Tag Archives: current-events

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So, That Happened

For those people that may live under a rock, or are just in extreme denial, the seemingly impossible happened: Donald Trump is our newest president. I had difficulty sleeping as a result of worrying about the outcome. Not because I like Hillary or even voted for her, but because I was terrified at the prospect of a Trump presidency. And no, I don’t feel as though I wasted my vote on a 3rd party candidate nor do I feel guilty about it considering the outcome. Allow me to explain myself, and do read until the end before you judge me. Also, this is all I have left to say about this election.

First off, here is why I’m afraid: As a mother of a child who is mixed race, I’m worried that hate speech will have an effect on his life. I am afraid that the climate of hate will cause him to be so bullied that he can’t deal with it especially if he never does outgrow his development issues. I worry for my loved ones in the LGBT community and what could happen with a conservative Supreme Court. Will gay marriage be reversed? Will the transgender community never get the freedom everyone else has to be who they really are and live their lives as such? Why do guns have more rights than the body of a woman? These are all things that do worry me.

Then, I have more selfish concerns. I have benefited from Obamacare. I don’t have to pay for a prescription that I actually need to function and may not be able to afford if it gets repealed. Had I given birth before the potential repeal, I would have gotten a free pump and have an easier time paying the hospital bill. Because of Obamacare, I get 2 dental insurances for our children, making their dental care essentially free. Plus, who says rates will even go down if it is repealed? Insurance companies are a business and they do not care about the people. The same applies to all parts of the healthcare world. Now that they know they are able to charge outrageous prices, why reduce them along with the overhead?

After all of this though, I remain hopeful. The turnout for the 3rd party made a statement that people are tired of being held hostage to a two-party system. Even more importantly, I remember that Trump is a businessman and marketed himself to win. Why does this make me hopeful? Maybe he will go back to leaning more liberal on social matters as he had in the past. Maybe he knew that acting like a crazy, misogynistic racist would guarantee him  the win and he conned the base into thinking he was one of them. Maybe he lets the states decide, and as someone who lives in Massachusetts, I have nothing to worry about personally. These are all possibilities.

Make no mistake though; Trump didn’t win. Hillary lost. This is an important point. This was not the 3rd party’s fault. This was entirely the fault of the DNC for rigging the primary. The success of the 3rd party was very much a product of the DNC corruption and the polls at the end of the day were proof of that. Today is a day to focus on what’s important. It’s not about gloating that your team won or depressed over your loss. Why? Because the game isn’t over. If the Republican do nothing to better the nation in 2 years, they will ultimately lose at the midterms and may even lose the next presidential election. If they do improve the state of affairs in America for all people, everyone one wins. Plus, checks and balances are there for a reason so there will be no Madison King Aerys to deal with. What we do know for sure is that Trump is a loose cannon and nobody knows what to expect. This all depends on the “experts” that he hires to be his advisors and his cabinet. Just remember this: United we stand; divided we fall. Be kind to each other and respect others, even if you disagree with them.

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The State of Today

Has their really been a more divisive time in American history than there is right now? The answer is “yes” and that time was the Civil War. Races are against races, religions are against religions. Political parties are a civil war amongst themselves. There does not seem to be any common ground anymore or even any compromises willing to be made. People are awful and hateful and this does not seem to be changing anytime soon.

The fact is that people don’t seem to care that they are worsening the situation. If you go to 4 different websites to see the statistics of racially motivated police shootings, you are going to see 4 different numbers. Everyone has something to gain on their side of the politics. What about the facts? I’m a person who enjoys facts. This is how I base my opinions. I want to know if there are a disproportionate amount of lethal police shootings towards minorities or if there are a lot of lethal shootings period. I want to know if it’s just that one group yells the loudest in outrage that makes it like it is an everyday occurrence. Because guess what? Now it is just about to get a whole lot worse.

