It's Over

This was one of the best classes I ever took because I discovered that I can be a writer. Thanks for the inspiration Dr. Tabor

FOOD FOR THOUGHT:

Give something for nothing.

Oh the things we could achieve with this mentality....

Just a quote

"We learn to howl in a society of wolves"
- Countess Du Barry

Can WE say...YES??

YOU TELL ME WHY NOT?

GET YOUR PANDA ON!!!

George W. Bush's Legacy

I found the question about George Bush interesting so I would like to post some information from a website that I found very interesting:

With Ronald Reagan we remember:
The Cold War
The Berlin Wall
The assassination attempt
The Iran-Contra scandal
Reaganomics
Nancy’s “Just say ‘no’” policy
Grenada
Booming 80's economy resurgence

With George Herbert Walker Bush we remember:
“Read my lips, no new taxes”
Desert Storm
Dan Quayle misspelling ‘potato’
The fall of the Soviet Union
Americans With Disabilities Act
Panama / Noriega
Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START I)

With William Jefferson Clinton we remember:
Monica Lewinsky
A thriving economy
Somalia
NAFTA
DMCA
Serbia / Kosovo
The Branch Davidians
Elian Gonzalez
Soaring public opinion
Low unemployment

So what will we remember of George Walker Bush?
September 11, 2001
The Patriot Act
The Afghan War
The Iraqi Quagmire
Torture
Water Boarding
Abu Ghraib
Falsified intelligence
Suppression of climate science
Sinking economy
Soaring gas prices
Sinking public opinion
The Katrina debacle
Cheney shooting someone in the face
Wire Tapping
Loss of Habeas Corpus
Veto of stem cell bill
Inflation
Rising unemployment
Firing of U.S. Attorneys
Alberto Gonzalez
Scooter Libby
Enron
Tyco
Blackwater
Faith Based Initiatives

Courtesy of:
http://www.theinformationparadox.com/2008/04/how-will-george-w-bush-legacy-be-taught.html

Share....

The origins of November 25th go back to 1960, when the three Mirabal sisters from the Dominican Republic were violently assassinated for their political activism. The sisters, known as the "Unforgettable Butterflies," became a symbol of the crisis of violence against women in Latin America. November 25th was the date chosen to commemorate their lives and promote global recognition of gender violence, and has been observed in Latin America since the 1980s.

http://www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/news/vawd.html

question this

"I believe all suffering is caused by ignorance. People inflict pain on others in the selfish pursuit of their happiness or satisfaction. Yet true happiness comes from a sense of peace and contentment, which in turn must be achieved through the cultivation of altruism, of love and compassion, and elimination of ignorance, selfishness, and greed." High Holiness the Dali Lama

Is this quote "classist" or "sexist"? Can "enlightenment" be for all? One student noted that Steve Jobs (the guy who delivered the Stanford Commencement speech we saw on You Tube) was of the privileged elite. Is he? I thought. I didn't know, so I looked him up on Wikipedia to discover that he was adopted and that his biological father was Syrian. Privilege? OK - but not the expected variety. Now, either way, I am not sure how knowing his "real" background or making up my own fictional version of his background makes any difference about what he said. What he said was do what interests you - and you may discover that the shortest distance between two points is not a straight line. The people and events that make a difference in your life are not always who or what we expect. When we disagree or resist a statement because of something about the person who makes the statement, we have an "ad hominem" argument. Ad hominem is Latin for something like "to the human, the person." The retort in an "argument" must always be to the words, not "the person" - i.e., we cannot disagree with something because of something about the speaker such as race or class, age, gender, ethnicity,style or anything but the words.

Human Rights Watch

Ok one last thing that I need to share...

Everyone should know what is going on around the world. There are so many people that continue to suffer through acts of their own and most commonly through acts of others.

this website shows you whats going on and what we can do.

www.hrw.org

And YES there are people that are victims!!!!

Now I feel a bit better

I just read an article that stated 50 things we might not know about President-Elect Obama, the only one that got my attention was that he just recently paid his student loan with the money that he made with his book. 

Now for someone who is not going to run for president or might not publish a book... I wonder how the hell will I ever pay a student loan for master and/or PhD????

Yet there is something about that, that does make me feel better that there are many many out there that go through the struggle of paying for school and that don't have mommy and daddy to pay for it all.

Money!!

There has been a lot of posts about what we can do to be happier in life but nobody has mentioned money as a solution. Ccan you really be happy without money ?

RELIGION IS NOT FOR YOU!!!!

A diff. view .......think about it

WHAT do YOU FEAR

Our deepest FEAR is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness, that most frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?

whats your FEAR?

Do you realize...

One of my favorite quotes, tell me what you think: "The deepest secret is that life is not a process of discovery, but a process of creation. You are not discovering yourself, but creating yourself anew. Seek, therefore, not to find out Who You Are, seek to determine Who You Want to Be."- Neale Donald Walsch

I think we put so much pressure on ourselves, on who we are and what our mission in life is. There is no purpose in life unless you make one for yourself. Don't wait for others to tell you "well this is what you were meant to do", validate yourself and do something with your life. It doesn't matter how outrageous your goals are, you set the limits in your mind. If you see no barriers then there will be none, like the quote says you are the one creating your reality. So if you limit yourself then blame yourself for the results, yet realize that you can accomplish so much. Set out and do it, live this life because you deserve all the good in your life NOW! So what do you want in life and who do you want to be? It's up to you!

Seize the Day!!!

