crisis

Fashion  /  Photography
Sunday Gallery: Moments Of Beauty
January 29, 2017
charles i. letbetter - moments of beauty

We need to find the beauty in an ugly world

 

charles i. letbetter - moments of beauty

[dropcap]I found it difficult to curate a gallery for this week. My heart just wasn’t in it. Our eyes have been glued to news reports and wire feeds as thousands of people have been stranded, detained, and/or deported at our nation’s airports. They are victims, innocent victims of the president’s illegal immigration order the excludes people from seven countries from entering the US. Never mind that these people have legal work visas and green cards. Never mind that they have family members here who are relying upon them, waiting for them. Never mind they have employers who need them. The president’s order was a giant “fuck you” to all of them without regard, and a “fuck you” to the entire country.[/dropcap]

With all that going on, trying to find pictures along any kind of theme for this morning was impossible. I gave serious consideration to skipping this week’s gallery altogether. But no, when in moments of crisis, we need things that are beautiful. We need to see the beauty in our fellow human beings.

I’m sorry I don’t have pictures of anyone from the countries directly banned by the president. People in that situation rarely make it in front of anyone’s camera. They prefer to live quiet, unassuming lives with their families. They don’t take any chances.

So, for this week, we chose what I call “second glance” images, those pictures I probably didn’t choose on my first pass through a set, but have come to like for some reason or another. I hope they will bring a moment of beauty into your day, perhaps your life. Enjoy.

 

[tg_masonry_gallery gallery_id=”9846″ layout=”contain” columns=”3″]

Continue Reading

Current Issues  /  PotD
More Important Than Porn
July 14, 2016
charles i. letbetter - more important than porn

People lose their capacity to walk, run, travel, think, and experience life. I realise how important it is to use the time I have. —Viggo Mortensen

 

charles i. letbetter - more important than porn

The GOP thinks porn is a public health risk. There are other things so much more important

Priorities can get really fucked up and one can lose sight of the things that are important when one is trying to run for office. The GOP, however, has really jumped the shark with their presidential platform. In addition to wanting to screw the poor, violate the First Amendment by requiring religious instruction, and rolling back marriage rights, the GOP has also decided that porn is a public health crisis.

I’m not going to turn this into another diatribe in support of porn. I’ve already done that enough times and if you’re interested I’m sure you can search our archives and find all those entries. What is important in this conversation is that the GOP doesn’t seem to have a clue what is really important across our country. Nowhere in their platform do they address the most critical issues that face our country. Instead, they choose to pick on emotionally sensitive moral issues that tickle the ears of those sitting in church pews on Sunday morning, an audience that is in steep decline.

GOP also seems to be woefully ignorant of the fact that morality cannot be legislated. Let’s use the 1986 Meese Report as a perfect example. Millions of dollars were spent, attempts were made to change laws, but nothing could ever be implemented because it would violate the First Amendment. Even when they do manage to enact a law, such attempts are ultimately unenforceable. Write all the bedroom laws you want, porn still happens.

Maybe we should focus on more important things.

Gun Violence

This should be the number one priority of any Congress and/or state legislature. We know that mass shootings have surged. We know that more and more people are being killed. We know that the United States is the only industrialized country with such a severe problem. Yet, Congress made it illegal for the Centers For Disease Control to even study the matter, let alone make intelligent recommendations on how to address the issue.

Excuse me, but would you care to explain to me what could possibly be any more of a public health issue than our own people dying at the hands of our own people? With few exceptions, it is American citizens who have grown up here all their lives, buying guns legally, that are committing these horrible acts. While a few recently might have been influenced by foreign groups, no outside terrorist organization has had any direct part in US gun violence. We are killing ourselves.

When was the last time you heard of porn being directly responsible for mass numbers of deaths, hmm? Can porn even come close to killing the number of people who are killed in the US with gun violence? Of course, not. This is the kind of nonsense that gives the impression that Congress is doing something while still ignoring the more critical issues. Gun violence needs to be addressed and until that happens almost anything else is a waste of time.