The argument is that police officers are all racist and don’t think black lives matters. If that is a fact, than that is something that should outrage the masses. But what does shooting and killing innocent and caring police officers prove? That you are just as savage as these horrible corrupt police officers that you so choose to be against right now? You have turned a movement with reasonable issues that should be addressed and turned it into a terrorist organization that have made things worse for their cause. Now that a second group of police officers were plowed down by a person of a specific race and cause, the police officers are going to be even more on edge and this cycle will just keep continuing on with no end in sight.

There is a civil war brewing in America. It is the fault of people who dismiss that there are problems with race in America. It is the fault of people who look at all people who even seem to be Arab as if they are Muslim terrorists about to tear down America. It is the fault of any group that wants to put the lives of any citizens above the lives of others. What is the point of treating everyone equally and “everyone is the same on the inside” if we turn against anyone who isn’t like us? The lives of all kind human beings matter. There is racial inequality in America and that’s a fact. My youngest son has been called derogatory terms for Asian people. I have seen vandalism at establishments owned by Muslims because of their religion. Anyone who says that there isn’t a problem with race in America is blind or unwilling to admit the truth. This does not mean that innocent police officers need to be slaughtered in cold blood because that makes you no better than the struggles that you are fighting against. That is profiling. That is wrong. What happened in Dallas and Baton Rouge will happen again and that is sickening. We need to fight against this shedding of innocent blood because we should be better than this.

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The Best Way to Make Matters Worse

Today was supposed to be the final part of my election series. That was until I woke up to the awful news of what happened in Dallas. It’s senseless. It’s all senseless. Why does this always happen? How did we as a civilized culture get to a point where we solve violence with even more disgusting violence? At what point did ideals give people the right to get violent with another and we were supposed to just accept it?

Well, I don’t accept it. I don’t accept that it’s okay to use excessive force. I don’t accept that in order to fight excessive force you have to answer with more excessive force. I don’t have an issue with the ideals behind the Black Lives movement. There is something wrong in our society that clearly needs to be fixed. However, the problem with ideals are the simple fact that humans are the one that hold them. If this shooting proves anything it’s that people manage to screw up even the most innocent of ideals.

What happened to following such inspiring and influential leaders as Martin Luther King, Jr. or Gandhi? These were men that changed not just their own movements but the world around them. These were pacifists that believed that violence never solved a thing. They made real changes in the world through eloquent articulation, not through guns or violence. They fought for their causes in a dignified manner. And there is nothing dignified about this type of behavior at all.

Peaceful protests that clearly aim to address a problem is more effective than ones that turn riotous. That is a simple fact. Think of all of the peaceful protests that we remember today. King’s Selma March is iconic. You will never remember the violent protest  in Baltimore and even this turn of events will likely be forgotten soon. These were bad times. The violence at these events turned them from people fighting a cause to no better than the reason that this group was formed to begin with.

There is a foot patrolman in my neighborhood that you can see playing soccer with the kids in the low-income apartments next to my house, playing with kids of all races. What if this kind man was shot just because he was in uniform? There is another one who will go over to everyone he sees and waves or stops to talk with anyone that wants him to. Why should he die because of some corrupt cop? What makes you any better going after innocent men in blue just because of a prejudice that you may have against them? Does that really make you any better than the cop that shot a kid just because he was born with a certain skin color?

This was not peaceful. This was retaliation. This is what happens when people escalate a cause and make people forget what the actual cause is. No innocent person should die, period. It doesn’t matter what profession you are, your race, your religion. No innocent person should die. No one wins when that happens except for the bad guys. And I am really tired of the bad guys always winning.

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We Need Choices!

We are fortunate enough to live in a place where we have choices. We can wear what we want. We have the choice to work our dream jobs. We can eat whatever we want. We have the right to choose in America, which is also a curse because half the time we aren’t even really given options to actually make choices when it comes to the important things in life.

