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Author Topic: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable  (Read 15573 times)

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AGelbert

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Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
« Reply #135 on: January 20, 2018, 03:34:06 pm »
This is a heartwarming story.   

BRAZOS!

RE

https://www.npr.org/2018/01/19/579196353/after-four-months-without-power-a-puerto-rico-town-strings-its-own-lines

After Four Months Without Power, A Puerto Rico Town Strings Its Own Lines

Adrian Florido

Rosa Cruz and Luis Felipe Colón standing beneath the newly illuminated light on their front porch. The couple had been without electricity for four months.
Adrian Florido/NPR

Four months after Hurricane Maria made landfall on Puerto Rico, nearly 40 percent of the island's electricity customers remain without power.

Rosa Cruz and her husband, Luis Felipe Colón, both retired, are among them. They've eaten mostly canned food and prayed that Rosa doesn't have an asthma attack, because they can't plug in her nebulizer.

Their little house in a rural part of western Puerto Rico sits on a hillside. From their porch, they look down on the town of San Sebastián.

"When there was no electricity," Colón says, "it looked really beautiful at sunset."

But slowly, the lights are coming back on. Colón says as power is restored to the town below, it's looked even more beautiful.

"I tell him, 'look there's light down there,' Rosa says. 'It's getting closer to us!'"

This morning, the couple woke up and saw that a crew had re-hoisted the downed utility pole in front of their house. Colón says he literally jumped.

"What joy!" he said. "It's our turn!"

Volunteers with the Pepino Power Authority repair electrical lines on the outskirts of San Sebastián de las Vegas del Pepino, Puerto Rico.
Adrian Florido/NPR

San Sebastián takes charge

The men working out front were not with the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, the island's sole utility. Nor with the Army Corps of Engineers. Nor any of the official government crews working to restore electricity to Puerto Rico.

They were San Sebastián's police chief - a retired employee of the utility - and a bunch of other men from this municipality, all volunteering to restore power to their town.

San Sebastián's city hall is on a picture-perfect plaza with a fountain and a church. In his office, Mayor Javier Jiménez says that back in November, after nearly two months of waiting for the electric utility to start grid repairs in his town, he couldn't take it anymore.

"The first thing I did," he says, "was find out which of our employees were electricians." Jiménez said he then put out a call for help for linemen and others who used to work for the utility but were now retired.

"And so we started these brigades," he said. The volunteers gave themselves a name: the Pepino Power Authority, the PPA, after the town's full name, San Sebastián de las Vegas del Pepino. They designed a logo and slapped it on their helmets and utility trucks.

Official logo of the unofficial Pepino Power Authority. Pepino is Spanish for cucumber.
Adrian Florido/NPR

The Pepino Power Authority (pepino is Spanish for cucumber) started fixing electric lines in the center of town, and has been working its way out to the hills.

They have met resistance. The The Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority accused Jiménez of circumventing its monopoly. He admits he did. But he objects to another accusation — that what he's doing is unsafe.

"One of the first things we did," Jiménez says, "was establish a safety protocol, and we brought in a government inspector."

Pressure builds on the government

Across Puerto Rico, mayors still waiting for repair crews to arrive in their municipalities have started pressuring the governor to allow them to legally restore their own power. So this week, the legislature announced a bill that would permit cities to hire their own contractors.

In San Sebastián, the Pepino Power Authority has already restored service to about 2,500 homes. Joaquín Cruz, a volunteer, says the goal is to restore 100 percent of the town's homes before the end of January.

"Yesterday we did between 60 and 80," Cruz says, "and today will be the same."

One of those is the little hillside home of Rosa Cruz and Luis Felipe Colón, who've been watching the progress from their porch all day. Every time the workmen of the Pepino Power Authority are ready to turn the power back on to a new home, they get giddy with excitement.

Félix Avilés, the police chief turned electrician, races up to the house, switches on the breaker and then flips the switch for the porch light.

It turns on.

"Thank you!" Rosa Cruz tells the workers. "We're so blessed!"

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
« Reply #136 on: February 08, 2018, 09:45:54 pm »


February 8, 2018

Depression: Not Just Personal, But Also Neoliberal?

