Poverty is real and present in the USA

That was tough to read... but I know it all too well.  

Poverty is real and present in today's USofA.

Now, take a look at an innocent child. Imagine what that child would feel like in poverty.

 
This child is what poverty looks like. 

This is what poverty looks like for real. It is what Poverty is for these students and teachers; sadly, it is an acceptable loss for America and Americans. Sadly, we blame those kids, their parents, instead of taking responsibility ourselves. 

I am angry now. I am angry that this is acceptable. 

I am concerned that we are working on wealth creation, that we are building weapons, that we are putting up undemocratic governments at home and abroad, that we are devaluing children and life. 

Concerned.

More Eggs, Less Meat - The Return of the Weekday Veg

It's official.

Everyone knows it is time to change the way we are eating... and what.

And changing our diet can save the planet.

A lot changed since 2010. In 2015, we know shrinking meat consumption is critical generally.

But what about how coffee is back? Coffee - healthier than ever! It may even make you smarter.

You have 45 days to make your comments here.

My own personal testimony to the wicked goodness and lost opportunity to extended travel and life beyond 'the box'

Put three lines of three dots each on your paper. Connect all nine dots using only four straight lines. Your pen should not have to leave the paper. The dots should look something like this:

      *        *        *

      *        *        *

      *        *        *

Can you do it? the “9-dot exercise” instructs people to connect all nine dots, using 4 straight lines, without lifting your pen/pencil from the paper. But, how does it apply to how we are living?


.....
I have had some big inspirations. I have had some great role models. Bankers, Marines, neighbors, Anti-War activists, Priests, students and children. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins...philosophers.

In travel in particular, I have met some great people, had some fun times, been inspired.

I have also become sloth, jaded, prejudicial.

I have gained weight, smoked a lot, drank too much, lost time.

Whatever you think you may be leaving you never do... you bring yourself and your baggage with you. If you are traveling as a team, friends, couple, family, get ready to be seriously tested.

Once I lived on the most exclusive island, in the richest nation, in the most prime town. This was the vacation Olympics. It was not at all unheard of for people to pay $50k a week, $300k a month. And this was happening twenty five years ago, and the houses they came plain, no servants, no bonuses.

And the majority of the guests came if they came as couples or families came totally unprepared. And if this was a singles retreat either there would be the left over 80's of burnout-to-fadeaway or the folks stayed so keyed up, so perpetually over stimulated and over high that it was the year's apex. Success.

Most of the nicest house I saw were filled with perfectly nice, civilized families, who had ZERO idea how to be alone together, far fewer ideas on what would make them happy, no experience being a family unit, and either immediately separated for the time spent 'vacationing' or fought ceaselessly.

Like I said, far fewer succeeded. And, I had not ever heard that vacations and travel were really just supposed to be about status. You only share the happy photogenic stories of paradise. It's competitive.


.....
So how do we improve on that.... seems easy. Either take it easy and relax with what your given. Or, make something better happen. Thus we have eco-tourism. voluntourism, educational tours, and philanthropic and NGO based Service work abroad. All of which I think get you a bang for the buck.

Like I said earlier, test, sample, try out your travel dreams, read, write, vision and prepare to succeed.

Not trying to scare you. Try and get into a good place. Find time to practice family life at home first.

The Prison Industrial Complex: Legitimate worry about effects from Wars Overseas

More and more, rational, normal every day people are sharing their legitimate worry about how the effects from wars overseas, torture, rendition, and covert operations are coming home and affecting freedoms. It is certainly enough to know that the types of behaviors we most disdain are taking place under the direction and supervision of our government and its military spy networks.

How we treat the least fortunate among us is how we should be judged as a society. Not only the loss of compassion and generosity of resource and spirit towards elders, children, and physically and emotionally challenged; not only the humane discharge of prisoners, or long term care of veterans; how we extend this ethos abroad is critical to waging peace and building tolerance among peoples.

How much does it say about each of us when we will not care for children the world's abandoned?

What does it mean when leaders are profiting off of incarcerating children and the oppressed?

Will privatization of the human condition continue unchecked?

Who can envision the eradication of all forms of violence? Who can see the end days of war?
 

Liberalism, Race, and the Future of the West

For all our "white" friends out there who have an interest in Race; this is a fantastic insight to structures or systems of racialized western experience and the existence of race.

Better, because it's written by a 'brown' woman, an Asian-American immigrant, it does an amazing job illustrating how we become racialized, how we adopt the racial supremacy model as real, and how inescapable it really is for all of us.

Race does not hurt just 'colored' people or blacks - and there is no post-racial America happening. But, when you can grasp how fundamental it is to us.... you can see the way out.

AS the MAAFA instructs us, the only way out is to go back through.

Take a gander?

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/how-liberalism-and-racism-are-wed/?hp&action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=c-column-top-span-region&region=c-column-top-span-region&WT.nav=c-column-top-span-region

The Gardener and the Earl

The Gardener and the Earl

In an old small mining village in South Wales, there was a poor miner who received a lot of land as compensation from a mine accident. It was the scrubbiest, hardest, rockiest burnt earth scrub of earth.

One day, the Earl was passing. He was admired of what this crippled miner could do.

"Goodly work!" he shouted over the fence to the miner, "look at what you and the Lord can do!"

"Yes we can!" - gaily replied the gardener "But, you should have seen it when God had it all to himself." This fun snippet is a Quaker metaphor.

This can apply to life, if you are willing to make your life.

It does apply to your life. It is your here and now.

There are several gardens in one life. The miner found his spiritual garden long before he received his 'a-lot-meant'....


http://www.quakerquaker.org/profiles/blogs/metaphors-for-quakers


http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00335638309383663?journalCode=rqjs20#preview

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/paul-ratner/rare-old-color-photos-of-_b_6513044.html

Upgrading your confidence: Avoiding unflexible and harsh conditions of airlines

One way I know most of us continue to feel boxed in - thus afraid to travel - sheer cost. When you couple costs of tickets with unflexible and harsh conditions the airlines have established for making certain you know they will screw you in the end, that 'opportunity cost' shrinks into a 'possibility I might go broke if I take the risk' cost. Simple truth - you can't afford not to take the risk. Benefits of simply doing something new, unexpected, or that which changes who you are is too great!

Here's a fun link to help you feel better. It turns out the risks that the airlines keep selling us are false.