vietnam into the field of my moral vision. There is...a very obvious and almost facile connection between the war in Vietnam and the struggle I and others have been waging in America. A few years ago there was a shining moment in that struggle. It seemed that there was a real promise of hope for the poor, both black and white, through the Poverty Program. There were experiments, hopes, and new beginnings. Then came the build-up in Vietnam. And I watched the program broken as if it was some idle political plaything of a society gone mad on war. And I knew that America would never invest the necessary funds or energies in rehabilitation of its poor so long as adventures like Vietnam continued to draw men and skills and money, like some demonic, destructive suction tube. And you may not know it, my friends, but it is estimated that we spend $500,000 to kill each enemy soldier, while we spend only fifty-three dollars for each person classified as poor, and much of that fifty-three dollars goes for salaries to people that are not poor. So I was increasingly compelled to see the war as an enemy of the poor, and attack it as such.

Perhaps the more tragic recognition of reality took place when it became clear to me that the war was doing far more than devastating the hope of the poor at home. It was sending their sons, and their brothers, and their husbands to fight and die in extraordinarily high proportion relative to the rest of the population. We were taking the black young men who had been crippled by society and sending them eight thousand miles away to guarantee liberties in Southeast Asia which they had not found in Southwest Georgia and East Harlem. So we have been repeatedly faced with a cruel irony of watching Negro and white boys on TV screens as they kill and die together for a nation that has been unable to seat them together in the same school room. So we watch them in brutal solidarity, burning the huts of a poor village. But we realize that they would hardly live on the same block in Chicago or Atlanta. Now, I could not be silent in the face of such cruel manipulation of the poor.

My third reason moves to an even deeper level of awareness, for it grows out of my experience in the ghettos of the North over the last three years--especially the last three summers. As I have walked among the desperate, rejected, and angry young men, I have told them that Molotov cocktails and rifles would not solve their problems. I have tried to offer them my deepest compassion while maintaining my conviction that social change comes most meaningfully through non-violent action; for they ask and write me, "So what about Vietnam?" They ask if our nation wasn't using massive doses of violence to solve its problems to bring about the changes it wanted. Their questions hit home, and I knew that I could never again raise my voice against the violence of the oppressed in the ghettos without first having spoken clearly to the greatest purveyor of violence in the world today: my own government. For the sake of those boys, for the sake of this government, for the sake of the hundreds of thousands trembling under our violence I cannot be silent. Been a lot of applauding over the last few years. They applauded our total movement; they've applauded me. America and most of its newspapers applauded me in Montgomery. And I stood before thousands of Negroes getting ready to riot when my home was bombed and said, we can't do it this way. They applauded us in the sit-in movement--we non-violently decided to sit in at lunch counters. The applauded us on the Freedom Rides when we accepted blows without retaliation. They praised us in Albany and Birmingham and Selma, Alabama. Oh, the press was so noble in its applause, and so noble in its praise when I was saying, Be non-violent toward Bull Connor;when I was saying, Be non-violent toward [Selma, Alabama segregationist sheriff] Jim Clark. There's something strangely inconsistent about a nation and a press that will praise you when you say, Be non-violent toward Jim Clark, but will curse and damn you when you say, "Be non-violent toward little brown Vietnamese children. There's something wrong with that press!