The problem is simple: we live in a democratic nation, which gives us the power to elect the people who govern over us. Well, at least some make shift form of democracy that attempts to give us piece of mind that our vote matters. But what real choices are we given? Although we live in a place where we can choose our governing body, we are really in a two-party system, which really does not give us any actual options. This gives us sheep (the politicians, if you will), and we have to choose which herder (democrat or republican) leads them. These sheep just follow their herder blindly, uncaring what it means for the big picture.

We are in the beginning of the fight for the 2016 fight for president. I say fight, rather than election, because the process seems more vicious than civil. There is rarely a factual ad that discusses actual political ideals, but there are plenty of ads where we watch someone kicking an old person in a wheelchair off a cliff to give an attempt at wit. We don’t know what it means, but we were either outraged that a poor old person was kicked off a cliff, or amused because we thought it was satire that was meant to be laughed at, not poignant.

With the people now throwing their hats in the race, I feel annoyed at my choices. I actually almost feel betrayed by my choices. I don’t like the idea of Hillary becoming president, but at this point in time I feel the Republican Party is just handing her the election. The choices on the republican side are: someone who read a children’s book to block a bill and no one takes seriously, a doctor who’s only claim to fame is berating Obamacare while 2 ft. from the president and being launched in the spotlight for it and is now an expert on politics as according to Fox News, and Rand Paul, which I feel does not need an explanation. We need real choices guys, this is almost becoming more comical than it should be.

This is becoming more of a case of why we should eliminate a 2 party system. Hell, we should just eliminate a party system period because you are just inviting those who don’t care enough to research the candidates a reason to just blindly vote for the letter next to their name, rather than voting for an ideal that you can stand behind.

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Trying to Do What Is Breast

I haven’t been around in a while. I have been caught up with work, specialists, and parenting and have once again neglected this. Finally, everything seems to have slowed down, in which now I can focus on other tasks on my to-do list, such as finally book editing and a side project I was given to accomplish. My hopes of my book being published this month seems to not be a likely goal, but I’m hopeful if I can just sit down and focus on it long enough without interruptions, I can do this. However, I am a mom of a toddler and a tween so that is all wishful thinking. All I can do is take it one day at a time.

Now, to the real topic at hand: boobs. Well, actually nursing in public. It is a hot topic of debate, especially in my little corner of Western Massachusetts.

I was casually reading my Facebook on Friday, as I had completed all my work and felt that I deserved a day on the couch clearing my DVR. I did clean off most of my DVR, but I also spent way too much time following a series of threads on a page that I liked because it was this amazing place that my toddler loves to play at. I love it, because it’s clean and inexpensive and it is awesome for working on his developmental delays that the specialists work with him on. Apparently they tried to institute a “nurse covered up or in a room” policy, which is illegal in Massachusetts. Okay, we like the law, so 300 comments about how she’s in the wrong and it’s illegal and blah blah, the page takes down the post and changes it to a series of “I didn’t know it was illegal, policy won’t be enacted, please be respectful” posts, to which the owner got equally attacked for.

I sat and read everything that was written. People that had never even been to this small business were giving it 1 star ratings to tank the reviews, which were pretty much all 4 or 5 stars. People posted pictures of themselves nursing, made comments about how formula fed babies should be covered up because it is offensive to see someone be a terrible parent and not nurse their child. People were vicious and cruel and completely out of line. What came out of a “please cover up” post came a torrent of unleashed rage upon anyone who disagreed with them or even said this place was a great place to visit. In fact, even today if someone comments about how it was a great place, someone comments about how it is a terrible place for not welcoming nursing moms. Only to unleash further viciousness upon anyone who dared like this place because it didn’t fit in with their values and views.

I was appalled. I was offended and angry. I was horrified. And it wasn’t the policy that made me feel this way. It was everything that happened afterward that I found so appalling. I think I saw the worst of humanity, the truth in the old adage about how women are the cruelest to one another. It pained me. Every word horrified me and made me wonder what made people so god damn high and mighty that they could belittle people based on their opinions when they are trying to prove a point about how they matter. They do matter, but so do the people that disagree with them. That’s what makes America so great: we are entitled to have our own opinions as long as they match yours.

