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.

IT'S MY TURN

IT’S MY TURN

I have never cared to discuss nor write about politics before.

It is too incendiary a subject. Not my cupa tea really.

However, in view of the way in which some of the candidates and their followers are acting, I believe I’ll toss my writer's hat into the ring.

The level of vitriol spewing from so called civilized men is  both monstrous and ominous. It does not bode well for our future or our standing and credibility around the globe. These speeches paint images of Americans as bigoted, fanatical, and insular. I do not wish to be tarred with that  brush.

I do believe most Americans still retain the strong inner core of values that once made our country great and respected around the world. We, Americans, are a remarkable people with immense potential. As voters, we have the right to demand the President and Congress to start working together for the greater good. The divide between classes must be rendered null and void. Our children and elders must be looked after with love and dignity. Schools must be reformed to meet the needs of today’s society without sacrificing integrity, leadership, responsibility, and critical  thinking skills* to name a few. 

There will be no changes, no hope, no advancements  unless voters petition for real change and transparency from all levels of government.

Before voting in the primary and general elections, be sure to look past the showmanship and find the substance in your candidate, lest “The Man Who Would Be King.” ** is elected.

Grandma Meg

Live simply.

Speak gently.

Love unconditionally.

*(http://www.criticalthinking.org/pages/defining-critical-thinking/766)
**(Rudyard Kipling)

Read More:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/26/opinion/stay-sane-america-please.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FCruz%2C%20Ted%20&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=8&pgtype=collection

https://theconversation.com/woody-guthrie-old-man-trump-and-a-real-estate-empires-racist-foundations-53026

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/01/28/ted-cruz-s-flat-out-lie-on-immigration.html

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/01/23/464129029/donald-trump-i-could-shoot-somebody-and-i-wouldnt-lose-any-voters

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/27/opinion/the-twinned-egos-of-cruz-and-trump.html?rref=collection%2Ftimestopic%2FCruz%2C%20Ted%20&action=click&contentCollection=timestopics&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=6&pgtype=collection&_r=0

http://www.npr.org/2016/01/22/463984412/stripping-conservative-magazine-of-debate-is-latest-sign-of-gops-trump-nerves

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/01/ted-cruz-jerk-hated

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/24/opinion/sunday/the-way-to-stop-trump.html?ribbon-ad-idx=3&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/04/opinion/no-donald-trump-wont-win.html?rref=collection%2Fcolumn%2Fdavid-brooks&action=click&contentCollection=opinion&region=stream&module=stream_unit&version=latest&contentPlacement=2&pgtype=collection

A Christmas Message

SPARKS OF ADVENT LIGHT

BY JOAN CHITTISTER

Behind all the Santa Claus characters, the red bows, the bells, and the reindeer that comes with Christmas, there is a haunting scene from another age, a diorama almost lost to this one in the name of political correctness. This child, born to poor parents , birthed in a stable, laid in a manger,watched over by angels and stars, by shepherds and wise men, by Mary and Joseph and the sheep on the hill. This child, we know, is special. But this specialness is also the uncomfortable reminder of other children, equally special, not nearly so well loved in our own time.

Perhaps never in our lives have we had to live with the knowledge of so much violence to children: children beaten, children abandoned, children violated sexually, children unwanted, children starving, children murdered. We wince at the very thought of it.We turn away, turn the dial, turn the conversation in other directions. It is simply too much to think about, too much to deal with.

But why the disbelief? Why the horror? Why the anger? After all, people everywhere are being beaten, killed, raped, and murdered. Children are just one more class of the same degradation. So what is the difference?

The difference is the future. Our future. These children, these innocents, are being sacrificed for the breakdown in mental health systems, for the permissiveness of the society, for the toxicity level of the environment, for the violence we take for granted, the violence we condone, the violence we breed in this century. Every one of them who suffers like this costs us another piece of hope in the future. Every one of them we lose marks the loss of a piece of our own life.

Maybe that’s why Jesus came as a child: to remind us that what we do not care for from infancy, will rob us of the future we seek. Will rob us of its intelligence its creativity, its sense of possibility, its promise.

Christmas, the birth of Jesus, reminds us that every child born is another chance to save the world, to make it better, to bring it joy.

No doubt about it, the birth of Jesus is a call for all of us to care for the innocent, to protect the defenseless, to build the future.

Make your Christmas merry by giving the child you do not know the opportunity to believe in people, to bring joy into our lives, to grow up better rather than bitter. 

Surely, Christmas has something important to do with reminding all of us to save the children of the world so that someday they can also save the world for us.      -SISTER JOAN CHITTISTER

 "So today, Christmas Day and throughout the years ahead, think of all children and what you can do to advocate for them until they can advocate for themselves and take their rightful place in society.”  As Sister Joan Chittister writes, ‘...to save the children of the world so that someday they can also save the world for us.’ 

Speak softly.

Listen gently.

Love unconditionally

Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year

-Marge

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

YOU REAP WHAT YOU SOW

I recently attended a Catholic Mass in Maryland. The homily featured Galatians 6:7.

“…whatever a man sows, that he will also reap.” 

As I am wont to do, I began to think deeply  about this proverb and how it affects all life. We have probably heard this refrain many times and, yes, perhaps have used it in answer to some perceived wrong done to us or others.  Historically, this phrase has been used in a negative context. For example, a man who commits adultery, not only loses his family, but his honor and worth as a decent human being. His actions harm his wife and children, but have far reaching consequences in the work place, community, and society as well.  Lost forever is the respect and trust of family, friends, and co-workers.