As if the weight of such a commitment to the life and health of America were not enough, another burden of responsibility was placed upon me in 1964. And I cannot forget that the Nobel Peace Prize was not just something taking place, but it was a commission--a commission to work harder than I had ever worked before for the brotherhood of Man. This is a calling that takes me beyond national allegiances. But even if it were not present, I would yet have to live with the meaning of my commitment to the ministry of Jesus Christ. To me, the relationship of this ministry to the making of peace is so obvious that I sometimes marvel at those who ask me why I am speaking against the war. Could it be that they do not know that the Good News was meant for all men, for communists and capitalists, for their children and ours, for black and white, for revolutionary and conservative. Have they forgotten that my ministry is in obedience to the One who loved His enemies so fully that he died for them? What, then, can I say to the Vietcong, or to Castro, or to Mao, as a faithful minister to Jesus Christ? Can I threaten them with death, or must I not share with them my life? Finally, I must be true to my conviction that I share with all men the calling to be the son of the Living God. Beyond the calling of race or nation or creed is this vocation of sonship and brotherhood. And because I believe that the Father is deeply concerned, especially for His suffering and helpless and outcast children, I come today to speak for them. And as I ponder the madness of Vietnam and search within myself for ways to understand and respond in compassion, my mind goes constantly to the people of that peninsula. I speak not now of the soldiers of each side, not of the military government of Saigon, but simply of the people who have been under the curse of war for almost three continuous decades now. I think of them, too, because it is clear to me that there will be no meaningful solution until some attempt is made to know these people and hear their broken cries.
Now, let me tell you the truth about it. They must see Americans as strange liberators. Do you realize that the Vietnamese people proclaimed their own independence in 1945 after a combined French and Japanese occupation. And incidentally, this was before the Communist revolution in China. They were led by Ho Chi Minh. And this is a little-known fact, and these people declared themselves independent in 1945. They quoted our Declaration of Independence in their document of freedom, and yet our government refused to recognize them. President Truman said they were not ready for independence. So we fell victim as a nation at that time of the same deadly arrogance that has poisoned the international situation for all of these years. France then set out to reconquer its former colony. And they fought eight long, hard, brutal years trying to re-conquer Vietnam. You know who helped France? It was the United States of America. It came to the point that we were meeting more than eighty percent of the war costs. And even when France started despairing of its reckless action, we did not. And in 1954, a conference was called at Geneva, and an agreement was reached, because France had been defeated at Dien Bien Phu. But even after that, and after the Geneva Accord, we did not stop. We must face the sad fact that our government sought, in a real sense, to sabotage the Geneva Accord. Well, after the French were defeated, it looked as if independence and land reform would come through the Geneva agreement. But instead the United States came and started supporting a man named Diem who turned out to be one of the most ruthless dictators in the history of the world. He set out to silence all opposition. People were brutally murdered because they raised their voices against the brutal policies of Diem. And the peasants watched and cringed as Diem ruthlessly rooted out all opposition. The peasants watched as all this was presided over by United States influence and by increasing numbers of United States troops who came to help quell the insurgency that Diem's methods had aroused. When Diem was overthrown, they may have been happy, but the long line of military dictatorships seemed to offer no real change, especially in terms of their need for land and peace. And who are we supporting in Vietnam today? It's a man by the name of general Ky [Air Vice Marshal Nguyen Cao Ky] who fought with the French against his own people, and who said on one occasion that the greatest hero of his life is Hitler. This is who we are supporting in Vietnam today. Oh, our government and the press generally won't tell us these things, but God told me to tell you this morning. The truth must be told.
The only change came from America as we increased our troop commitments in support of governments which were singularly corrupt, inept, and without popular support and all the while the people read our leaflets and received regular promises of peace and democracy and land reform. Now they languish under our bombs and consider us, not their fellow Vietnamese, the real enemy. They move sadly and apathetically as we herd them off the land of their fathers into concentration camps, where minimal social needs are rarely met. They know they must move or be destroyed by our bombs. So they go, primarily women, and children and the aged. They watch as we poison their water, as we kill a million acres of their crops. They must weep as the bulldozers roar through their areas preparing to destroy the precious trees. They wander into the towns and see thousands of thousands of the children, homeless, without clothes, running in packs on the streets like animals. They see the children degraded by our soldiers as they beg for food. They see the children selling their sisters to our soldiers, soliciting for their mothers. We have destroyed their two most cherished institutions: the family and the village. We have destroyed their land and their crops. We have cooperated in the crushing of the nation's only noncommunist revolutionary political force, the United Buddhist Church. This is a role our nation has taken, the role of those who make peaceful revolutions impossible but refusing to give up the privileges and the pleasures that comes from the immense profits of overseas investments. I'm convinced that if we are to get on the right side of the world revolution, we as a nation must undergo a radical revolution of values. We must rapidly begin the shift from a thing-oriented society to a person-oriented society. When machines and computers, profit motives and property rights are considered more important than people, the giant triplets of racism, militarism and economic exploitation are incapable of being conquered.

A true revolution of values will soon cause us to question the fairness and justice of many of our present policies. On the one hand, we are called to play the Good Samaritan on life's roadside, but that will be only an initial act. One day we must come to see that the whole Jericho Road must be changed so that men and women will not be constantly beaten and robbed as they make their journey on life's highway. True compassion is more than flinging a coin to a beggar. A true revolution of values will soon look uneasily on the glaring contrast of poverty and wealth with righteous indignation. It will look across the seas and see individual capitalists of the West investing huge sums of money in Asia, Africa, and South America, only to take the profits out with no concern for the social betterment of the countries, and say, "This is not just." It will look at our alliance with the landed gentry of Latin America and say, "This is not just." The Western arrogance of feeling that it has everything to teach others and nothing to learn from them is not just. A true revolution of values will lay hands on the world order and say of war, "This way of settling differences is not just." This business of burning human beings with napalm, of filling our nation's homes with orphans and widows, of injecting poisonous drugs of hate into the veins of peoples normally humane, of sending men home from dark and bloody battlefields physically handicapped and psychologically deranged, cannot be reconciled with wisdom, justice, and love. A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.