In his new book "Lost Connections," Johann Hari argues that depression is more than a chemical imbalance: it's an illness rooted in the traumas of adverse childhood experiences and an atomized neoliberal society.


http://therealnews.com/t2/story:21094:Depression%3A-Not-Just-Personal%2C-But-Also-Neoliberal%3F


Quote
NoDifference • 18 hours ago

Excuse me while I pick up my jaw. Wow. I've come to this exact same conclusion myself. I also went through the same struggle that the guest describes. I've also been following the Basic Income story for years, but especially the last 2 or 3 now. I've always known that my depression was never caused by me, but rather by the environment I lived in.  

The isolation that Mr. Hari (maybe he deserves the title of Dr.!) describes is not limited to just the usual things that he mentions, as well as the loss of control. Part of the problem is the way we are told that, somehow, we must stop "feeling sorry for ourselves." This is absolute BS. Of course we do -- when we feel hurt or loss, we grieve, we feel pain, we hurt mentally as well as physically. Sadly, Emotional-Relational (ER) therapy is still quite popular, which involves reprogramming ourselves to be less human and more like machines. I got a dose of that back in the 1980s, in my search to find a "cure."

Shutting people down because we cannot see the pain THEY feel is not only cruel and adds to their isolation and pain, it is also idiotic. There is no reason why anyone should expect people to act "normal" in an environment that is hardly like anything natural or normal. Besides "normal" being subjective and difficult to define or get consensus on, it demands people behave in ways the human body and mind are not fit to handle (with, albeit, those hardy few with the toughest and best genetics). I do not and never did like being shut down, and I cannot see why anyone else would either.

The anti-anxiety meds I've been taking for 15 years -- and they've switched them a few times, and changed dosages as well -- are barely chipping away at the discomfort I feel. But the advice -- really, re-programming -- I've received can only transform people into even more unfeeling personalities as they shed the most human of emotions, the reaction to societal detachment. Full-blown cases are better known as sociopaths, those hardy souls who can shuff off pain, whether their own or anyone elses... and then continue with the same, or worse, anti-social behavior. And it is not difficult to imagine that some sociopaths could ultimately become psychopaths if the pain suppressed for so long suddenly explodes after years of concealment, like a water heater without a relief valve gone awry.

Why are we expected to feel content in an environment that makes too many days of our lives unbearable? We need to stop listening to those people who continually tell us everything will work out because the only way to guarantee that result, or anything near it, is to actually do the work of making everything work out. Basic income is essential to that end.

This interview was so good, I will be taking another listen to it!

 
« Last Edit: February 08, 2018, 11:06:55 pm by AGelbert »
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
« Reply #137 on: February 17, 2018, 07:44:09 pm »
What Social Programs 🕊 Were Pioneered by the Black Panther Party 💫?

There were many facets to the generation that spawned the protest era of the late 1960s, including anti-war activism, free speech, civil rights, and a general anti-establishment vibe, all of which spread throughout the San Francisco area.

Community groups like the Diggers sprang up to help people in need in the Haight-Ashbury neighborhood, providing free clothes, food, and medical care.

The Black Panther Party 🕊 pushed numerous social initiatives, as well, such as creating a Free Breakfast for School Children program that fed tens of thousands of hungry kids -- and provided inspiration for today’s government-run breakfast program for kids. 

Power to the people:

The Black Panther Party was formed in 1966 to address police brutality in Oakland, California. A faction led by Stokely Carmichael began advocating self-determination for African-Americans, which became known as Black Power.

The Black Panthers' free breakfast program began at an Episcopal church in Oakland. Party members and volunteers solicited donations, consulted with nutritionists, and prepared and served the food free of charge to underprivileged children. The initiative spread across the country in the early 1970s.

The program addressed a critical community need and also helped to counter the militant image of the Black Panthers that was held by many Americans.

http://www.wisegeek.com/what-social-programs-were-pioneered-by-the-black-panther-party.htm
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Re: Human Life is Fragile but EVERY Life is Valuable
« Reply #138 on: February 21, 2018, 02:47:34 pm »
February 20, 2018

Why this Rohingya refugee mother 🕊 has a reason to smile


Quote
USA for UNHCR donors help this Rohingya mother feel safe again 🌞


“My husband carried his mother and I carried my two children. We couldn't carry anything else with us,” said Alin Nisa, a 22-year-old Rohingya refugee now safe in Bangladesh. Despite enduring unimaginable trauma, Alin’s bright smile shares her hope for her family's future. ✨

The family was forced to flee when armed men came to their village in the middle of the night. After a treacherous 10-day journey across rivers and mountains, they reached the border of Bangladesh. Exhausted and hungry, Alin was relieved to finally see UNHCR staff members whose distinctive blue vests symbolized safety and hope.

