I’m on a news letter mailing list for Care2Causes. What I love about it is how many different topics and stories they cover across a vast range of social world concerns. Here are a few of the ones I read in detail.
First on the agenda. Urinals shaped like a women’s mouth. Funny? Or Offensive.
I have a feeling that most people would laugh it off and say anyone offended by it is making too big of a deal. But displays like this are being protested all over the world.
As the article says:
More than 600 women are victims of sexual violence every day. We don’t need to add this “art” to the cadre of violent sexual images we see daily as if they are no big deal.
What do you think?
Next up, with all the news coverage on the BP oil spills, other similar environment spills and explosions are taking a back seat, but they’re still there.
A blowout at a shale oil well last Thursday in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, demonstrates once again, the dangerous nature of the American addiction to fossil fuels. The well shot gas more than 75 feet into the air, polluting the surrounding water and took crew just over 16 hours to control it. While in comparison, this may be nothing to the millions of barrels of oil leaking into the gulf, but it is one more example of why we need to turn to more sustainable energy sources.
The article explains a little more about what shale oil is and even mentions our Pride and Joy ( >< ) here in Canada, the Alberta tar sands.
Sheldon and Komor cited Canada’s tar sands, closely related to oil shale, production as an example. When the international community met in Kyoto to create goals to reduce GHG emissions, Canada pledged a six percent reduction by 2012. Since then its emissions have increased 26 percent, “largely as a result of tar sands productions.” Presently, Canada is one of the top emitters of GHG emissions.
If you’d like to know more about Tar Sands, here is a fantastic video that shows us why it isn’t the answer.
Oh Canada.. so misguided…
Any who moving along. In the spirit of the article I wrote this morning over coffee, here’s one more take on the Helen Thomas situation. It makes me feel a little better that the majority of articles I’ve read about this have been similar to my own thoughts.
Steve Weiss thoughtfully responds to these concerns at Mondoweiss: “Now this gutsy, plucky character who for me embodied what the real spirit of US journalism is and should be, far more than stenographers-of-power Press Corps colleagues in their prime, meets an undignified end to her career, with ignoble reactions…To the rest of the world this will just add to the perception of hypocrisy and double standards applied to people who speak up about the Israel government’s reprehensible actions. The shift of focus from the core of the issue of military occupation to an off-the-cuff remark — which I think just reflects her growing anger — will be noted.”
Turning towards another on going hot topic these days, racism.
A biracial student in an advanced honors class was removed and placed into an regular class because the teacher claimed she had allergic reactions to the girls hair product. Is it important to note that she was the only student of color in this class? Is it also important to note that she was moved to a regular class with predominantly African American students? How must this poor girl feel? Already mixed up in a mixed up world facing social pressures to look pretty and straighten her hair.
For people who are defending the teacher, because everyone has allergies, and some people do, i will fully admit it. I’m highly sensitive to scents as well. But to those people, then my reply is this; the teacher should have handled the situation with more tact. She should have privately addressed her concerns with the Principal and the parents and given a chance to the student to change her hair product, or change the teacher even! Bah.
I don’t understand where the hate comes from in people who are racist. Is it the fear of the unknown? It is an insecurity? Is it guilt over what their ancestors have done?
I’ll end with an uplifting article written by Roger Ebert titled “How do they get to be that way?” Roger is someone who also has a hard time understanding where the hate comes from.
I believe at some point in the development of healthy people there must come a time when we instinctively try to understand how others feel. We may not succeed. There are many people in this world today who remain enigmas to me, and some who are offensive. But that is not because of their race. It is usually because of their beliefs.
That brings me back around to the story of the school mural. I began up above by imagining I was a student in Prescott, Arizona, with my face being painted over. That was easy for me. What I cannot imagine is what it would be like to be one of those people driving past in their cars day after day and screaming hateful things out of the window. How do you get to that place in your life? Were you raised as a racist, or become one on your own? Yes, there was racism involved as my mother let the driver wait outside in the car, but my mother had not evolved past that point at that time. The hard-won social struggles of the 1960s and before have fundamentally altered the feelings most of us breathe, and we have evolved, and that is how America will survive. We are all in this together.
But what about the people in those cars? They don’t breathe that air. They don’t think of the feelings of the kids on the mural. They don’t like those kids in the school. It’s not as if they have reasons. They simply hate. Why would they do that? What have they shut down inside? Why do they resent the rights of others? Our rights must come first before our fears. And our rights are their rights, whoever “they” are.
(ps. this should have been posted on the 9th!)
What you’re thinking about!