ANGELS AMONG US

ANGELS AMONG US

Do you ever look back on your life and think about those special  people who were there when you most needed them? Call them mentors, family, friends, or just Angels Among us.

Speaking for myself, I have been blessed by many when I most needed them. 

Recently, I heard about the passing of a dear friend and mentor, Margaret Sherkey. This post is a tribute to her, as well as a recognition of how she helped shape my early life as an educator.

I was very fortunate to be hired by Mrs. Sherkey in 1973 when she opened  Rippling Woods Elementary School in Glen Burnie, MD. I had been teaching for 3 years prior to that. My years spent  with Mrs. Sherkey enriched my life in every way possible. 

Maggie had it all. She blended high expectations with understanding, compassion, and friendship. As teachers, we were always presented with new and exciting methods of teaching in ways that increased our knowledge and helped our students reach their potential. 

On the social side, Maggie encouraged celebrating personal accomplishments, special occasions, and the highs and lows of life, always  with laughter and food. I do not remember a day going by when there weren't delicious treats in the Teachers' Lounge brought by Maggie or one of the Staff. 

Margaret Sherkey was an incredible woman who made a new team, in a new school, into a family who worked for the good of all.

Anyone who ever had the great fortune to spend time with Maggie Sherkey is truly blessed  

DONALD TRUMP: A PICTURE IS WORTH A THOUSAND WORDS

DONALD TRUMP        A Picture Is Worth a Thousand Words “Every man's work, whether it be literature or music or pictures or anything else, is always a portrait of himself, and the more he tries to conceal himself the more clearly will his character appear in spite of him.”    Samuel Butler quotes (English novelist, essayist and critic, 1835-1902) ***

Make no friendship with a man given to anger, nor go with a wrathful man, lest you learn his ways and entangle yourself in a snare.  Proverbs 22:24-25  *** Are we Americans going to stand by while violence rocks our Democratic Election Process? Is this what The United States of America has finally become, a nation of fanatical xenophobes, racists, bullies, and misogynists? *** http://www.capesnbabes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/2010-11-03-Angry_Mob.gif *** http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/trump-legal-fees-punch-protester_us_56e56e96e4b0860f99d94f53 *** http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/man-punched-protester-trump-rally-hints-violence-article-1.2560288 John McGraw, John McGraw, 78, of Linden, N.C., said there's more than just a punch in store for protesters at Trump rallies *** http://gawker.com/black-lives-matter-protesters-violently-thrown-out-of-t-1763066858 Thanh Truong from MY54 reports that Donald Trump was directing security to remove protesters while his supporters cheered and the violent cycle repeated several times throughout the night. “Get them!” Trump cheered.  *** http://www.nytimes.com/2016/03/01/opinion/campaign-stops/what-wouldnt-jesus-do.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r= https:// What hypocritical nonsense!  Donald Trump emulating Pope Francis? *** http://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/img/editorial/2015/06/19/102773359-donald-trump.530x298.jpg?v=1434723805 Donald Trump emulating Mussolini! Donald Trump Retweets Mussolini"@ilduce2016: “It is better to live one day as a lion than 100 years as a sheep.” – @realDonaldTrump #MakeAmericaGreatAgain" *** http://25.media.tumblr.com/Oi7rfKIPWqfhfztflLzVTmseo1_r1_400.jpg

Mussolini

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http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2016/03/04/donald_trump_definitely_praised_vladimir_putin.html

https://www.bing.com/images/search?q=trump+images&qs=IM&form=QBIDMH&pq=trump+images&sc=8-12&sp=1&sk=

Donald Trump emulating Putin!

 "When people call you 'brilliant' it's always good, especially when the person heads up Russia," Trump said during that Morning Joe interview. In a statement later he said, "It is always a great honor to be so nicely complimented by a man so highly respected within his own country and beyond."

First of all, Trump has most certainly spoken glowingly about Putin. In December 2015, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe, he said, “I've always felt fine about Putin. He's a strong leader, he's a powerful leader. ... He's actually got popularity within his country.”