Once settled in a refugee camp, the UN Refugee Agency supplied materials for the family to build a shelter. These included plastic sheeting and a tarp to protect against the region's heavy rains. The Nisa family also received kitchen supplies, mats, blankets and other humanitarian relief items.

With a sturdy shelter to call home and the means to feed, clothe and care for her children, Alin is smiling again because she feels safe — for the first time in quite a while.

Alin and her family are survivors of the fastest-growing refugee crisis in the world today. Since August 2017, approximately 647,000 Rohingya, an ethnic minority in Myanmar, have fled violence and persecution.

With the generous support of caring Americans, UNHCR has responded to the massive need by:

֍ Airlifting humanitarian aid including blankets, plastic sheets, sleeping mats, family tents, plastic rolls, kitchen sets, jerry cans and buckets.

֍ Constructing 8,000 latrines to protect refugees against potentially deadly, water-borne diseases and diarrhea.

֍ Establishing safe spaces within refugee camps where survivors of sexual and gender-based violence can receive counseling and referrals for legal support.

https://www.unrefugees.org/news/why-this-rohingya-refugee-mother-has-a-reason-to-smile/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Who am I besides a flower quickly fading 🥀or a brief wave 🌊 tossed in the ocean? I am His. 🕊
Who Am I - Casting Crowns (w/ lyrics)



He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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  I asked him to make a referral to a Rheumatologist anywhere and I would fly there, but he refused saying he himself is a Specialist and doesn't do referrals. So I will have to go back to the Bimbos at Mat-Su and see if they will get me a referral for a Rheumatologist.  ::)

This is bogus and an artifact of the current HMO insurance system and has nothing to do with medical practice. Actually,any doctor has an obligation to you as a patient to make any referral that he/she considers reasonable. His excuse is lame, but these days most patients buy it because they've been trained to go to their  primary care physician for referrals.

What if he'd found evidence of cancer, and it didn't happen to be a cancer he was qualified to treat? He would have made a referral in a heartbeat.

Yes, I know it was bullshit.  Further words to come out of his mouth during this portion of the conversation were: "I don't want to insert myself into this".  He also appeared angry at me for even suggesting it.  All he wants to do is deal with urinary tract issues, all the rest is "not his department".  Referal making is for PCPs, not a Specialista like him!  ::)

Anyhow, I have to call today to see if the results for my Schnitzler's tests came back and then also discuss the possibility of getting my endoscopy & colonoscopy done by fasting instead of drinking the gross kool-aid.  So I will talk to them about getting another referal.  The **** Doc said an Internal Medicine specialist might work also, and we do have a few of those up here.

RE

I just want to let you know that every specialist that does colonoscopies has a published "score" relating to finding polyps. I'm not sure exactly how the scoring is done, but the ones with a bad score (they can't avoid having the public know their score) can, not only miss stuff they should see, but cause problems. A perforated colon can be very dangerous. I suggest you find out the score of the person that is going to do your colonoscopy. Eddie may be able to help you get it.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I don't know why you want to have it done at all.  I refused mine and it would have been free.  They only do it because they are then free from the possibility of being sued.  All it will tell you is that you are going to die at some time, or not, and you knew that anyway.

Of course you can always then go for a bowel/bladder ectomy and do your stuff into a plastic bag hung from your waist for the rest of your miserable life in a miserable hospital, or at least until you run out of money and they sneak a double dose of morphine into your nightly cocoa.

To be honest, I think it is a complete waste of time and money and will elucidate nothing.  I have a pretty good sensation of my problems, and they aren't in my colon or in my stomach per se.  It has something to do with the autonomic nervous system controlling appetite.  I think the stomach and intestines and bowels are operating just as the nerves tell them to operate, but they are not getting the right signals.

However, in order to drill down to this, I HAVE to do do what the Pros recommend for testing, and this is the one test I refused to do, because I feel unsafe to ingest the s h i t they want you to ingest for it.  So I will do it, but only if they agree to make me feel safe in doing so.  Also tell me how much it will f u c k ing COST!

RE

Get the cost in writing with a declaration clearly visible that it is not an estimate, no matter what the fine print may say.

Also tell them ahead of time you are not signing a f u c k ing thing 5 minutes before any procedure.

That is basically what I do unless I am against the wall and if I don't sign I get no treatment.

