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Showing posts from April, 2015

Maybe a benefit of an open mind is that it both lets in new thoughts but also lets some old thoughts spill out

This coming weekend, I am going camping with a bunch of Quakers – a couple hundred of them/us. Some fun, eh? It’s something I’ve been doing off, but mostly on, for close to 50 years, since it was held at Camp Hilltop in Downingtown, a camp than no longer exists except in our dulled, but fond, memories. When I was a teenager and had to go to these camps, my friends Martin, Eric, Dennis, Chris and Brad, among others, made a fine art out of skipping the workshops and “fun” activities the parents had worked hard to organize to help teach us big issues about the world, probably involving lots of Peace, Love and Understanding. Our favorite trick was to walk in one side of the meeting hall, sign in, and then, while they were still signing kids in and getting organized, we would walk out the other side, at which point we would head for the ball fields or basketball court or just up to the woods for a while to lay low and talk about sports or girls, honing the fine art of exaggeration in bo

If you have to ask if something is racist, does that make you a racist?

So, here is what the post above was meant to include, until that post got a little unwieldy, I decided to cut that one off and make this a separate entry, partially because of the nature of this one. This is in reference to the workshop I am leading on Race, described above and again here: 2A “ Race Relations – Discussion to Action” We have been asked for decades to have a national discussion on race. This workshop will briefly be part of that, then we hope to spend a majority of our time developing ideas for specific actions we can take or lead others to get involved with. Please come ready with ideas, suggestions and an open mind, though not so open that things fall out. (Come to think of it, I’m not sure I’ve ever led a workshop before, but ah, there I go off on another digression.) So again, a goal of the workshop is to not go down the usual path such discussions take, where we are all of the same mindset and we spend the whole time patting each other on the back f

Brush #1: The Raging Bull

I don't have much time, so writing, and maybe even reading this post will take longer than the amount of time I was in the presence of this boxing , and eventually, movie icon: Jake LaMotta, aka the Raging Bull. As I was walking up the Spectrum press box steps, he was starting to walk down, and he graciously waited to let me pass. Either because he was being a gentleman, or more likely he was intimidated. By my Quaker aura, I mean.

Who's getting what is (was) in your wallet?!

I strongly believe that a huge percentage of people who vote Republican, do so because of their anger over giving low-income people financial assistance...or, as I hear it from people: "giving THOSE people part of my paycheck for sitting around and watching TV all day, while they spend my money on $400 sneakers and lobster dinners".   But they seem to overlook how their adopted party gives way more attention and benefits to the uber-wealthy:   NEWS ITEM: Republicans will vote Wednesday on a bill repealing the estate tax. WaPo: "A tax cut that would exclusively benefit individuals with wealth of more than $5.4 million and couples with wealth of more than $10.9 million. That’s a tax break for only the 5,500 wealthiest households in the country each year... Never in the history of plutocracy has so much been given away to so few who need it so little. This is the ultimate perversion of the tea party movement, which began as a populist revolt in 2009 but has sinc

Good News - a new post! Bad News - it's politics...as usual

Sorry dear readers, for, well, the past, present and future. The Past, because I haven’t posted here in weeks and weeks, and The Present and Future, because I am going to start doing again the thing that a few of you requested that I stop doing: Posting too many politically-themed entries. But with it, I’ll make a promise to get back on track posting some of the more non-political items of interest as well, more frequently. I’ll also reference something else one of you, OK, it was Laurie, requested, which is that I post some of my past Brushes With Greatness, as David Letterman used to call them. Times I ran into someone, incredible though it may seem, even more famous than me! --- So here’s my first post of any kind for awhile, but skip over it if politics don’t interest thee: From today’s WaPo (Washington Post): Quote of the day : "Our leaders put us at a disadvantage by taxing, borrowing and regulating like it’s 1999." -- Sen. Rubio, in announcing his c