I recently came across a great quote by Alexander Woollcott that i wanted to share. He said, "There is no such thing in anyone's life as an unimportant day." I can definitely relate to this quote because i often take my days for granted and never really do anything spontaneous or enjoyable for myself. I tend to stick to my daily routine, which can get boring and monotonous. Therefore, i have made a pact with myself to try to seize the day more, carpe diem! I also hope everybody will take at leat 5 minutes from their days and do something for you and what will ultimately make you happy!

The Four Agreements

If there was no justice done for this book in class, here in brief are the main points of leading yourself to personal freedom according to Don Miguel Ruiz and the Toltecs:

1. Be Impeccable With Your Word
Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others. Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.
2. Don't Take Anything Personally
Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won't be the victim of needless suffering.
3. Don't Make Assumptions
Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness and drama. With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.
4. Always Do Your Best
Your best is going to change from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.

Enjoy!

Sincerity

"Sincerity is everything and if you can fake it you've got it made. Problem is you can't fake it, at least not for long." Unknown author

"Change"? Really?

I didn't vote. Hate me, whatever! Booooooo me! I gives a shit! LOL! These two candidates do not have my interests in mind. They have corporate interests. They do not represent me. Whomever the two final candidates were, you're telling me I have to choose one of them. So...people died in order for me to blindly vote for one of these candidates? I'm a bad person if I don't choose the worst of two evils. I refuse to believe people died so I can give a vote away. They did not shed blood so I can choose out of two bad candidates. They died because they believed their vote meant something. It means nothing to me now. It's not wrong that you believe your vote is your voice, it is wrong for the government to feed you the illusion of choice. Give me a choice, damn it! Here are two equally bad men running for President, and I take shit for not giving them the Commander In Chief title? Emotionally, yeah, voting is symbolic. We want freedom, not just a symbol of freedom. We want the actual thing, not its symbolic equivalent. Immigrants are mad cause they can't vote. They do their research, they know all the propositions, good for yall. Young ones are eager to "voice" themselves. Good for America. America has this circular reasoning that since the government gives us a ballot and a dot maker, our voices are heard. I laugh! "Change" is another four years of the Bush Regime. It's just that McCain would have been worst that four more years of Bush. So damn me to hell cause I don't want to choose one head and not the other of the snake. Are yall ready for "change" in the transition from a white face to a black face? That's all it is. Now we are presented with a minstrel show. White interests, high class interests, just now with a black face. I love people, black or brown. What I hate is the people buying into a facade. Organize for yourself, be active on behalf of the people, not corporations. All I applaud is that this black man will go down in history for proving Pac wrong. If this man is assassinated, here we go again...Another white man telling us what to do and feel. Can't wait for all the angry comments :) PS that stuff on racism being gone...more hilarious than voting itself.

Homeless in Paradise....What do YOU think about the homeless?

When you see homeless people around your neighborhood, pushing carts with their belongings, digging in our trash cans for any "buried treasure", sleeping on a corner of a liquor store with their hand tightly grasping a beer can, young males in gas stations asking for money, or an overdosed individual laying on the street looking half-dead, what do you feel? What do you think? What crosses your mind? Do you speak to them? Do you give them money or food? What can or should be done? Has there been an encounter that has changed your views and thoughts about these people? Have you ever volunteered at any shelters for the homeless?


These are questions I have often asked myself and others when I see the same people with no job, no home, and no shoes, walking around my neighborhood. My own personal thoughts are mixed. I have talked to a couple of homeless males. They confessed to be homeless due to "CRACK" and their addiction to it. I feel bad for them, but also angry that these young strong citizens of the U.S. are in a country others would risk their life to be in and don't take advantage of that. The fact that our extremely RICH goverment won't take action to hel these people also enrages me. But who am I to judge? I try my best not to.


My final paper is on homeless people and how certain individuals got to be in the position that they are in now. Any comments or answers to my questions would be gladly appreciated. Thank you.

The Audacity of Hope

A couple of years ago, Barak Obama came to my place of employment to speak at the Urban Issues Forum and to sign copies of his new book the "Audacity of Hope". Now, at the time I do not know if he had an inkling of running for president of the United States, but as he shook every single hand and stayed until he signed every single book I thought to myself, what a nice guy. After I read the book, one section stuck with me, "A government that truly represents these Americans--that truly serves these Americans--will require a different kind of politics, and these politics will have to be constructed from the best of our traditions and will have to account for the darker aspects of our past. We will need to understand just how we got to this place, this land of warring factions and tribal hatreds. And we will need to remind ourselves, despite all of our differences, just how much we share: common hopes, common dreams, a bond that will not break (Barak Obama 2006) From the Audacity of Hope.

Does this not make sense? So all of the jokes that are passed around by whoever just shows how far some people still need to come.

Conflict between Change and Tradition

I am in total support for CHANGE--in the sense that it is for the better. But I also have complete reverence for TRADITION--in the sense that maintaining a tradition is honorable and just. However, I am mostly in support of the American tradition for changing for the better. After all, even though it's not necessary to fix what's not broken, making improvements wouldn't hurt and neither would reevaluating that which we think is not broken.

Thanks for the Inspiration!

Professor Tabor posted a wonderfully inspiring link on our course website about "Not Giving Up". Right smack in the middle of preparing for four final papers, that was encouragement and motivation enough to continue. You should check it out people... print out your favorite and look at it when you need that push. I did, and will do.

Great news evrybody! Racism is finally over.

The Results Are In...The Reactions Are...?

I'm surprised that no one has expressed their reactions to the Presidential Election results! What do you guys and gals think?