Tag: violence

Title: Garner and Ferguson Protest Seattle 12-4-2014 | Author: Scott Lum | Source: Own work | License: CC BY-NC 2.0

Race

“My theory is this: Rather than having commentaries from the cheap seats, get involved and see what you can do. What can you do around your own community, within your own family, to try to improve race relations in our country? I think this is a responsibility that we all have as citizens.” —Valerie Jarrett

microtaskcrowdsourcing | Author: Institute for Web Science and Technologies University of Koblenz-Landau | Source: Own work | License: CC BY-SA 2.0

Recovering Our Innocence/Earning Wisdom

I am so grateful to have had the opportunity to be intimately involved with my twin grandchildren since they were born. I continually marvel at their innocence and joyfulness as they engage with the world and experience its wonders. As they are about to enter first grade, I wonder when and how they will start to lose their innocence. I wonder how long it will take before the rules, routines, and relentless pressures begin to strip away their sense of freedom and mystery.

Credit: Jens Lelie

91 per day

Yup, it’s true. America is #1 in guns per capita and not even in the top 100 in murders per capita. The NRA would have you believe that there are no problems with guns. In fact, they argue that there is an inverse relationship between guns and murder—their message is essentially, “The more guns, the less murder.” The evidence for this argument is a single statistic, isolated from its context. Here are the facts: While it Read More

Photo by Master Wen on Unsplash, https://unsplash.com/@36chambers

Religion: For Better or For Worse

And it seems such a waste of time If that’s what it’s all about Mama, if that’s movin’ up then I’m movin’ out And if that’s what you have in mind Yeah, if that’s what you’re all about Good luck, moving up, ‘cause I’m movin’ out —Billy Joel In psychology, there is a body of work that suggests that confrontation may at times be necessary for change, but it is never sufficient. Similarly, one might Read More

Photo of swingset by Aaron Burden (License: CC0)

Abuse

We are hearing a lot of sordid stories these days about professional athletes abusing their spouses and children. As horrific and wrong as these cases are, they make us think that abuse is mostly physical and is contained within a small sub-section of the population. To me, abuse is more than physical, and it is practically universal. Let me explain. Abuse can be physical, emotional, intellectual, or spiritual. It can occur in blatant and obvious Read More