RE

I read your post and it got me to thinking about the autonomic nervous system and the signals to your digestive tract. Some time ago I learned that Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine in the valium benzo family of anxiolytics, was discovered to be produced in small quantities by the human intestines. It is a nervous system reaction appparently designed by the creator (though some will swear on a stack of Darwin's Origin of the Species Bibles that it was Doctor Evolution  ) to make us feel kinda nice when digestion begins so we will relax and not run around doing stuff so our body can work on processing all the goodies we just ate.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, your innards are not putting out enough lorazepam boost. As you have surmised, the autonomic nervous system and the "tone" of your vagal nerve, coming from your brain, is a BIG DEAL because there are an incredible amount of brain to gut connections (more than can be possibly explained by pain receptors alone!). They still don't know all that they do, but they know your gut manufactures anxiolytics. If it isn't doing that properly, I imagine a lot of the symptoms you suffer from might surface.

It's just a thought. Lorazepam can only be taken sporadically because it is addictive after a month or so of taking over or about one milligram a day. BUT, taking it every few days or no more than once a week or so guarantees you will never be addicted to it.

I know you have other problems unrelated to your gut, but perhaps Lorazepam will help you.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I don't know why you want to have it done at all.  I refused mine and it would have been free.  They only do it because they are then free from the possibility of being sued.  All it will tell you is that you are going to die at some time, or not, and you knew that anyway.

Of course you can always then go for a bowel/bladder ectomy and do your stuff into a plastic bag hung from your waist for the rest of your miserable life in a miserable hospital, or at least until you run out of money and they sneak a double dose of morphine into your nightly cocoa.

To be honest, I think it is a complete waste of time and money and will elucidate nothing.  I have a pretty good sensation of my problems, and they aren't in my colon or in my stomach per se.  It has something to do with the autonomic nervous system controlling appetite.  I think the stomach and intestines and bowels are operating just as the nerves tell them to operate, but they are not getting the right signals.

However, in order to drill down to this, I HAVE to do do what the Pros recommend for testing, and this is the one test I refused to do, because I feel unsafe to ingest the **** they want you to ingest for it.  So I will do it, but only if they agree to make me feel safe in doing so.  Also tell me how much it will **** COST!

RE

Get the cost in writing with a declaration clearly visible that it is not an estimate, no matter what the fine print may say.

Also tell them ahead of time you are not signing a **** thing 5 minutes before any procedure.

That is basically what I do unless I am against the wall and if I don't sign I get no treatment.

RE

I read your post and it got me to thinking about the autonomic nervous system and the signals to your digestive tract. Some time ago I learned that Lorazepam, a benzodiazepine in the valium benzo family of anxiolytics, was discovered to be produced in small quantities by the human intestines. It is a nervous system reaction appparently designed by the creator (though some will swear on a stack of Darwin's Origin of the Species Bibles that it was Doctor Evolution  ) to make us feel kinda nice when digestion begins so we will relax and not run around doing stuff so our body can work on processing all the goodies we just ate.

MAYBE, just MAYBE, your innards are not putting out enough lorazepam boost. As you have surmised, the autonomic nervous system and the "tone" of your vagal nerve, coming from your brain, is a BIG DEAL because there are an incredible amunt of brain to gut connections (more than can be possibly explained by pain receptors alone!). They still don't know all that they do, but they know your gut manufactures anxiolytics. If it isn't doing that properly, I imagine a lot of the symptoms you suffer from might surface.

It's just a thought. Lorazepam can only be taken sporadically because it is addictive after a month or so of taking over or about one milligram a day. BUT, taking it every few days or no more than once a week or so guarantees you will never be addicted to it.

I know you have other problems unrelated to your gut, but perhaps Lorazepam will help you.

Good suggestion AG, I'll see if Dr. Bimbo will write me a scrip for it.

RE


 

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I will be 81 in September. When my grandfather died at 75 I was about six years old and I lay on the floor looking at the ceiling and promised myself I would try to get to 100. His wife, my dear grandmother, made 96. That's only one side. The other side, not so lucky. But I do hold to the Meditteranean diet. Ten or even twelve vegetables per day, lots of Caucasus kefir, no red meat, and lots of vitamins. Eschew the confined animal cruelty. Pray and have reverence for a higher power, as AA says. Have respect for life and be part of the natural world. Respect the ancestors who have come before and shown the way. Do not throw away their wisdom for a mess of lentil soup.