Do I feel uncomfortable watching a woman nurse in public? Sure, I absolutely do. Does that mean that it shouldn’t be allowed? That’s what I trust our politicians to decide. I didn’t even like it when I was trying to nurse when the lactation consultant watched me. Am I a terrible mom because I couldn’t nurse as a result of my son’s inability to latch on? Absolutely not. Did I pump full-time to provide milk for my son? Yes I did. Does that make me any better than a person who chooses to use formula? Absolutely not, no more than me giving birth naturally makes me any better than someone who used an epidural or a C-section. Nursing or providing breast milk for your child does not make you the best mom in the world, just because. And if you think that, the problem is you. Moms need to stop attacking other moms, because being a mom is the hardest job in the world. As long as your child is nourished with good food, played with, taught lessons, and attended to, you are a good mom. Whether you nurse, bottle feed breast milk, use formula, buy baby food or make it, as long as you make sure your child is provided for that is all that matters. As long as you are there for your child and making sure it grows up with good role models and morals, you are doing it right. As long as your child is succeeding and you are doing everything it takes to allow success, you are a good mom. It’s when you start failing at any of those, that you are no longer a good mom. A drug addict that pawns off their kid all the time on someone else to raise is not a good mom just because she breastfeeds her child.

Then there is this video, from my local news site. I posted it on my Facebook, but I feel it does prove an excellent point here. http://https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qgnrAiWDVZQ&app=desktop

Take note of the first mom they keep panning back to outside giving an interview. I was too busy being horrified about the state of that little 8 month old daughter she had in her arms. She discussed about how she wants to empower women in any decision they make and civil rights to nurse wherever they want. Now, for those who do not live in our area, please note that when this interview took place the wind chill was in the negative degrees. Her 8 month old daughter is outside, cheeks red from cold, without protection from the cold.

So does nursing make you a better mother than everyone else? No. Should people be attacked if they prefer to cover up when nursing? Nope. Should a mother be vilified for being unable to nurse or deciding formula is the right decision for their family? Again, I’m going to say no. Should people be vilifying a company that was trying to mistakenly please everyone and put everyone who stands behind the company on some terrorism list? No. Should we start accepting everyone’s differences and opinions because that was what our great country was founded on? I say yes, and no one should ever think they are better than anyone else just because their high horse says so.

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Sometimes the Best Intentions…

Ideas to better a person’s life is always a positive. There are individuals that need help to get a foothold in the world. The ideas aren’t the problem here: people are the problem. Ideas are awesome, but not when people start finding ways to take advantage of such ideas or that they don’t think through the ideas and they become very bad version of their intentions.

Programs like WIC and Food Stamps, and various other forms of welfare are great ideas, in principle. When I was a single mom, I worked as hard as I could at my minimum wage job for sometimes 80 hours a week and couldn’t make ends meet on my own. Programs like this were intended to help people like me, those who worked hard but needed help to support their family. Now, the program has become a shadow of what it was because there are people out there that take advantage of these programs because they don’t feel like working. There are people trying to get help on these programs that can’t, because there are people who are finding loopholes so that they can sit around and just collect free money. Which is sad, because there are people who actually need this help and can’t get it because there are dishonest people mooching from a great idea that had great intentions. See, the problem isn’t the programs but the loopholes and people taking advantage of them.