Matters Of Race

Stop pretending that the United States is not a racist society. The few steps forward that we’ve made since the 1960s have been largely gutted by the GOP. However, they would much rather address issues of porn and sexuality, which really are of no legitimate interest to anyone on Capitol Hill, rather than actually address the issue that is right in front of their faces. The GOP has repeatedly denied that a race problem even exists, despite countless studies showing that blacks and hispanics are disproportionately poor, disproportionately under-educated, and disproportionately incarcerated.

Republican attempts to ignore racial issues are done at their own peril. With the recent events of last week, it seems obvious to me that the disenfranchised in this country have or are about to reach a tipping point. Those who feel put down and disserviced by the current system are increasingly ready to rise up and begin taking action. Some of those actions will be legal and appropriate. Some will not. Either way, the status quo is not sustainable. Talk all you want about which lives matter, until there is some concrete action taken at a federal level there is no truly safe place in the entire country.

At the beginning of last night’s ESPY awards, which are for outstanding achievement in sports, four NBA stars, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul, Dwyane Wade, and LeBron James, started the show with a sobering statement regarding recent events and racial mistreatment. Their words are strong and important. I’ve not been able to find a copy I could easily embed here, but you can watch the video at The Wrap if you wish. I strongly encourage you to do that.

Crumbling Infrastructure

Many of the things that make this country run, such as highways and the power grid, were created in the 1950s and 60s. They are all woefully out of date and in desperate need of repair. Yet, Congress has continually ignored funding any updates and repairs, determined to focus their attentions on less important things like, oh, porn. One Republican senator was even caught watching porn on the Senate floor. Must have been some kind of undercover investigation.

The Wall Street Journal published a very frightening article yesterday (that is, unfortunately behind a paywall), documenting how severely at risk our nation’s power grid is. We don’t even think about the fact that most substations have no security other than a chain link fence. Sabotage a handful of those substations at the same time, and the chain reaction could cause the entire nation to go black. Are you afraid of the dark? We are so heavily reliant on electrical power, we would be sitting ducks. There would be no way to communicate with police or other emergency responders. Chaos and anarchy would be inevitable.

Congress has known for several years that the infrastructure was in desperate need of attention. Unfortunately, they would rather spend their time and our tax dollars on things like propagating war and tax cuts for the super-rich. They have woefully lost sight of what is genuinely important and making up false issues to please the ears of mindless voters who are incapable of seeing the wool pulled over their eyes.

Other Important Things

The complete list of things more important than porn is far too long for me to list here. Needless to say, there is nothing in the Republican platform that is genuinely critical. There is nothing in the Republican platform that manages to benefit society. There is nothing in the Republican platform that anyone with half a brain would want to support.

Meanwhile, issues such as child hunger, obesity, access and quality of education, preschool, poverty, water availability and quality, global warming, prescription drug abuse, abuse of the elderly, and dozens of other issues are totally ignored, many  of them by both parties. Congress and state representatives seem to have no clue as to what is actually bringing harm to America. There are real health crises out there, but no one is paying any attention.

One final thing that is more important than porn: real sex. Might I suggest this article on How To Organize A Threeway. You know you’re curious. This could be just the thing to save you from ravages of porn. Be sure to read the sidebar addressing STD issues as well. This is a health issue, after all.

When one loses sight of what is important, one is no longer in any place to govern. For that matter, those who cannot determine what is a priority isn’t fit for employment for any kind of job. This GOP platform has no qualities that qualify for public debate. This is all nonsense that needs to be burned and put away forever.