There is every chance that you just might make it, particularly with that dietary regime. I hope you do.
But I don't understand what's wrong with lentil soup? I regard a good lentil soup as a thing of beauty.


It's a metaphor about Jacob and his brother. Jacob conned Esau into selling him his inheritance for a bowl of matzo ball lentil soup.  ;D

Of course.



Your honesty and noble humility have always been aspects of your personality that I admire greatly. 

You sir , are certainly NOT a dumbass! You are gettin' old, just like the rest of us.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Agelbert NOTE: This is part of a series of posts involving the correct action by Surly to delete a hate fullied post by Palloy.


If Surly had, he would have owned it and explained why he was doing  it, I think. Not sure about RE. He's drugged out of his gourd at the moment, so who knows.

I have made inquires to both RE and Surly about the missing posts. Not sure what happened, but I question whether it was a mod at all. Occasionally comments do disappear completely on this platform and reappear months or even years later.


It was me. One comment was a vicious trolling of RE, and another was ad hom disparaging a poster's religion. Well beyond the bounds of taste and decorum, and I own it fully. With no regrets.

Thanks.

I'm not second-guessing Surly. I have his back. If he says a post was in violation, I believe him. However, it helps for moderators to give some explanation when they feel the need to delete a comment. Otherwise, things can get confusing.


This is a double-edged sword.  To acknowledge you deleted a comment is to invite commentary on the deletion process to begin with.  Then you get into the "free speech" debate and "censorship".  It also costs you time and energy to defend your reasons for the deletion.  The whole purpose of doing this is to NOT get into such debates, they are off the topic at hand.  They derail the topic.

I didn't see this posting, although I could go look for it in the DNF file.  Once a Mod chooses to delete though, I have no interest in it.  It is no longer up for public consumption, for whatever the reason was that the Mod made this decision. 

RE


I remain loath to delete any post. And I will tolerate a great deal of opprobrium directed at me. But I hate gratuitous bulling, and cruelty from any vector. And have decided I'm not going to put up with it any longer.


What those who like to snipe never, quite deliberately 😈, want to understand is that First Amendment Free Speech is NOT a libertine's license to hurl gratuitous insults at a person.

The reason for that is that the MOTIVE of said insults is ALWAYS, though the clever person hurling the insult will deny it in perfect sophistic form , to undermine the credibility of the messenger, NOT to claim disagreement with the message.

THIS is the CRUX of the free speech argument. IF you are disagreeing, it's fine and dandy to say so. BUT, if you are claiming the argument is flawed because the one delivering the argument is an ****, you are NOT exercising free speech and deserve to be DISAPPEARED from civilized discourse.

I have tried for many years to get you, Eddie, to see the difference. I think you do but sometimes you don't want to deal with it. But, at least you are honest about it.

Insults, UNLESS they are blow off "insults" to the person doing the insulting ;D, DO NOT edify those communicating or advance the dialogue, Eddie!

As to certain others here who play the objective saint 😇 some days  while refusing to even address their occasional descents into bold faced attack the messenger mode, I am done even addressing these sanctimoneous cretins when they are in attack mode.

Arrogant lack of humilty is not simply unChristian, it is prima facie evidence of IRRATIONALITY. These people LACK objectivity. Listening to said people is stupid.

There are many reasons to keep the destructive poison said people spew from public disourse and NO reason whatsoever to protect their customary hate filled invective. These are people, as Surly indirectly stated in a recent comment, that never grew out of the childish tantrum/playground bully stage.

Everyone knows that the best way to deal with a spoiled brat is to censor their behavior. Some brats grow up and learn to stop that heinous conduct. Some don't. That's their problem.

Allowing them to continue this anti-social destructive critcism rewards this heinous conduct and encourages MORE OF IT!

As a Christian, I often have to remind people that turning the other cheek does not mean feeding a SICK NEED!

 
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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TruthDig

MAY 27, 2018 TD ORIGINALS

Teaching ‘Les Misérables’ in Prison

By Chris Hedges

SNIPPET 1:

I spent the last four months teaching Victor Hugo’s 1862 novel “Les Misérables” at a maximum-security prison in New Jersey. My students—like Hugo’s main character, Jean Valjean, who served 19 years in prison—struggle with shame, guilt, injustice, poverty and discrimination, and yearn for redemption and transformation. The novel gave them a lens to view their lives and a ruling system every bit as cruel as Hugo’s 19th-century France.