Which leads me to the new program the president wants to put into place: free community college. That’s a great idea. I went to community college so that I could get all my pre-req’s out of the way because I blew a ton of money on a private 4-year college that 6 years later I still owe $30,000 left on and that doesn’t include the year and a half that my mother paid for from her retirement plan. It’s an economical plan that many people today are using. There are professions that you can get that are decent pay from a 2 year degree. This could be a fantastic idea. Get some people, who are trying to make something of their lives and want a degree to give a better lives for their families, to school so they can get off of welfare and into the workforce. Except, I see a problem. Who is going to pay for this amazing plan? With such a high amount of national debt, the government should be focusing on fixing their budget and the debt rather than paying for education. Would it come from our taxes? So we have to pay more for a program that people might take advantage of, like with every other entitlement we have in America? How can we even guarantee that our tax money is even going to go to this program and not to add onto the pocket of our congressmen? Even more than that, will we have to pay more in state taxes as well because they want the states to foot a portion of the bill? This sounds like a great idea, that is not well thought out at all. The government has great ideas that are never thought out and end up being money drains on the American people because they can’t balance their budget like the American people have to do on a daily basis.

If you want us to stand by your ideas, we need to have a plan that we can believe in and follow. This plan on the surface sounds fantastic. When you think about it for a few days, it starts to seem like a disaster. What if it becomes a requirement for people to stay on welfare? So you’re forcing people to go to school that doesn’t want to, and it ends up being a waste of money because they don’t go to class or fail because they just want the money? (Not saying that all people on welfare are cheats, but let’s be real here: there are some.) Then the tax payers are wasting money on tuition for people who aren’t taking it seriously. Then there’s the point of: high school is free and people take it as a joke. I didn’t take it seriously, nearly flunking out of high school. Then I went to college, and I had to pay for it and I was sure the hell going to make sure that I got what I paid for. I left community college with a 3.9 GPA, and graduated my 4 year college with a 3.4 GPA. A far cry from my barely there grades in high school. Fact: people work harder when they pay for it or have something to work for. This could be another consideration when debating this topic.

I do agree college costs are out of hand. I fear for my children going to college because I don’t think we’ll be able to afford helping pay their way, unless I start selling novels or my husband runs his own IT company. Or both, at the rate the costs are going up. I keep forcing the idea of working hard and getting good grades in hopes that it sinks in and he gets scholarships. I encourage additional activities like sports and band to help the scholarship push, not to mention he needs to get whatever he can to get a leg up on the competition to even get into college. I’m not alone in this. I don’t have hope that the government can fix it, because everything they seem to touch goes to hell fast. I don’t think this is the way though, at least not at this time. Maybe when our national debt gets dropped and the government learns what a budget is. We can’t afford to put money into more new programs when we can’t even afford the ones we have now.

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The Random Mix

I get most of my best ideas first thing in the morning for my blog. Unfortunately, most of the time I forget the before I get a chance to crawl out of bed and write it down. I should learn my lesson and keep one of my handy post-it’s next to my bed, but I never do. Someday. However, until that day I will supplement with a post that is full of random thoughts.

“The Science of Suicide”: My new novel, “The Science of Suicide”, is still in this long editing process. The process has barely begun, with other more pressing matters that I am unable to ignore. My hope is that I complete the process by the end of the week, even if that means no sleep or anything but my paid work and editing this novel. It will be a long one, especially since I gave up coffee as a result of how high the sugary flavoring I love so much costs calorie wise. Without caffeine and my other responsibilities, I bet I am going to be one cranky panda this week. I do have a deadline to meet, at the end of this month to turn in my novel for a contest for free editorial services. (Which is hilarious in itself, since I need to edit it before I can enter it because I do get a free printed copy of the book.) By entering there, and doing another, I should have 3 hard copies of this book, which is exciting for me. I hope that this all comes together well, and I will keep everyone posted. Until then, I do have 3 other ebooks waiting for readers on my Amazon Author Page. You can find the link on the sidebar, entitled “To Buy My Work”. It will lead you to my page.