Oh, my friends, if there is any one thing that we must see today is that these are revolutionary times. All over the globe men are revolting against old systems of exploitation and oppression, and out of the wounds of a frail world, new systems of justice and equality are being born. The shirtless and barefoot people of the land are rising up as never before. The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light. They are saying, unconsciously, as we say in one of our freedom songs, "Ain't gonna let nobody turn me around!" It is a sad fact that because of comfort, complacency, a morbid fear of communism, our proneness to adjust to injustice, the Western nations that initiated so much of the revolutionary spirit of the modern world have now become the arch anti-revolutionaries. This has driven many to feel that only Marxism has a revolutionary spirit. Therefore, communism is a judgment against our failure to make democracy real and follow through on the revolutions that we initiated. Our only hope today lies in our ability to recapture the revolutionary spirit and go out into a sometimes hostile world declaring eternal hostility to poverty, racism, and militarism. With this powerful commitment we shall boldly challenge the status quo, we shall boldly challenge unjust mores, and thereby speed up the day when "every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low, and the rough places shall be made plain, and the crooked places straight. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together."

A genuine revolution of values means in the final analysis that our loyalties must become ecumenical rather than sectional. Every nation must now develop an overriding loyalty to mankind as a whole in order to preserve the best in their individual societies. This call for a worldwide fellowship that lifts neighborly concern beyond one's tribe, race, class, and nation is in reality a call for an all-embracing, unconditional love for all men. This oft misunderstood and misinterpreted concept, so readily dismissed by the Nietzsches of the world as a weak and cowardly force, has now become an absolute necessity for the survival of mankind. And when I speak of love I'm not speaking of some sentimental and weak response. I am speaking of that force which all of the great religions have seen as the supreme unifying principle of life. Love is somehow the key that unlocks the door which leads to ultimate reality. This Hindu-Muslim-Christian-Jewish-Buddhist belief about ultimate reality is beautifully summed up in the first epistle of John: "Let us love one another, for God is love. And every one that loveth is born of God and knoweth God. He that loveth not knoweth not God, for God is love. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us and his love is perfected in us."

Let me say finally that I oppose the war in Vietnam because I love America. I speak out against this war, not in anger, but with anxiety and sorrow in my heart, and, above all, with a passionate desire to see our beloved country stand as the moral example of the world. I speak out against this war because I am disappointed with America. And there can be no great disappointment where there is not great love. I am disappointed with our failure to deal positively and forthrightly with the triple evils of racism, economic exploitation, and militarism. We are presently moving down a dead-end road that can lead to national disaster. America has strayed to the far country of racism and militarism. The home that all too many Americans left was solidly structured idealistically; its pillars were solidly grounded in the insights of our Judeo-Christian heritage. All men are made in the image of God. All men are bothers. All men are created equal. Every man is an heir to a legacy of dignity and worth. Every man has rights that are neither conferred by, nor derived from the State--they are God-given. Out of one blood, God made all men to dwell upon the face of the earth. What a marvelous foundation for any home! What a glorious and healthy place to inhabit. But America's strayed away, and this unnatural excursion has brought only confusion and bewilderment. It has left hearts aching with guilt and minds distorted with irrationality.

It is time for all people of conscience to call upon America to come back home. Come home, America. Omar Khayyam is right: "The moving finger writes, and having writ moves on." I call on Washington today. I call on every man and woman of good will all over America today. I call on the young men of America who must make a choice today to take a stand on this issue. Tomorrow may be too late. The book may close. And don't let anybody make you think that God chose America as his divine, messianic force to be a sort of policeman of the whole world. God has a way of standing before the nations with judgment, and it seems that I can hear God saying to America, "You're too arrogant! And if you don't change your ways, I will rise up and break the backbone of your power, and I'll place it in the hands of a nation that doesn't even know my name. Be still and know that I'm God."

Now it isn't easy to stand up for truth and for justice. Sometimes it means being frustrated. When you tell the truth and take a stand, sometimes it means that you will walk the streets with a burdened heart. Sometimes it means losing a job...means being abused and scorned. It may mean having a seven, eight year old child asking a daddy, "Why do you have to go to jail so much?" And I've long since learned that to be a follower to the Jesus Christ means taking up the cross. And my bible tells me that Good Friday comes before Easter. Before the crown we wear, there is the cross that we must bear. Let us bear it--bear it for truth, bear it for justice, and bear it for peace. Let us go out this morning with that determination. And I have not lost faith. I'm not in despair, because I know that there is a moral order. 

I haven't lost faith, because the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice. 

I can still sing "We Shall Overcome" because Carlyle was right: "No lie can live forever." 