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http://cdn.inquisitr.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/Vladimir-Putin-665x385.jpg

http://www.wsj.com/articles/putin-says-trump-is-front-runner-in-u-s-presidential-race-1450364780

Vladimir Putin

“He’s a very colorful and talented person, without a doubt,” Mr. Putin said, according to Russian news agencies. “It’s not for us to judge his merits, that’s a task for the American voters, but he’s the absolute front-runner we see today in the presidential race.”

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 http://www.reunionblackfamily.com/trump_hitler_985132845.jpg

Donad Trump emulating Hitler?

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Click below to go to link.

http://www.youtube.com/attribution_link?a=W0fTbuX5qnU&u=/watch%3Fv%3DAO43p2Wqc08%26feature%3Dem-share_video_user

When did we confuse freedom of speech with the freedom to be rude?

 http://ncronline.org/blogs/where-i-stand/when-did-we-confuse- freedom-speech-freedom-be-rude 

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. -- Dalai Lama 

When did we confuse freedom of speech with the freedom to be rude?

Joan Chittister | Mar. 11, 2016 From Where I Stand

If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion. -- Dalai Lama

I've written or spoken a good many times about the incivility that unmonitored social media

sites have generated in this country. Someplace along the line we have managed to confuse freedom of speech with the freedom to be rude, crude, mean, hurtful or brutal,anonymously. Secretly. Behind some silly moniker like Darth Vader 2. Or worse.

I grew up in a society where there were some words that were never spoken in front of women, in front of children, in public, at a dinner table, in a professional setting, on a telecommunications program of any kind. But then, little by little, we began to see it painted on back walls of old buildings. And did nothing. Then we began to accept it in teenage music. And did nothing. Then it showed up in racy literature. And we did nothing. Finally, it was everywhere on the streets. And now, it seems, there is very little we can do about it at all.

Where did we lose the idea that freedom of speech is the right to have our speech protected, no matter what our opinion might be? That does not, however, include the right to libel, slander, and now bully people into submission. It does not include a license to abuse someone, meaning to call names or threaten harm or talk or harass those who are different than we are. Physically, socially, or politically. There are statutes against it. So much for the law. So much for our birthright. So much for the character of the nation. So much for our vaunted ideals of democracy.

Obviously, given the increase in the amount of outright lies or veiled insults in the public airwaves now, the threat of the law does not really much restrain an anonymous population, let alone educate it to a more civilized kind of communication. Those websites that employ monitors with the right to reject that level of so-called comments manage to maintain a higher standard of conversation and insight. But for smaller groups with fewer resources, the ability to engage that kind of monitor is more likely to threaten the existence of the website itself than it is to eliminate the problem.
And so we all know that. And so we don't know what to do about it. Except maybe inspect our own children's websites in the hopes of being able to separate them from the adults around them who are even more childish, and even more crude, than the average adolescent.

But now we have struck a new low. A gutter talk so bad that we don't want children even to watch the news. Now it's our national leadership who are leading the pack. These valiant types who purport to be the role models of the country. These high-level poobahs who speak from the Olympian heights of business, politics, and public service have long ago sliced and diced not only one another but the character of the country itself.

I am in Europe as I write this where their attitude about what they are seeing of us on television is clear but said in far more elegant, more honest, more caring language than ours for one another. They feel sorry for us. They wonder what is happening to those decent rank and file citizens, real Christians, genuine intellectuals, committed activists, genuine patriots who are embarrassed by their own political parties.

And we, for our part, ask ourselves what has happened to us. Where compassion,  the ability to really feel for the other, to care for the other as well as ourselves, to be different than others but never destructive of others has disappeared.
Maybe compassion here and now calls for us to quench this fire at its lowest level  on our comment boards, in our blogs, in our texts, in our chat rooms. To refuse to read them. To unlike all of them. Then, eventually, it can become unacceptable again to use that kind of language anywhere. Even in our presidential elections. At the top.

So now we're split as a country, as a body politic, as a generation. Why? Because we ignored this malignancy and let it spread. Has it helped us express ourselves? Has it helped us to make our points any better, any more effectively? Has it brought us to the point of effective political discourse? Has it made us any happier? The Dalai Lama?s statement says it all: ?If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.

From where I stand, it seems that to be compassionate in this environment, we can't say it's awful anymore. We need to say: It stops here. In front of me. Always.