NFL: I’m a huge Patriots fan. Huge. So huge, that the best gift in the world came from my husband this Christmas, when he bought me a Wilfork jersey. I was elated to wear it the first time. Being a Patriots fan, or rather being any Boston fan, requires a special level of a person. They have such roller coaster years, that you really need to be a strong individual to be a true fan. Otherwise, when you watch your team fall to a 14 pt deficit twice, you might freak out a little. Then with a little magic, things come together. This makes me a little nervous for next week. Denver, by all accounts, should have walked all over Indy. But in true Manning fashion, he choked. Indy won, and will play my beloved team next week. I have faith that we will win, as long as we learn to not play like we did last week. Let’s hope, though I do enjoy a nail biter. It makes the game far more interesting, and it’s more satisfying when you walk away with the win.

Tragedy and You: No one is safe from terrorism. No one is safe from tragedy. How we rise from them is what differentiates us from the bad guys. We could become hateful, and spread generalized hateful propaganda. Or, we could stand up for ourselves and identify the real problem and fight against it. Until that point, calling everyone with tanned skin a terrorist makes us just as guilty as they are. We can’t guarantee being safe from terrorism, but we can guarantee that we will stand up and fight to the death. Our freedoms are ours to keep, not theirs to take. I won’t let someone tell me what I can say. I am not afraid, and I stand with everyone else in supporting France at this time.

Game of Thrones: Seriously? It was bad enough you didn’t even nominate Peter Dinklage, which is a sin considering his absolutely incredible acting this season. But another year where it didn’t win for “Best Drama”? Game of Thrones is a show that seems to be incredibly underrated by these award show people, and they should be ashamed. I say that more love needs to be given to the fantasy genre in the same way that the Oscars need to recognize comedies more. It’s exclusion, and I thought you guys were all about “exclusion being bad”. Fix it. Especially since The Affair beat it. Really? That’s how this was going to go. At least Tina Fey and Amy Poehler were hilarious.

Feel free to share your thoughts about anything, even if it’s to tell me that my Patriots are going down. See you Wednesday.

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Resolve to be a Better You

Before I get into my post, I would like to take a moment to comment about the attack that took place in France at the Charlie Hebdo headquarters. I loathe the idea that anyone that disagrees with your ideals, religion or politics should be shot and killed as a result. I loathe the idea that people blame a religion for their radicals and lump them all up as the same. I also loathe the idea that as a writer, I should have to censor myself out of fear that myself or my family could be killed because I write anything and someone finds it offensive. I live in a place where I have the freedom to practice my art as I want, and I will be damned if anyone tries to tell me otherwise. I will not compromise who I am or the arts that I share with the world because some crazies with guns think they have more power than they do. They are just scared and blind followers of people that take the vulnerable and manipulate them into a cause that is not Islamic at all. They are the ones with the problem, not these victims of their senseless killing. One of the artists that was killed, Stephane Charbonnier, once said “I’d prefer to die standing than live on my knees” when he was first targeted, and this is something I absolutely agree with. To all the victims and others that have suffered as a result of this act, I share my sincerest condolences.

Day 2 of my commentary on resolutions. Don’t worry, this is my last day I will dedicate to this. As I had stated previously, I don’t believe in resolutions. If I want to change something about myself, I’m going to just go and do it. How many people actually follow through with their resolutions? The answer seems to be less than 50% of people who make these promises will upkeep them. The chances of you getting a divorce are higher than you keeping your resolution. Happy New Years!

This is where companies like gyms and Weight Watchers will make their money. Eventually, people forget they are paying money for a resolution that they are not keeping and they get to sit back and just collect on your broken promise to yourself. (Doesn’t that idea really make you feel guilty now?) The reason it doesn’t work is because it requires a lifestyle change, not a couple of weeks at a half-assed attempt to do something. If it really meant that much to you, you wouldn’t need to wait for New Years to do it just so that you can fit in. I hate following trends blindly just for the sake of following them.