“Les Misérables” was wildly successful when it was published, including among Civil War soldiers in the United States, although Hugo’s condemnation of slavery was censored from Confederate copies. It was American socialist leader Eugene V. Debs’ favorite book—he read it in French. The socialist British Prime Minister Lloyd George said “Les Misérables” taught him more about poverty and the human condition than anything else he had ever read and instilled in him a lifelong ambition “to alleviate the distress and the suffering of the poor.” Hugo’s novel, however, enraged the ruling elites. It was panned by French critics. Copies were burned in Spain. Pope Pius IX put it on the church’s list of banned books, along with “Madame Bovary” and all the novels of Stendhal and Honoré de Balzac.


SNIPPET 2:

The decision by the bishop to lie on behalf of Valjean triggered an intense debate in my classroom.

“Who would do this?” a student asked.

“No one,” another student answered.

Several students dismissed the scene as improbable.

And then from the back of the room a student, speaking in emotional undertones, told this story.

“I came back to my bunk one day,” he said. “There was a new Bible on it. Inside was a letter. It was from my victim’s sister. She 🕊 wrote, ‘I forgive you. Now you must forgive yourself.’ I broke down. I could be more than a criminal. I could change. She made that possible.”   

My students will spend their lives condemned as felons. They, like Valjean, will never completely wash away the mark of Cain. Transformation, even when it occurs, will not free them from the criminal caste system. Transformation must be carried out not for what it will achieve, for often it will achieve nothing, or how it will be perceived, for most of the wider society will not perceive it. Transformation is about making peace with yourself. It is about obeying your conscience, which Hugo equates with the divine. It is about never living at the expense of another. Transformation is about rising above the hatred many feel, with justification, for a society that has betrayed them.

“If you are persecuted for virtue, why be virtuous?” a student asked.

“Those who have nothing need other people,” another student said. “We can’t survive alone. The more we sacrifice for those around us, the more we reduce our collective suffering; the more we recover our humanity, the more people reach out to us when we need help, and we all need help. Goodness is contagious.”

And yet, as my students know, this internal battle is hard and fierce within a society that denies the poor dignity and respect.

“Obscurely he perceived that the priest’s forgiveness was the most formidable assault he had ever sustained,” Hugo wrote of Valjean, “that if he resisted it his heart would be hardened once and for all, and that if he yielded he must renounce the hatred which the acts of man had implanted in him during so many years, and to which he clung. He saw dimly that this time he must either conquer or be conquered, and that the battle was not joined, a momentous and decisive battle between the evil in himself and the goodness in the other man.”

Hugo was aware that there are some who cannot be redeemed. They are incapable of empathy or remorse. They are driven by greed and ambition. They take a perverse joy in inflicting suffering on others. They are capable only of deceit. These people must be kept at bay. In the novel they are represented by Monsieur and Madame Thénardier, “human creatures which, like crayfish, always retreat into shadow, going backwards rather than forwards through life, gaining in deformity with experience, going from bad to worse and sinking into even deeper darkness.”

This cold reality, nevertheless, proved to be a painful one to digest in the classroom. Several students argued passionately that everyone, no matter how depraved, could ultimately be redeemed, and yet the reality of prison, my students conceded, amply illustrates that there are human predators to whom one can never show vulnerability or expect mercy. Fyodor Dostoyevsky described hell as the inability to love. These predators inhabit this hell. This internal hell, a barrenness of the soul, is exemplified in the police inspector Javert, who hounds Valjean throughout the novel. Hugo wrote, “The Austrian peasants believe that in every wolf-litter there is a dog-whelp which the mother kills, because otherwise when it grows larger it will devour the rest of her young. Endow this dog with a human face, and you have Javert.”

Full EXCELLENT article:

https://www.truthdig.com/articles/teaching-les-miserables-in-prison/
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Frankly Scarlett, I never liked Charles Krauthammer much. But his story is fairly amazing. Very interesting karma.

He just announced he's got terminal cancer and expects to live only a few weeks. I found this letter he wrote to be extremely courageous. I wish him good luck in his next life, or wherever he's headed.


 
June 8, 2018

 I have been uncharacteristically silent these past ten months. I had thought that silence would soon be coming to an end, but I’m afraid I must tell you now that fate has decide on a different course for me.