Continue Reading

Current Issues  /  PotD
Water You Thinking?
January 21, 2016
charles i. letbetter - water you thinking

When a country wants television more than they want clean water, they’ve lost their grip.—Lewis Black

charles i. letbetter - water you thinking

The United States has grown too accustomed to a constant source of clean drinking water that is no longer sustainable

Ah, coffee. While I can imagine a morning without it, such a tragedy does occasionally happen, I don’t want to even think about such a horrible state. That hot water and a crushed bean could bring so much life and happiness to people is simply amazing. While I’ll admit to being a coffee fanatic, I’m by no means as obsessive about it as some I’ve seen. I like mine black, moderately strong, but not to the point that the acidity upsets my stomach. No sugar. No cream. No foam. Just pure, simple coffee. Those of you who get all upset about half-this, whipped-that are just crazy.

Now, imagine a world without coffee. As horrible a condition as that sounds, it could happen, and it may happen much sooner than anyone would like. Even without any external events involved, the sheer number of people on the planet, well over seven billion now, is beyond the level of sustainability. We’re going to run out of clean water. We’re going to run out of coffee.

The country has been relatively transfixed on the water crisis in Flint, Michigan this past week. Michigan Governor Rick Snyder has, justifiably, been on the hot seat and universal condemnation of the city’s poisoned water supply has been laid on his doorstep. And while there is plenty of blame to be spread not only among the Governor’s office but other agencies as well, finding a solution to the problem is much more challenging than first thought. People of Flint are having to deal with the reality of not having a ready supply of clean drinking water, and that reality is quite frightening.

As much as I am sympathetic toward the plight of those stuck living in Flint, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that the crisis there might, possibly, be a good thing for the rest of the country. Why? Because the whole reason this issue has gotten national attention is that every city in the country is just as vulnerable as Flint was. What happened there could happen here and the odds of such tragedy are increasing on a daily basis. The situation is not new. We’ve been on the precipice of disaster for several years. The tragedy in Flint, though, has awakened our senses to the issue of clean water like nothing else could.

We’ve had water disasters before. Just this past year, an oil spill into the Yellowstone River threatened drinking water. We, as a nation, yawned. The Environmental Protection Agency, the very people who are supposed to help us keep water clean, took responsibility for a giant waste water dump at Gold King Mine, near Silverton, Colorado. An oil spill along the coastline at Santa Barbara, California affected cities and beaches and even roadways all along the coast. Manure spills put the Green Bay water supply at risk. An ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico continues to pollute waters there will little being done to remedy the problem. All of those things happened, received attention from the press, and the US population, as a whole ignored them.

Those are just the most recent tragedies in an ongoing global crisis that is just now beginning to impact our privileged society. We’ve known about the water crisis in sub-Saharan Africa for decades, but because it’s not right here in our back door we’ve turned a blind eye to the millions of people who lack proper sanitation and clean drinking water. Some might occasionally cut a check to NGOs such as The Water Project, but once the check is in the mail we don’t give the matter a second thought. We think we’ve done our part. We don’t realize the extent to which it is our own overuse, our own over-industrialization, our own lack of careful water use that has contributed to the larger global crisis.

Just how bad is the situation? Consider these facts:

  • 663 million people – 1 in 10 – lack access to safe water
  • 2.4 billion people – 1 in 3 – lack access to a toilet
  • A review of rural water system sustainability in eight countries in Africa, South Asia, and Central America found an average water project failure rate of 20 – 40 percent
  • Globally, 1/3 of all schools lack access to safe water and adequate sanitation
  • In low and middle-income countries, 1/3 of all healthcare facilities lack a safe water source

We haven’t given much thought to the water crisis until now because it has always been “somewhere else.” We’ve been more than content with letting other countries deal with their own problems. The crisis is coming home to roost, though.  Last April, California Governor Jerry Brown placed restrictions on water consumption across the entire state. Many complained that the restrictions were too severe, but as the state faces a continuing drought conservationists are concerned that current restrictions may not be enough.

Here’s the thing: our very lifestyles contribute to the severity of the water shortage. Americans waste more clean water every time we flush a toilet than many people see in a month. Our national lack of industrial oversight pollutes our water supply on an ongoing basis and we get extremely upset with any effort to curb such industrial use. States such as Indiana have even fought back against restrictions in the Clean Water Act because “they would prove too expensive to implement.”