For instance, the social media is aflutter with this pay it forward challenge. I won’t bite, even though I know it might make me look terrible. Why? Because you should pay it forward on a daily basis and not just do it because Facebook tells you to. In fact, it seems to have a lack of sincerity to me as does anyone who needs to broadcast their good deeds for the world to see. I’ve done volunteer work, I have donated to charities, does not mean I need to act self-righteous about it and blast my Facebook to rub how awesome I am in other people’s faces. I hate the idea of people using those in need for the sake of making them look like saints. (I am not talking about those who post about causes on their Facebook for awareness, I really mean those who say “I donated blood today, what have you done?”) I don’t need that sort of validation to know that I have made a difference, and I have taught my oldest child to be modest about his feats. It is my job as a mother to brag about his activities, not him. I teach my children that it’s not who is watching the deed that matters, but the people who are benefiting from it. They should be the focus. That’s why I like those anonymous donations that appear and pay off lay-away accounts for people who need the help. They don’t care if they get credit for doing something. They are doing it because it is the right thing to do, not because it makes people think highly of them.

You should resolve to be a better you, no matter the time of year and who’s watching. It’s not about resolutions; it’s about being a decent human being all year round.

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Back to Business

I decided to go off the grid for a week or two, just to take a break. November was a difficult month, that seemed never-ending due to the piles of work I had amassed when I took on too much, on top of novel-writing. I decided that for sanity purposes, a break from writing was in order. What did I do during that time? I got everything ready for the holidays. My husband was on vacation during the holiday week, and we did what any normal couple would during this time: we finished up Christmas shopping and then went into watching movies and started a “Breaking Bad” binge, which is nearly complete. It was very calming and I am glad to get back into this as a newly refreshed me. Which is great because I feel like we’re getting into the season of “illnesses the keep passing through the house”. Welcome to parenthood, folks. So let’s play catch up!

Neil deGrasse Tyson stirred up the masses apparently with an honest (and equally entertaining) tweet. People were demanding his head for the comments he made. As someone who agreed entirely (and has stated more than once that people who insist on putting the “Christ” back into Christmas are blissfully ignorant to where the traditions for their cherished holiday comes from), I don’t think he should apologize. Here’s to freedom of speech? How come a Christian can compare abortion to concentration camps and Nazi Germany, but a person who does not share Christian views gets attacked for saying that Christmas isn’t a Christian holiday and to acknowledge an incredible scientist? I’m willing to bet that those people who were calling for an apology are the same ones saying that are freedom of speech is being attacked. If you’re going to be a blatant hypocrite, at least try and hide it better. We especially should not be faulted if what we say is based by actual fact. It’s the people that make up facts that are the enemies, not the ones who state the real ones.

The president seemed to discuss recently about how America is less racially divided now than it was before he entered into the office. He points out it only seems this way because of social media and people recording incidences on their cell phones. I agree with half of that. We’re only more aware of this because of social media. Social media, as great as it can be when used properly like sharing memes and playing Farm Heroes Saga, is in actuality the devil. I play with the devil because that’s how people in my “business” can receive publicity and a place to share their work with the world. It actually seems to perpetuate things that would be best to let die out. If the Michael Brown thing had occurred in an earlier time, people would do one protest over how outraged they are by racism and everything would be done. Instead, people make it to be a cause that they need to stand behind until no one seems to care anymore. Just like my prediction about the ALS bucket challenge, no one will even remember his name in another month. Because we are all about “outrages/causes” for the moment, and not actually concerned with things that aren’t flashing on our Twitter or Facebook at the present time. The race situation is not better than it was and by politicians and news media making it a “black vs. white” issue, it will not get any better. This also goes for those who argue “if it were a white person, no one would care”. Those statements do not make you any better than the others who feign outrage. That just puts you on the other side of the race war. We should just acknowledge that we do not know what another person has to go through on a daily basis, and not judge them for it. I don’t know what it’s like to be an impoverished minority, what would make me an authority on that topic? I have no right to go on news shows to say “the problem is…” The problem isn’t that they don’t have both parents: I was a single mother and my son is an A student that participates in band and baseball and does well at both. I have friends that are single parents, and their kids are fine. It’s an excuse, and the media lets them have that excuse by blaming their circumstances for the way they end up. Plenty of children from poverty rise to do great things. We should be asking why some succeed and others don’t instead of blanketing everybody.