In August of last year, I underwent surgery to remove a cancerous tumor in my abdomen. That operation was thought to have been a success, but it caused a cascade of secondary complications which I have been fighting in hospital ever since. It was a long and hard fight with many setbacks, but I was steadily, if slowly, overcoming each obstacle along the way and gradually making my way back to health.

 However, recent tests have revealed that the cancer has returned. There was no sign of it as recently as a month ago, which means it is aggressive and spreading rapidly. My doctors tell me their best estimate is that I have only a few weeks left to live. This is the final verdict.

My fight is over. I wish to thank my doctors and caregivers, whose efforts have been magnificent. My dear friends, who have given me a lifetime of memories and whose support has sustained me through these difficult months. And all of my partners at The Washington Post, Fox News, and Crown Publishing.

Lastly, I thank my colleagues, my readers, and my viewers, who have made my career possible and given consequence to my life’s work. I believe that the pursuit of truth and right ideas through honest debate and rigorous argument is a noble undertaking. I am grateful to have played a small role in the conversations that have helped guide this extraordinary nation’s destiny.

 I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life, full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

Charles Krauthammer




Frankly Scarlett, I never liked Charles Krauthammer much. But his story is fairly amazing. Very interesting karma.

He just announced he's got terminal cancer and expects to live only a few weeks. I found this letter he wrote to be extremely courageous. //

I leave this life with no regrets. It was a wonderful life, full and complete with the great loves and great endeavors that make it worth living. I am sad to leave, but I leave with the knowledge that I lived the life that I intended.

Charles Krauthammer
[/i]

Me neither. But I agree with your assessment.

Who among us can say that they truly lived the life they intended?

I disagree that a person should feel pride because they lived the life THEY intended (see the Sinatra song: "I did it MY WAY" ).

The only life worth living or being proud of is the life GOD INTENDED for us. Everything else, especially the lack of regrets, is egotistical false pride.

Krauthammer is an erudite person with a good vocabulary who, instead of using his extensive knowledge of human nature to combat injustices, has served evil causes all his life.

His fight, the only fight that actually matters, is just beginning for the remainder of his time here. If he does not repent of his evil, he is HELL TOAST.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I Believe.


He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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Az:
Quote
McPherson Calls It, Extinction Sept. '18


Az, McPherson is wrong. It Can't be September '18! Superman died on November 18!


You know someone's come to end of their leash when they start throwing dates at doom.

Guy's gone complete Harold Camping 


Guy has often talked about suicide, though he claims he would never do it. However, the fact the he harps so much on his claim that there is NO HOPE, may ultimately cause him to off himself. I hope and pray he does not do this. I hope he just keeps practicing what he preaches about being good and kind to those one cares about.

I've listened to and watched many of his presentations. He tries to be, oh so calm about the threat of extinction (that he thinks is a sure thing). However, I detect an undertone of raging anger at the stupidity of mankind, particulaly TPTB. Guy is VERY angry, though he pretends it's all like water off a duck to him. I don't believe that for a second. It eats at him.

Also, he has a confirmation bias problem that, when these dire predictions DO NOT come to pass on Guy's timetable, might cause him to resist having to admit he was wrong due to excessive pride in his intellectual and analytical powers.

Shutting himself off from any potential solutions is a sure way to get clinically depressed, and dangerously suicidal.

Where there is life, there is hope. Unfortunately, McPherson claims that is not so, due to Confirmation Bias.
He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

AGelbert

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I can believe it will come in September, but I don't think it will be this September.

"It" being an event one could clearly tag as being "the end of industrial civilization".

And even if it is this September, we sure as hell won't be able to confirm that it WAS this September by the first of October, as Guy seems to think.

The collapse is clearly ongoing and incremental. Waterfall events will surely occur that make it more obvious, as time goes on.

As usual. Guy is guessing. He used to be guessing human extinction by 2030 if I remember right. I can believe that more readily than I believe that industrial civilization will collapse this September.

Another case of confirmation bias.

I find myself in the position that I have often found myself over the past few years. I agree with most of the data that shows that collapse is imminent, and that real catastrophic climate change is imminent. But I disagree with Guy's take on timing. And the take of others who think economic disaster will come this year. It is coming, but we have a bit longer to wait.

Not the worst thing, for most of us.


Well said, however with earth changes on the up tick, we could be in for a bumpy rest of '18.

It appears that there is a lot more human displacement currently. If the hurricane season is huge than
who knows.

He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matt 10:37

 

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