Maybe, just maybe, the water crisis in Flint is a good thing. Maybe seeing people there struggle will be the wake-up call we need to realize that our current water habits are killing our water supply.

Imagine life without coffee. If we don’t push for dramatic change, and quickly, that is exactly what is going to happen. Flint is just the beginning.

Continue Reading

PotD  /  Social Commentary
Point of Origin
September 16, 2015
charles i. letbetter - point of origin

charles i. letbetter - identity

Royalty (2011).Model: Danelle French. Face paint: Jennifer Baxter

That means that every human being – without distinction of sex, age, race, skin color, language, religion, political view, or national or social origin – possesses an inalienable and untouchable dignity.—Hans Kung

[one_half padding=”4px 10px 0 4px”]For as long as I can remember, I have had to answer the question, “where are you from?” No matter where I’ve lived, with no regard to how long I might have lived there, the accent with which I speak has never quite matched where I live. I’ve never minded answering the question because it seems reasonable to me that point of origin is a central part of our identity. What amuses me, though, is that as I get older and tell people I’m from Oklahoma (forget those first 12 years in Kansas), they sometimes give me a quizzical look and respond, “No you’re not. You don’t sound or act like anyone from Oklahoma.” For that, I am grateful.

Point of origin has always, throughout history, been an important part of our identity. To which tribe one belonged could mean the difference between free or slave, or even life and death. Our species began as nomadic foragers, roaming to where ever food and shelter were most readily available, but the place from where we started, our point of origin, has always been, and strongly remains, a critical factor upon which judgments, whether just or not, have been made. Inherent social construct inserts a geographic tag into our identity from which there is no escape.

One of the reasons our point of origin so often comes into question is because we, as a species, don’t stay put. Even after all the building of cities and farms, creating and fighting over national borders, and even cruel attempts at keeping people in or out of certain places, we are now more migrant than we have ever been. Our point of origin is but a GPS marker from which all our travels begin. Move so much now that scientists who study such things are referring to the 21st century as the age of the migrant. Not only are we already moving around a lot, it’s going to get worse.

We are all migrants, not because we are born as such, but we cannot help becoming such, leaving our point of origin, sometimes by choice, but with increasing frequency because we have no choice. By engaging in this conversation, it is important to understand the vocabulary. An emigrant is someone known by where they have left. An immigrant is known by where they are going. Coming or going, though, there are over one billion people on the move at any given time, and that number is growing rapidly.[/one_half]

[one_half_last padding=”4px 4px 0 10px”]Thomas Nail, a philosopher at the University of Colorado, recently published a book, The Figure of the Migrant (Stanford University Press, 2015), in which he explains:

People today relocate to greater distances more frequently than ever before in human history. While many people may not move across a regional or international border, they tend to change jobs more often, commute longer and farther to work, change their residence repeatedly, and tour internationally more often. Some of these phenomena are directly related to recent events, such as the impoverishment of middle classes in certain rich countries after the financial crisis of 2008, subsequent austerity cuts to social welfare programs, and rising unemployment. The subprime mortgage crisis led to the expulsion of millions of people from their homes worldwide (9 million in the United States alone). Foreign investors and governments have acquired 540 million acres since 2006, resulting in the eviction of millions of small farmers in poor countries, and mining practices have become increasingly destructive around the world—including hydraulic fracturing and tar sands. This general increase in human mobility and expulsion is now widely recognized as a defining feature of the twenty-first century.

Whether to keep us out, keep us in, or simply segregate us for statistical purposes, both societies and governments are concerned with our point of origin as a defining piece of information. There is no escape. The more we move, the more we are connected to where we began. Our great migration is a tremendous force of social change and progress. The world into which one is born holds little resemblance to the one in which we die.

So, more than ever, there remains this question: where are you from?[/one_half_last]

Continue Reading