Last piece of business is my new novel. I anticipate being able to have it completely edited by the end of next month. I look forward to beginning the promotion process to get the ball rolling. Thank you for taking the time to read this and I will see you on Wednesday.

by

And Now It’s Done

With a hectic month of work and trying to find time to complete the novel, I have completed the NaNoWriMo challenge. At 50,444 words, the “Science of Suicide” is complete. Next up is the beginning of the editing process, which I will wait a few days to start tackling. I need to not look at this novel after working on it daily since Nov. 1st. It was close though, I completed it at 8 a.m. on November 31st. Hopefully soon I’ll get to report that it is up for sale and begin trying to hock that one in addition to  my other 3 eBooks that are currently for sale. Until then, I can officially begin adding this back into my rotation.

I’m not sure which story got sensationalized more by the media: Ferguson or Ebola. I don’t know the facts on Ferguson, so I can’t say who I feel was in the right during the situation that occurred. Why? Because every news outlet seems to have a different account as to what actually happened, bending information as always to suit whatever agenda they are pushing on their viewers. Increasingly so, their viewers (on both sides of the aisle) are just becoming mouth pieces that recite information back to everyone else as if it were fact. I can tell you who is in the wrong though: the violent protestors and anyone who encourages them. I’m not going to feign outrage over this because every day someone is killed by another for an injustice and no one seems to care… until it fits an agenda.

What about that body of a missing girl they just found? How about we protest her? Or what about the former Cake drummer that just got put away for 15 years to life for sexually assaulting a 3-year-old girl? Let’s start a protest about that? I’m not buying into anyone’s outrage over this. The fact of the matter, so eloquently put by people like Pharrell Williams, is why aren’t we addressing why a kid would think it’s okay to behave like that or why you should stop when a cop tells you to? Then another point that was thrown out by Joe Scarborough about how we cling onto the wrong poster children, like people saying that George Zimmerman was a hero for what he did only to find out that he really was just trouble all along. The media picks and chooses these people to push an agenda, but why not use positive people fighting for causes. What happened to applauding people like Rose Parks, who did one simple act and became a hero for change in America? What about Gandhi, who was all for peaceful protest to make change? The keys in both of these actual heroes is in how they went about change: through peace.

We don’t have these true heroes anymore, at least none that the media cares to share with the world. Is there still racism in America? Absolutely. The only people who don’t think that are privileged white people with their heads in the clouds, listening to news organizations saying that all races are equal in America. They ignore it when a local Muslim gets ransacked because of a terrorist attack, and then blame it on them for “not speaking out against their radicals”. They make comments about how that new Muslim family in the neighborhood are sleeper cell terrorists. They ignore the fact that a person does get racially profiled while driving or at the airport. Let’s consider this: the people responsible for the Boston marathon bombing were white. They did not look like the stereotypical Muslim. So, why aren’t white people checked as thoroughly as a person with color in their skin when going through the airport? There would be outrage if that occurred. So if you are so convinced that racism doesn’t exist in America, you need to start looking around in the real world because eventually those clouds are going to pop.

Certainly, it is not as bad as it used to be. No one is arguing with that. But hate still exists, and even the simplest comment about a person being a sleeper terrorist because someone looks like they could be a Muslim is disgusting no matter how you put it. Because that white family that just moved in could be just as likely to commit an act of terrorism, as we have seen. The minute we stop hating, racism will no longer exist. Unfortunately, people do hate. It is not a war where you need to be on the black or white side, it’s a war on people. We need to start accepting each other, whether we’re white or Asian or black or blue or green. We all have bad people with our skin color or religion, and that does not make us special.