We shall overcome because William Cullen Bryant was right: "Truth pressed to earth will rise again."

We shall overcome because James Russell Lowell was right: "Truth forever on the scaffold, wrong forever on the throne." Yet, that scaffold sways the future. 

We shall overcome because the bible is right: "You shall reap what you sow." 

With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our world into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when justice will roll down like waters, and righteousness like a mighty stream. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when the lion and the lamb will lie down together, and every man will sit under his own vine and fig tree, and none shall be afraid because the words of the Lord have spoken it. With this faith we will be able to speed up the day when all over the world we will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we're free at last!" With this faith, we'll sing it as we're getting ready to sing it now. Men will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. And nations will not rise up against nations, neither shall they study war anymore. And I don't know about you, I ain't gonna study war no more.

Saturday, January 7, 2017

The Keys



Why might millions of folks follow DJ Khaled with bated breath? What does he have to say?

He's one of many voices explaining Millennial and Gen Z thinking. His centerpiece issue, inequality, with a broad and detailed narrative.

Khaled is an American Muslim whose family immigrated from Palestine to New Orleans where Khaled was born and raised. He faced prejudice and discrimination as a child and numerous impediments to progress.  Recounting the story, he talks about “they,” and those who “don’t want you to win… don’t want you to progress… didn’t want you to prosper.”

Do we need to hear (understand) any of that noise?




Absolutely.  You may or may not appreciate his style but the content is extraordinarily relevant.

In the first chapter of Khaled's book, The Keys, he advises readers to, “Stay Away From They.”  Khaled explains that “they” are the “enemy” and must be avoided in order for you to prosper.


AND NOW I GOT THE KEYS. AND “THEY” HATE IT. “THEY” HID THE KEYS FROM ME BECAUSE THEY WANTED TO END ME. “THEY” DIDN’T WANT ME TO LEARN THAT IF I WORK HARD AND DREAM BIG I’LL WIN. THIS IS EXACTLY THE LESSON THAT I WANT TO SHARE WITH YOU. DON’T LET “THEY” EVER TELL YOU ANYTHING DIFFERENT. 

Note: Music producer DJ Khaled, who’s sometimes called the “Quincy Jones of hip-hop and R&B,” has produced hits for the likes of Jay Z, Kanye West, Drake, Ludacris, T.I., and Nicki Minaj, among others. He recently spoke at Harvard Business School to professor Anita Elberse's class on the businesses of entertainment, media, and sports.  His visit was sponsored by Get Schooled, a nonprofit that seeks to motivate young people to graduate from high school and go to college. 

Monday, January 2, 2017

Greenland is as big as ...








Having an accurate worldview doesn't happen automatically.  In the Mercator projection map here, the world is warped to match the European view at the time it was created.  Although grossly inaccurate, it's the one still used in classrooms and textbooks.

The equal area projection shows relative land area accurately.  Among the errors made visible, South America and Africa are appropriately larger than formerly presented.  India is correctly bigger than Alaska, and Africa is almost twice the size of Russia.

The view from directly above the equator gives a better
perspective; Brazil is the world's 5th largest country.
The Brazilian ecosystem is larger than most countries, and it contains perhaps greater biodiversity than any other place on earth. Studies suggest it has greater significance in planetary atmospherics than that of any other country in the world.

Curious what difference it makes?
Rainforests are often called the lungs of the planet for their role in absorbing carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas, and producing oxygen, upon which all animals depend for survival. Rainforests also stabilize climate, house incredible amounts of plants and wildlife, and produce nourishing rainfall all around the planet.  The Amazon basin contains 60% of the world's remaining rainforests.  And when you realize the actual size, you see the difference it makes, perhaps.

There are bigger and more important things than reality tv.  ðŸ˜Ž Some of the Kardashians have been to Brazil, but probably not for the eco-stuff.

Sunday, January 1, 2017

Wall Street 2017

How much blood can you suck out of an entire country?

University of Missouri economic historian and former Wall Street economist Michael Hudson explains, his job on Wall Street was to be the balance and payments economist for Chase Manhattan Bank. His first job there was to calculate how much debt third world countries could pay, and the answer was, "‘Well, how much do they earn?’ And whatever they earned, that’s what they could afford to pay in interest. And our objective was to take the entire earnings of a third world country and say, ‘Ideally, that would be all paid as interest to us.’” 

National and international trade have had benefited many albeit with a few problems well worth our attention.  With deregulation and globalization, however, the finance industry has become deadly, reminiscent of the death toll of wars and plagues.

Today, Wall Street is less constrained.  In terms of harm done and number affected, our finance industry leads the continuing war of conquest.

With this year's regime change, what should we be watching for in emerging government policy?