We are all connected in some way in the universe. So, what one sends out to the universe, comes back at a future point in one’s life. It is not Karma for Karma is a rebirth or reincarnation into another body here on earth after one’s death.  

You reap what you sow is a Law of Nature. “It is a statement of fact, deduced from observation, to the effect that a particular natural or scientific phenomenon always occurs if certain conditions are present.” This law is two pronged. If a farmer expects to have a good harvest and a bountiful one, he will sow the best seed and plenty of it. If he sows poor quality seed and sparingly, he cannot expect his harvest to be anything but of poor quality and less of it. In the same spirit, if the farmer sows nothing, then he cannot expect anything at all. Simply put, this applies to all actions in life, good or bad, reward or punishment.

Recently, we have celebrated Thanksgiving Day. For me, thanksgiving means feeling and showing gratitude. When seeds of thankfulness are sown, one demonstrates admiration, respect, and appreciation for others. Isn’t that better than sowing seeds of disrespect, disdain, and disregard? Surely, this reaping is advantageous to all concerned?

Many of us will be celebrating Christmas, either in a religious or secular way, or both.  Money and time will be spent on decorations, gifts, entertaining, and Christmas dinners. 

At this most awaited holiday of the year, you can sow seeds of hope, comfort, cheer, inspiration, and more. Donate money to a favorite charity. Visit a nursing home. Participate in your church’s or community center's outreach programs. Inspire students by taking part in school activities with your children and friends. Schools can always use volunteers in myriad ways. These seeds you sow will yield great returns.

This endearing holiday is really a state of mind. It should be a time for pause and reflection. Gifts of time, love, joy, and peace could be given not only during the Christmas Season, but throughout the year. It would make a marvelous gift subscription for the recipients.

                                          ENJOY LIFE!

WISHING ALL A VERY BLESSED CHRISTMAS 

AND 

A SAFE AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

GRANDMA MEG

***This is a lovely website entitled, “The True Meaning of Christmas.” Check it out.

http://llerrah.com/truemeaningofchristmas.htm

GIVING THANKS

Dear Friends and Family,

November is a special time for me. Not only will I get to enjoy Thanksgiving Day with
my family, but to give thanks and praise for surviving my near fatal accident, the day before Thanksgiving, November 26, 2014. ( A Thanksgiving Miracle, Part one)  

I know with a certainty that my survival is due to my faith and trust in God. 

I do not take my life for granted. I am learning to live in the moment.  Without seeming trite, I take each day as it comes and make the most of it. 

My year so far has been filled with joy and excitement. Among the many blessings I have received, there are two exceptional events that I relish. The first is becoming a great grandmother in May. I am delighted whenever I receive photos of my great granddaughter or get to hold her in my arms.  So much love to share.

The second event found three of my friends and me exploring Ireland, Scotland, and England for three weeks in September. We did not go on a tour. Rather, we went wherever the four winds took us using public transportation. It was quite an adventure. We returned with photos galore and awesome memories. Would I go again? You betcha!

Unfortunately, I do experience flashbacks at the oddest times. The sensation of watching myself and the car submerge in the water in total darkness is both jolting and uncanny. But the flashbacks are diminishing and will continue to do so until they are but a fleeting memory.

And so, I would like to wish you all a safe and enjoyable Thanksgiving Holiday.

THE NUMBERS GAME: REPERCUSSIONS

THE NUMBERS GAME: REPERCUSSIONS

On June 14, 2015, I wrote a post about how some high school graduation dropout rates across the nation were not an accurate representation of the truth. (The Numbers Game)

I stated,  “The Department of Education has announced that the high school graduation rate is at 81%. That is the highest it has been since 1974.  That  would be laudable if only it were entirely true. To be fair, it may be true if the states and school districts are completely honest when calculating the numbers. On the other hand, we have seen, that because of national accountability in our schools, some factions found unique ways to misrepresent the numbers.”

The pressure of using  standardized tests for school and student accountability across the nation has led to innumerable cases of cheating and fraudulent reporting, not only for test results, but high school graduation rates.

Case in point: On October 20, 2015, Becky Vevea, an education reporter for WBEZ in Chicago wrote an article entitled, “Admitting Dropouts Were Miscounted, Chicago Lowers Graduation Rates.”  Vevea revealed that joint investigations by WBEZ and the Better Government Association under the Illinois Freedom of Information Act disclosed some startling facts.

After the investigation, Chicago Public Schools lowered its official 2014 high school graduation rate. It appears that, as far back as 2011, as many as 2000 students enrolled in 25 high schools have been reported as transferring to other areas outside of Chicago, to other cities or states. No  records of where these students went were ever produced.The bottom line is that these students were dropouts and never counted as such.

Do the Chicago Public School officials admit to playing with the numbers?  Of course not. Their Chief Education Officer  called the errors, “Concerning.”  District officials admitted having “problems” with the system's accounting. The Chief Accountably Officer, John Barker, announced that changes were being made. 

Barker said the district is, “still planning to train school clerks to count dropouts more accurately and has developed an internal system to flag misclassifications sooner.”

Yeah, let’s all blame it all on those poor underpaid school clerks. After all, the Chicago School District would never order such a dictum. Or would they?